Blockhouse
MTN National MTB Series # 5


The event was held in Randvaal, Meyerton at the Circus located just outside of town.

It was great to have a weekend without traveling hours on the road with the MTN series event held so close to home. One thing is for certain, it doesn’t make the racing any easier.

The 78km route was very flat and fast. I have to admit, at first I thought the race wouldn’t be too hard because it was described as a very fast and technically undemanding circuit.
These predictions would turn out to be very wide of the mark. The route was indeed very flat but this only meant one had to pedal continuously, without any place to recover…

The woman in the Marathon (78km) event started with the Elite men in the Ultra-marathon (110km). As we left the start line, the pace was very high and soon the group split up.

I found myself together with Yolande de Villiers (Cycle lab) and Ischen Stopforth. The three of us worked well together, fighting to keep the chasing girls off. The circuit was very hard for me, especially going through the moto-cross track and the twisty single track crammed full of rocks. Through these sections I couldn’t stay on Yolandi and Ischen’s wheels. A few times they would open up 2/3 sec gaps on me which I had to close again.

The final 4km single track was on an open stretch of field, twisting and turning on itself continuously to make up the last few miles. We also joined the riders from the shorter distances on this section making it even more challenging. I sat behind de Villiers and Ishchen going into the single track and through every corning/turn they would open a small gap on me and eventually I couldn’t stay with them anymore and lost contact within 4km from the finish.

Yolande de Villiers took the win over Ischen Stopforth, and I came home in 3rd position.

I am happy with my result. It was a tough circuit and I had to fight hard to finish were I did.

Results:

1st Yolande de Villiers (Cycle lab)
2nd Ischen Stopforth
3rd Yolandi du Toit (Konica Minolta)
4th Samantha Oosthuizen
4th Nicole Murphy
5th Beatrice Hogan

Powerade Lost City Cycle challenge


The event was held at Sun City Casino in the North West province, situated on the outskirts of Rustenburg.

The 103km pan flat route is laid out on the open straight roads in the Pilanesberg area. This circuit can be very hard on a windy day, but luckily we had perfect weather for racing.

I didn’t enjoy my race so much today. My legs didn’t feel so good and the route doesn’t suit me. It was almost impossible to get away with the route being so flat. Except if you have 6 or 7 girls in your team and you can use team tactics to your advantage. This was the situation with the MTN team today.
They took turns to attack us and with only a few of the girls in the large bunch willing to actually race, the gaps started to appear. The end result saw a small group containing Marissa van de Merwe, Carla Swart, Cashandra Slingerland (all MTN), Ann-Li Pretorius and Altie Clark (both Nashua) sprint for the finishing line. I was caught behind in the chasing group, together with 6 other girls. Arien Torsius (Team Delila ) and I tried hard to bring the leading group back, but unfortunately we didn’t succeed and had to be satisfied with the end result.

Subaru Mountain bike Challenge


Saturday during the road race I didn’t feel so good on my bike and on Sunday I was dreading a repeat of the previous day. The race was scheduled to start at 8:00 am. But only took off at 8:30am. This was ideal for me because it gave me 20min extra to warm up and get my legs loose from the previous day’s effort. It definitely helped me a lot, because I felt good during the event.

The start was extremely fast, with a lot of road riders also participating.
As I left the start I had to ride as hard as my ability allowed me to, because this was the most crucial point in the race. Up front I could see a small group of around 5/6 riders forming and behind them a small group chasing hard. I was just behind the chasing group, together with 4 other guys.

I saw Sanet Small (Nashua) and Laetitia Botha during the fight to get to the front just after the start. In my group I didn’t notice them around, and knew I had to work hard to stay in my current position.

The course was fairly flat, with no technical sections to speak of. This made the race extremely fast. With the race being only 50km (2x25km) long, it felt like an all out effort for 1:33min.

The group I was in worked very well together and I managed to take the win and also finished 19th overall.

I enjoyed the circuit. The route was very winding, with a lot of turns and small drags added to it.
After the event we cycled around the Casino area, and the scenery is breathtaking! The race was held at a beautiful venue, and if you don’t take a minute to look around you might miss out!

Results:


1st Yolandi du Toit (Konica Minolta) 1:33
2nd Theresa Ralph 1:39
3rd Karien, van Jaarsveld 1:40
4th Laetitia Botha 1:43

Vodacom Tour De Soweto
The event was held in the township of Soweto, with the background of the race being that the route was on the same roads that the Soweto Township residents protested on back in June 1976.

Secure parking was offered at Soweto’s newly built mall (PRIMI BAZALLA MAPONYA MALL) with the start located 2km from there on a stretch of open field.
The 40km race route included historical landmarks such as Orlando stadium, Soccer City Stadium and Orlando West (recent home of Winnie Mandela, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu). There was a unique vibe with hawkers, the occasional shebeen and live entertainment such as Zulu dancing along the route.

The woman and Veteran 50+ men started together in the 80km race, consisting of two laps of the route. Only 4 Veteran men participated, giving us the opportunity to generally ride our own race.

As we left the start Lylanie Lawrence (MTN) launched the first attack. None of the other teams made an effort to respond and eventually Arien Torsius (Team Delila), Roben de Groot (Nashua) and I took turns in attacking trying to close the gap.
This led to some aggressive racing and eventually Marissa van den Merwe, Carla Swart, Cashandra Slingerland, Lylanie Lawrence (all MTN) and I (Konica Minolta) got away. MTN tried to force the pace, but couldn’t get all the team members to contribute equally and this led to the chasing bunch catching up again.

As we started our second lap, Marissa attacked on one of the climbs. Nobody responded immediately. I waited a view seconds and then followed. On reaching her, I looked back and saw that we got a good gap. The two of us worked hard together taking turns to pace in front. We managed to extend our gap on the rest of the field. I enjoy riding with Marissa as she doesn’t mind sharing work equally and always gives her best.

Back in the group, Johan Spies (Cycle lab) attacked and Roben de Groot (Nashua) was the only one to respond. The two of them rode across to Marissa and me, catching us with only 3km to go to the finish line.

Marissa won the sprint, with Roben in 2nd and I finished in 3rd position.
I enjoyed the winding route with all its exciting turns, climbs and descents. This made the racing hard and interesting. During the event one also had to be careful and watch out for vehicles, dogs, people etc in the road. One thing that caught my attention in all the confusion was how clean the township was. Even in the mall one couldn’t find a paper lying around. Tour de Soweto truly gives you an opportunity to experience the South African Townships vibe!!


Race Results:
1st Marissa van den Merwe (Team MTN) 2:09:25
2nd Roben de Groot (Team Nashua) “
3rd Yolandi du Toit (Konica Minolta) “
4th Cherise Taylor (Team MTN) 2:09:37
5th Altie Pienaar (Team Nashua)
6th Arien Torsius (Team Delila)
7th Cashandra Slingerland (Team MTN)



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Sungardens Carousel Classic 2009
We kicked of the second part of the season at the Sungardens Carousel Classic north of Pretoria. It was a great opportunity for all cyclists to test their level of fitness after the cold winter months. For everyone else it was a public holiday, celebrating Woman’s day.
The Elite men were the only category allowed to participate in the 150km event, while the rest could decide between the 110km or 40km event.
Four ladies teams were present at the race (6 girls from Cycle Lab, 7 girls from MTN, 2 from Nashua and me riding for Konica Minolta). Unfortunately Cycle Lab’s girls decided to ride with the Veteran men, reducing the field to only three teams and a few individual riders.
The ladies race (110km) started around 7:30am. It was a typical cold winter morning, but luckily it warmed up soon after we left the start line. The flat race route was made very treacherous by huge potholes in the middle of the road and traffic passing the riders regularly from both directions.
Early into the race MTN started launching attacks one after the other. They had the numbers and dominated the race completely. Roben de Groot and I tried hard to make our presence felt but MTN just had too many riders. Once hey had 3 girls in the break the rest of the team just covered all the counter attacks and kept the bunch together.
The only counter attack that stayed away consisted of Roben de Groot, Altie Clark and me with Chrissie Viljoen sitting on as a ‘policeman’ for MTN. We rode hard in an attempt to catch the 3 leaders, Marissa van der Merwe, Cashandra Slingerland and Carla Swart – all MTN. Our disorganized chase wasn’t making an impact on the MTN team time trial and to rub salt into our wounds Chrissie sprinted us all at the finish line after sitting on the whole way.
It wasn’t a great day, but I was happy to reach the finish in one piece. Let’s hope next week’s racing at the Tour de Soweto is a bit more positive and not just all about tactics.
Race Results:
1st Carla Swart (MTN)
2nd Cashandra Slingerland (MTN)
3rd Marissa vd Merwe (MTN)
4th Chrissie Viljoen (MTN)
5th Altie Clark (Nashua)
6th Roben de Groot (Nashua)
7th Yolandi du Toit (Konica Minolta)

The N3TC Dirty Harry
SA Mountain bike Marathon Championships

The event was hosted at Platberg Stadium in Harrismith, together with the town’s annual "Berg Bohaai" festival. This created a warm, friendly atmosphere with most of the town’s people not only coming to the fair but also supporting and cheering the riders as we crossed the finish line.

The morning while we were driving down to Harrismith on the N3, I notice the bill boards at the side of the road flashing “MTB SA championships/ Good luck cyclist”. N3TC is a sponsor of the event, and it was great to ‘see’ their support!

The event started at 8:30am. At first I thought it was going to be a ‘cool’ day out on the bikes, but luckily it turned into a great day with sunshine and no wind.

The Elite men in the ultra marathon (120km) and the Elite ladies in the marathon (75km) started together. We had a neutralized start through town until we reached a gravel road that lead the riders out of Harrismith towards Platberg.

The first part of the gravel road was on a slight drag and it was here when Yolande Speedy made the first move for the day, trying to slip away. I tried to get across to her but Yolandi de Villiers wasn’t going to let any break go away and jumped onto my wheel. I decided to rather sit up and wait instead of tiring myself before the single track.

Speedy was first to go into the single track section, with Ischen Stopforth and me chasing hard. Around 7km into the race Ischen and I managed to close the gap to Speedy. The three of us rode together until we got to the bottom of the Platberg climb.

On the climb I passed Speedy and Ischen, reaching the top first. I didn’t have an idea of the time gap between me and the other girls. I was only thinking of keeping calm, concentrating on the circuit and riding as hard as my body would allow me to.

Halfway down the climb Speedy passed me using her exceptional bike handling skills.
On the next climb around 26km into the race I managed to catch up to Speedy again, passing her and opening a small gap before the summit.

Reaching the top, I realized that although I’m in the leading position for now, Speedy is very well known for getting stronger into the event. So if I wanted to stay away I would really have to concentrate more than ever.

Fritz Pienaar came past me in his ‘bakkie’ around the 55km mark and said I had a 1min gap over Yolande.

As the finish line came closer, so did Speedy. She caught me with 8km remaining. I had nothing left in my body and couldn’t do anything except watch her ride away from me.
It was a very rocky and bumpy course and the challenge at the end wasn’t only Speedy, but also trying to hold on to my handlebars with my arms and hands hurting the way they did!

I am more than satisfied with my result. I went into the race not really expecting a medal, although hoping for one. I knew I would give my best, I always do. At the end finishing with a Silver Medal at the South African Marathon Mountain Bike championships was an overwhelming feeling!

Results:

1 Yolande Speedy - IMC Momentum
2 Yolandi du Toit – Konica Minolta
3 Ischen Stopforth

Illovo Eston MTB challenge



The event was held in Eston, Pietermaritzburg. With rain pouring down throughout the whole of Saturday, we were in for a tough challenge.

I was surprised by the number of woman that turned up to participate in the 60km Marathon event despite the challenging weather conditions.

It was quite a spectacular sight as we left the start line. With all the rain falling on the open trails it was very slippery and one only saw girls sliding across the trail from one side to the other.

It was only for a short 200m section and riding on to more compact ground Speedy used her technical skills to open a small gap on the rest of us. The Queen of the mountain was situated only 3km into the event, which made the racing aggressive from the start.

Samantha Oosthuisen made the first move to try and bridge the gap to Speedy. I reacted immediately and went with her. We caught up to Yolande 1km before the Queen of the mountain. At this stage the pace was uncomfortably high for me, and I decided to rather back off a bit. I didn’t want to dig to deep at the start and then blow up only a few kilometres later.

Tanya Raats bridged up to me and the two of us rode together on the first flat and windy part of the course.
As the climbing started Tanya was unable to keep up with me as I chased hard to catch up with the two frontrunners (Samantha and Speedy).

The mud on the trails made the event truly challenging and I had to jump off a few times because of chain suck. My gears also suffered in the muddy conditions and it was a challenge just to keep the wheels turning smoothly.
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Luckily I had mud tires on, which meant the riding on technical trails was made a bit easier. I actually enjoyed the route in the wet conditions. It meant your approach to a situation had to be calculated. You had to think how to handle it without slipping or where to ride to get the most traction in the mud and on top of that still concentrate on pushing your pedals as hard as possible.

After leaving Tanya around 10km into the race I was left to ride alone throughout the remainder of the event. It was hard at times being alone with no one in sight behind or in front of me, never quite sure if I was still on the correct route while doing a 3:30h effort.

As I approached the 5km to go sign, I was completely finished. I don’t know how I reached the finish line, but I eventually did crossing the line in 3rd place.

Results for the day
1st Yolande Speedy
2nd Samantha Oosthuisen
3rd Yolandi du Toit
4th Shawna Thunder