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