SABIE CLASSIC
MTN SERIES 3#

Saturday 27 February was a big day on the calendar for every professional Mountain biker in the country, considering the fact that it was our National Marathon Championships and also the 3rd leg of the MTN series.


The day turned out to be perfect for racing, with the weather being slightly overcast and cool.

As I joined the rest of the riders on the start line, I received an unexpected surprise. I was given the MTN Series Climbers jersey which is awarded to the most consistent climber in the series. It felt really special to start the event with the pink polka dot jersey on my shoulders for the first time.

There was barely enough time to get the legs going during the opening kilometers as we headed straight onto the first (13km!) climb of the day.

Starting alongside the men in the Ultra-marathon event made the start yet again extremely hard. The small group left upon reaching the bottom of the hill just goes to show how fast the pace was being made upfront.

Yolande Speedy, Carla Rowley and I were the only girls left at that point, but were also soon left behind once the guys started climbing at their ‘crazy’ pace.

This left us (Ladies category) to do the remainder of the event at our own individual pace. Hard as I tried, I couldn’t get going on the opening climb and soon the girls started passing me one by one. I lost a lot if time and it took me until half way to feel better again. By that stage I was outside the top 10 and really had to dig deep just to keep going. It is terribly frustrating when one’s body doesn’t/can’t do what the mind is telling it to do..!

I couldn’t (and still cant) understand why my legs didn’t want to respond, but I decided not to give in and kept on going in optimistic hope that I would feel better towards the end.


During the 2nd half of the event, I started to feel like my old self again.

I gave everything in an attempt to catch up to the girls up front, but I had lost too much ground already. I only managed to ride back up into 6th place.


Speedy had a great race, yet again taking 1st place, with the surprise package of the season Karien van Jaarsveld finishing 2nd and Carla Rowley in 3rd.


Sabie Classic was an important event for me and I am disappointed in my final result. Unfortunately I can’t change the past but I can learn from my mistakes and try my best to make up for it in the future.

On Thursday my teammate (Lise Olivier) and I will be taking part in the Sani2C. It’s a great event I am looking forward to it and hopefully we will have a good race!