MTN SABIE CLASSIC

Sabie Classic was the 4th leg of the MTN Series and as the next MTN event is only in May, everyone was keen to make this one count. This year’s event again proved to be a big challenge as the new Marathon route included a total of 2110m of climbing over a distance of 74km.

We set off in dry, sunny conditions which was a blessing after all the mud at the MTN Clarens event the previous weekend.

The course mainly consisted of two long, steep climbs followed by their descents and then the tortuous undulations of the last 20km back home. Barely 5km into the race, we found ourselves on the first major climb on the day. Here Yolande Speedy and Eszter Elderlyi (both team MTN/Qhubeka) pushed hard and it caused our group to splinter on the lower slopes of the climb. I reached the top (around 30km) on my own in 5th position and continued on in lone pursuit of the leaders.

Up front Speedy was experiencing a bit of bad luck as she had to stop twice. First she had to tighten a loose seatpost and then she had to stop and repair a puncture. On both occasions she managed to ride back up to her team mate, Eszter, who was in the leading position. At the end all the chasing caught up to Speedy and Eszter managed to beat her in the sprint for the line to take the Victory at Sabie Classic with Speedy finishing just behind her in 2nd place.

The ladies behind the two MTN/ Qhubeka rider s were putting in individual Time Trial efforts. From the first climb everyone was left to chase on their own, and crossed the finish line one by one. Arianne Luthi (Team Contego ) was the next rider home finishing in 3rd place. She was followed by Ischen Stopforth (Team Bizhub) in 4th place and me (Team Bizhub) in 5th place to round out the top 5 placings.

The new format of the MTN races sees the Marathon and Ultra-Marathon taking place on the Saturday and the half-marathon together with the kiddie’s races taking place on the Sunday. For me it’s really a great initiative as it gives you the opportunity to focus on the main events the one day and then have a pleasant time on the bikes with family /friends/ sponsors the following day.

On Sunday I did the 15km kiddies race with friends of mine and their kids. This turned out to be quite a treat riding with moms, dads and kiddies from all ages. I do hope I’ll get the opportunity to do it again in the future.

My Team Bizhub cycling kit turned out to be very popular amongst the moms and little girls and I must admit I truly enjoyed all the compliments along the route. You can just imagine PINK cycling kit with white daisies on, any little girls dream!

African Continental XC Champions

In the past I have competed at African Continental ‘Road’ Championships but this was my first time competing in a cross country event at this level.

As it is totally different from my road cycling background, my main goal for the event was to do my best and learn as much as possible from the experience
The Championships were held on the 12th of Feb in the picturesque Jonkershoek Nature reserve which is located about 10km east of Stellenbosch.

The 4.2km race course basically consisted of an uphill and a downhill on single track, sprinkled with rocks from all different shapes and sizes. Luckily I had a full suspension bike (Specialized Era) to ride on the extremely bumpy course.
The elite ladies started just after 12pm and had to complete 5 laps of the course.

Going into the single track I found myself in 5th position. To get past riders once we were on the single track was very difficult as there was no room for passing and not everyone is willing to move aside in order for you to go by.

The heat and distance took its toll and at the end of the 5 laps I managed to work my way up into 3rd position and was very happy to win my first medal (Bronze) at African Continental Championships (MTB).

I never thought I would be able to do this in only my 3rd XC event, but I really am starting to enjoy the challenge of racing cross country and I look forward to the next one!

Final Results:
1st Yolande Speedy (RSA)
2nd Samantha Sanders (RSA)
3rd Yolandi du Toit (RSA)
4th Karien van Jaarsveld (RSA)
5th Heletje Van Staden (NAM)

It’s been quite a busy week of riding, racing and travelling for me and the Bizhub ladies cycling team.

On Friday (4 Feb) I travelled down to Port Elizabeth for SA Road Championships and the EP Herald Road race. Once there the plans truly changed overnight. The organisers of SA Road Champs couldn’t decide the night before whether the route was ‘safe’ enough to race on the next day or if they should cancel it instead.

Luckily my team had brought my mountain bike along for African Continental Championships which meant I didn’t have to wonder if I was going to be able to race the next day. I just changed my focus to the EP Herald MTB race and got on with the job in hand.

I was really happy to be able to do the MTB race which took place at Addo Elephant National Park just outside of PE. It was much harder than expected. It looked like fairly flat terrain driving to the park but proved to be the exact opposite during the race. The scenic route was very interesting as there were gradual gravel climbs through fertile citrus plantations, technical single track up and down hiking trails and fast adrenaline pumping downhill jeep track. The race was won by Swiss rider Ariane Luthi (Contego team) with my team mate Ischen Stopforth in 2nd place and me in 3rd place to round out the podium.

On Sunday the 6th of February the team took part in EP Herald road race. Catherine Williams had a great ride and managed to better her 3rd place result from last year to finish in 2nd place. Next year she is sure to bag the win!

At the end of the weekend, despite the chaos around SA’s, our team was happy to leave PE with great results (I can also add that our junior on the team, Monique Gerber, won 2 Gold medals at SA’s in the road race and time trial respectively).

Caitlin and I travelled from PE to Stellenbosch on Monday (7 Feb) to take part in the African Continental Champs held at Jonkershoek this coming weekend.

Until next time,

MTN National Series - Barberton XCM #2 driven by Nissan

The second leg of the MTN Marathon series took place at Barberton High School on Saturday 29th of January.

Since this event is also a UCI event, the Marathon Elite women were set off independently, 5min after the Ultra marathon men. The ladies field was once again very competitive as it attracted international riders over and above all the top South African ladies. The level of woman’s cycling is definitely improving rapidly in this country, which is great to see.

For 2011 Team Bizhub has also grown more on the mountain biking side as we now have a total of 5 girls (Candice Needling, Caitlin de Wet, Ischen Stopfort, Nicci Grobler and myself) in the team who will mainly be focussing on MTB.

We left the start line under a clear sky and the Team-MTN/Qhubeka pair of Yolande Speedy and Ezster Erdelyi decided to put the hammer down in the neutral zone already (so much for having an ‘easy’ roll through town) which saw only a small group of girls reaching the bottom of the first and only major climb on the day where the race ‘officially’ started.

Here I settled in my own manageable pace with Samantha Oosthuisen (Else Kaarstens Cycles) a few meters behind me. Half way up the climb I made contact with my team mate Caitlin de Wet and the two of us stayed together for another few kilometres. I am not sure when Caitlin decided to rather ride her own pace, but as I rode up to Mariska Strauss (Contego) near the top of the climb Caitlin wasn’t with me anymore. Employing some road tactics, I decided to just stay with Mariska and hope that Caitlin will join us again as she was very close to us at that stage.

Mariska on the other hand was determined to stay ahead and this led to the two of us continuing on in pursuit of the leaders. Once it was clear that Caitlin was not going to reach us I, started helping Mariska and we set a high pace as we raced on through the beautiful Mountainlands Nature Reserve and the Greenstone Wildlife Estate on the other side of the mountain. I really thought we would ride up to some of the other girls in front as we both were pushing hard on the pedals at this stage.

The last 5km of the route took us onto some ‘Cross Country’ single track. Going into it I was still with Mariska but her cross country experience left me behind with 2km to go to the finish line.

It was an aggressive race until the end as Yolande Speedy (Team MTN/Qhubeka) was in the lead throughout the race and then in the final kilometres she took a wrong turn somewhere and sadly had to settle for second place behind her team mate Eszter Erdelyi (Team MTN,Qhubeka) with Ariane Luthi rounding off the podium.
Ischen Stopforth was on her way to finish 4th but unfortunately went down on the technical single track near the end. Luckily Candice Neetling was also having an excellent ride herself and managed to secure the 4th place for the team with Ischen rounding out the top 5.

Results:
1st Eszter Erdelyi (Team MTN/Qhubeka)
2nd Yolande Speedy (Team MTN/Qhubeka)
3rd Ariane Luithi (Contego)
4th Candice Neetling (Team Bizhub)
5th ISchen Stopforth (Team Bizhub)
6th Karien van Jaarsveld (USN)
7th Mariske Strauss (Contego)
8th Yolandi du Toit (Team Bizhub)
9th Caitlin de Wet (Team Bizhub)
10th Samatha Oosthuisen (Else Kaarsten Cycles)

This coming weekend I will be competing at the SA Road Championships and EP Herald Road race on Saturday and Sunday.