Nissan TrailSeeker #1,Hazeldean.

The Nissan Trailseeker Series is the biggest mountain bike series in
Gauteng consisting of five events.

Hazeldean was the first event in the series and took place in Pretoria East at
Tygervalley College.

On arrival at the event Saturday morning my cell phone’s weather
forecast read -1 degrees with a RealFeel of -5,Brrrrr!
The first big test on the day came when I had to get out of the car in
order to get ready for the event and I almost failed...

Fritz Pienaar and his Advendurance team put together another great event which
made enduring the cold weather definitely worthwhile.

The 70km route was mainly flat and consisted of single track,
hand-built trails, a few bridge crossings over small streams and open
farm roads. All of this was truly unexpected from an event held in the middle of Pretoria and thus made the race very interesting.

I was told beforehand that the route was very flat and would be fast. The wind
decided otherwise and blew at 25km/h. This made it very difficult as
we rode into a headwind for the majority of the race. The strong wind
and very low temperatures turned out to be deciding factors on the day.

The men and ladies all started together on the College’s sports
ground. From here we were immediately taken onto grassy jeep track.
This made it quite difficult to judge where competitors were in the
field as men and women fought for position.

Ezster Elderly (Team MTN/Quebeka) took the leading position from the start with Carla Rowley(Team Biogen) and myself chasing in 2nd and
3rd position. Carla and I were playing cat and mouse the entire race whilst also trying to hunt down the leader up front.

At one point in the race we missed a turn somewhere and ended up going
the wrong way. We quickly realised this, turned around and made our way back on to the route. Luckily we weren’t the only ones who missed
this particular turn which made the playing ground “fairly" equal
again.

For most of the race Ezster was in our (myself and Carla’s) sight but
we weren’t able to close the gap which she established at the
beginning of the race.

At the end victory in the Hazeldean event went to Ezster Elderly, with Carla
Rowly in 2nd place and myself in 3rd place.


Final Results:

1st Ezster Elderly
2nd Carla Rowley
3rd Yolandi du Toit
4th Ischen Stopforth
5th Ronel van Wyk
6th Nicci Grobler

Big Induna MTB Challenge

The Big Induna MTB challenge was held on the outskirts of Hazyview in
Mpumalanga on 11 June 2011.
I travelled down to the Lowveld on Friday and was welcomed by perfect
summer weather on arrival. As soon as we got settled into our
accommodation for the weekend, I got dressed and went for my pre-race
training ride. It was a great feeling to be on my bike again without
layers and layers of clothing.

As race day dawned it was another beautiful summer’s day (at least for
those of us living on the Highveld). The organisers of Induna again
outdid themselves with a spectacular event. I took part in the
challenging 78km marathon which consisted of hand cut trails snaking
through indigenous forest, short sharp climbs and a few tricky bridges
to keep things interesting.
We started at the Induna Adventure Centre with the race route taking
us on a loop of 45km to pass the start/finish line and then head onto
the last 38km loop. Candice Neethling (Team bizhub) showed her cross
country prowess and took the lead from the start.

On the first lap I was riding alongside Ezster Elderly(Team
MTN/Qhubeka) as we fought for 2nd position out on course. The race
positions stayed like this as we completed the first 45km loop through
the start/finish area.

Ester put in a hard effort on the following short sharp climb opening
a small gap on me. The climb was quickly followed by a tricky single
track alongside the river. Before the single track Ezster was still in
sight but on it, her skill made her vanish in the wink of an eye.


From there on I was on my own chasing the two leaders out in front. I
did manage to make contact with them again but unfortunately this was
after the finish line 
Candice managed to stay in the lead until the end to take the victory
at the Big Induna marathon, while Ezster Elderly followed home in 2nd
place and me in 3rd. I am happy to make the podium at such a great
event and am looking forward to the 2012 edition already.