Rocky Mountain Garden Route 300

The 3 day event covering a distance of 300km took place in the beautiful holiday destination of Knysna. It is not the only reason the town is well known for but also as one of the places which has spectacular mountain biking trails to offer and during the event it was just once again confirmed.

All the stages started and finished at the Waterfront in Knysna, which made the tour, accommodation wise, a bit more comfortable not having to move around at all over the 3 days.
I partnered up with Catherine Williamson for the event. The last time we raced together was at Wine2Whales in 2010. It was my first time taking part in this event and as I haven’t raced alongside Catherine for a long time I was looking forward to start the ‘unknown’ adventure.

Day one’s 100km started off at a blistering pace as everyone was full of adrenaline and eagerness to start racing. The first part of the race took us on a long steady climb. Here Cath and I managed to move into the lead as we gained time on the other woman’s teams.

Around 15km the whole front group including Cath and I went the wrong way. By the time we found our way back onto the race route we were quite far behind and had to work our way up to the front of the race again. The latter was much more challenging as you get stuck on the single track behind slower riders and have to wait for more open section to pass.

One quarter into the race Cath and I managed to regain or lead and continued pushing hard until the very end. We crossed the finish line in 1st place with our teammates Nicci Grobler & Leana de Jager in 2nd place and the international pairing of Cathy Crabbe and Nina Hind in 3rd place.

Stage 2 was the hardest of all three stages covering a distance of 115km and more than 2000m of climbing. The start was quite hard as we started at the bottom of a steep concrete climb. Half way up this climb the route forked and with no arrows pointing either way we, together with the front group went left down the hill instead of keeping right all the way to the top.

This meant we had to climb all the way back up to the top, finding ourselves around half way down the field and had to work our way to the front again.
While working our way back to the front we caught up with our teammates Leana and Nicci around 30km.

As it was a very long stage the four of us decided to stick together and help each other to reach the finish line. As the kilometres ticked by we eventually formed a type of survival group of around 10 riders and completed the stage together in a time of 5h42min.

The camaraderie during the stage was quite nice as everyone was going through the same pain and mental suffering. It’s a hard feeling when you’ve been on the bike for 4 hours already and you think you must have covered 90km by now and when you look down at your speedometer and it shows that you’ve only covered 60km. Then it start sinking in slowly that you still have 55km to go but you don’t want to believe it yet and rather want to blame your speedometer for reading wrong or being broken so you ask the rider next to you “how far do we still have to go?”. Then he or she gives you that smile of, I know how you feel and say it is still 55km to go...

On day 3 we had a neutralized start as we were lead out of Knysna on the main road to George.
Within the neutralized section Catherine punctured which forced us to stop and fix the rear flat wheel. We lost around 10min but our spirit was still high and therefore we road as hard as we could in attempt to join the front of the race again.

It wasn’t 10km later and we were stranded with another flat tyre. Luckily our team mechanic, Conrad Venter, was waiting for us within 1km at the water and service station. As it was Cath’s back wheel again she wanted me to ride ahead to let Conrad know what was happening.

When Cath made her way to the water and service point Conrad quickly helped her to fix the wheel. We lost more time but all we could do was to continue racing hard and make the best of the situation. Within 15km from the finish line it was my turn to get a flat tyre on the last rocky descent of the course. Although we had bad luck during the stage we also had some good luck as Conrad was waiting at the bottom of the descent at last servicing station.

Cath and I have used up all our tyres and bombs which we have carried with us and begging wasn’t an option as riders were passing me too fast on the descent. All I could do was to start running down with by bike to where Conrad was waiting while Cath went ahead to fetch a pump and tube in the meantime.
Eventually Cath and I made our way to the finish line but our 15min lead at the start of the stage ended in a 30min deficit.

Luckily our teammates Nicci Grobler and Leana de Jager were riding very well throughout the 3 days and kept the overall victory within the team with Cath and me finishing 2nd overall at the end.

Final Results:

1st Leana de Jager & Nicci Grobler
2nd Catherine Williamson & Yolandi du Toit
3rd Cathy Crabbe & Nina Hind

Vori-Berg MTB Challenge

On Saturday morning driving to the race start the weather didn’t look very promising. It was drizzling which meant a muddy and wet course awaited us.

On arrival at the race venue, situated on the North-Western outskirts of Pretoria, the weather was still the same. This dampened my spirit slightly but was soon overshadow by the warm welcome of the race organiser and the friendly atmosphere at the race. I am sure this was the reason why the weather decided to join in on the mood and cleared up just before we set of for the 60km race.

Waiting on the start line, more and more girls came to join me including top Multi-Sport Athlete Carla van Huyssteen. I haven’t raced against Carla for a long time and with her SA National Championships in two week’s time, I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy race.

The race started with two climbs mostly on single and jeep track. On this part I managed to open a slender lead on my rivals. On the flat section which followed around 15 km into the race a group of 5 riders formed behind me. At first I didn’t mind as I was mainly focusing on increasing my lead on the other girls. But a few kilometres on I saw Carla was also in the group. I decided to rather race a bit smarter and sat up to save some energy for when I really would need it.

With no one wanting to contribute to the pace we were joined by more and more riders as the kilometres ticked by. Around 35km the route went onto a slight drag and here I decided to try and do something. I managed to get away on my own and quickly settled into a steady pace.
The section that followed was mainly on single track and got quite tricky on the rocky descending parts. I was happy to be on my own as one can judge and prepare much better for what’s to come.

Within 2km from the finish line a marshal pointed me in the wrong direction. I only realized that I was on the wrong route when I came to a closed gate. I wasn’t the only one to be sent the wrong way, and soon I was joined by more lost riders. The farmer who’s property the race was going through luckily spotted us and directed us to the finish line.

Carla was also one of the riders who went the wrong way so we both didn’t know what the end result would be. Without anyone of the riders complaining or appealing the race organiser called us and said that I will keep my 1st place and Carla her 2nd place. I was amazed by the positive reaction of everyone involved. It is very rare that races can sort out these type of problems fairly and without fuss. Everyone involved should be commended for their positive attitude.

Despite the route being wet and a bit muddy at places, I had a good time. The course was great, the event very well organised and, like I mentioned before, the atmosphere around the race was quite exceptional.

Emperors Palace MTB Classic

Since my last diary, I've been spending long hours on the bike preparing for the 2012 racing season.

In the blink of an eye, the two months have passed since my last race (Southern Tropical Challenge) in December 2011.
Having done only base training up until now, I was quite apprehensive going into my first event (Emperors MTB Classic) of a new season.

The long slow miles of base training would give me the necessary fitness but racing requires an intensity which I have yet to build.
Luckily my teammate, Nicci Grobler, was also doing the event and seeing her at the start already calmed my nerves a little bit.
Nicci and I have done a few stage races together and know each other pretty well. This gave me the confidence that we would bring
the best out of each other while fending off our rivals.

As expected my legs struggled with the quick start. But soon Nicci and I settled into a steady rhythm, helping each other through
the challenging sections of the event. Nicci and I led the race from start to finish, slowing down slightly on the 2nd lap as we made our
way past the back markers on the 20km circuit.

We completed the 40km race in a quick 1h 45min and crossed the line together with Nicci taking 1st place and me in 2nd place.

I was really happy to start the season on such a positive note and looking forward to building on the success that
team bizhub – FCF have had to date in 2012.