The Potberg Marathon is a race like no other as it allows you to do a bit of whale watching during the actual race.
It was a lengthy drive down to the De Hoop Nature Reserve, but one that is worth it with the beautiful scenery and I had decided to make a weekend of the trip by staying over at De Kelders with my old house mate, Damian.

A rather small field lined up and after one gentleman sprinted off the line and promptly crashed into the bushes, after over shooting the first corner, a good laugh I might add, I settled into my own rhythm. The race split up quite quickly and fortunately found myself out front with just the lead motor bike for company. The first 30km of the race includes a bit of everything from jeep track, single track, a short section of tar and some gravel road.

This brought us up to the first real climb, a couple of kilometres along a rocky loose jeep track. The view at the top of this climb was breath taking and I even slowed for a few metres to take it in.

I remembered the descent from last year and had just as much fun this time around, the railway sleepers used as bridges are super cool!

The last fifteen kilometres of this seventy-five kilometre route is tough and I made sure I kept something in the tank for it as well as popping an Octane Gel just before I hit the concrete strip climb.

Anyone who mountain bikes will know that concrete strip climbs mean one thing… Steep!

And it was, topping out at around an 18% gradient, this welcomes you to the last section as you hit a very rough, rocky jeep track section that violently tosses you and your bike around, but the Cube handled it flawlessly. In case the fatigue was starting to take its toll some tough sandy sections sap the remaining energy out of you.

It’s all worth it though as this section takes you within two hundred metres from the beach and the views that it awards are once again… Breathtaking 😉 Two weekends in a row my Sludge saved me by sealing a puncture within seconds of the dreaded pssh sound I encountered along this same section last year.

Fortunately a tame section of gravel road takes you to the finish and I could tap off a bit into the finish and take the win with a new course record being a little cherry on top. Very stoked with this and I would like to say a big thank you to all my sponsors for your support because without you this wouldn’t be possible.

Till next time…