With the dreaded sound of rain on the roof of the camper, the last day of the Pioneer dawned upon us. I however had the most awesome surprise with my girlfriend Ash and her family arriving, to support us on the final day, with me not knowing a thing about it! I think this helped us with an added bit of extra motivation.

The stage would be tough one, going straight up Montaqu pass at the start and then a fast run in to the finish.

Getting ready for the start.

Driving the pace.

The pass was amazingly beautiful (and hard!) and Oli and I found ourselves in a strong group including the Robert Daniel Momsen pair and Patroon (Petrus). As we went over the top I drove the pace and we soon picked up the Austrian Cube rider.

Oli and I now needed to put in a solid effort to the finish as with two teams ahead and many chasing, we wanted to make the podium on the final day. It was a big effort indeed with the rain and mud making matters bitterly cold, we also went straight through the feed stations to save time.

It worked! We came over the line in 3^rd place on the day, we had left it late but it was really worth it. It also meant that we would be on the podium for at the final Prize Giving dinner which would be great exposure for our sponsors Asrin Property Developers.

Stoked to be finished.

Bromance?

Stoked to be finished!

I must say I really enjoyed the Pioneer this year. The Dryland team really seem to be doing some right and it makes for a fantastic event. Thank you for having us.

I must also say a huge thank you to Asrin for really looking after us so well the whole week, our priority was to ride our bikes and we didn’t have to worry about much else with a great team around us. The vibe within the team was great and we had so much fun throughout the whole week!

To my partner Oli, thanks bru, you went deep this week and I think we made a great team, here’s to many races together in the future.

Also for the behind the scenes support from Nizaam and Hasi for advice and motivating us each day, to my parents for their wonderful support, to my girlfriend Ash and her family who supported me greatly and to all my friends for their sms’es and messages each day.

To all of my other fantastic sponsors namely Black Spade Racing, Dulce Café, PVM Nutrition, Squirt Lube and Sludge Sealant, thank you very much.

Sounds like a Grammy music award speech? Sorry about that 😉

TV Interview.

Celebrating 3rd place with the boys, Oli had trouble counting.

Stage Prize Giving.

Images Credit: Bridge Cape Pioneer Trek and Ash Smit

Yesterday’s shorter stage of 64km was made more daunting by the phrase: “The Kamanasie”, I knew it would be hard but you never really know how hard it will be until you get there.

Luckily the organisers had opened the gates to The Kamanasie so we missed seeing the “welcome to hell” signboard as this may have caused us to turn around (with all due respect it was really beautiful though). The Kamanasie is a 14km section through a valley which is treacherouslyrocky and forced many hike a bike sections on us. The last climb is never ending as we switch from racing to survival mode. Old Petrus “Patroon” Malherbe provided Oli and I with entertainment through The Kamanasie. Patroon crashed just in front of us and spent the next few minutes lying on his back taking in the views (fortunately he was not injured). It did become the new joke of the day.

De Rust: Start of stage 4

The Real Kamanasie starts on the other side of this water station.

The Kamanasie looks somewhat tame from the air.

Oli at the top, doesn’t look like he went hard enough?

24 years old and I still need a dummy.

Anyway we finished the stage strongly just a minute off the Dutch, Cube Nutswerk boys in 6^th place still maintaining our 4^th on GC.

Yesterday afternoon and evening was spent listening to the millions of rain drops pattering on the roof of our camper. Pretty rad that we weren’t in tents! Thanks Zami!

With that in mind we awoke expecting a full on mud bath this morning. The organisers threw us a curve ball, although for the better, in shortening the stage as sections of the route were flooded. It also meant that we would start the stage an hour later. No problem! Another coffee and Nutella sandwich down the gullet and we were ready to rock and roll for take two. The only downside was that we would now be heading straight into a 5km climb, the Duiwelskop!

These bad boys come in handy cruising around a muddy race village.

Camper life, usually cleaner than this I promise Mom.

Typing the blog you busy reading!

The Austrian deep in thought.

Camp Site Images credit: Rene Haselbacher

We went over pretty well and as Oli would say we ‘pinned’ it down reeling in the boys on the technical downhill. We found ourselves just off the second group but struggled to close the last part of the gap on the flatter sections as they held the numerical advantage.

We enjoyed some rad single track through Saasveld, a previous host to XCO national races in the past, and flew down into George. We crossed the line in 5^th, just off that elusive podium again.

Tomorrow is the final pull back up to Oudtshoorn and then time for a bit of an opskop! Chances are you’ll probably only get another blog next week with that in mind.

Till then, ciao!

Pinning it to the finish in George.

© Oliver Munnik – ‘Pinning’

Image Credit: The Muller Files

Zami burning up the field!

The Asrin ‘Amateurs’ in action.

And over the line.

All Images Credit: Bridge Cape Pioneer Trek (unless otherwise stated)

Wow another tough day at the Pioneer. We were presented with another 100km stage but with fewer meters to climb.

 

A big group rolled out of Prince Albert and after a few k’s of racing we had Hasi and Zami off the front in a break. Nice one boys!

The group stayed quite large until we encountered some corrugations and a bit of crosswind. This resembled racing in Western Europe somewhat and with that the bunch split. We were happily still in the mix and stayed so until the main climb of the day; particularly rocky, rough technical ascent with a few hike a bike sections.

 

We got over the top in a decent position with good potential to bridge across to the front on the technical downhill but then the dreaded psssh sound arrived from Oli’s rear wheel. A rock had caught his side wall and we were forced to plug the tyre.

 

It was back to chasing as we had done yesterday. We made up good time and rode back up to the Dutch boys from Cube/Nutswerk just kilometres from the finish after some pretty big pulls. Although position wasn’t crucial, more so the time, I decided to go for a sprint and took them on the drag to the line. So it was 5^th on the day for us and we maintained our 4^th on GC.

 

I think our goal now lies in trying to make the podium one day, hopefully lady luck shines on us. Till another tough day tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in. Ciao

All Images Credit Bridge Cape Pioneer Trek

This morning we left Calitzdorp and after a tour of the Karoo our stage would finish on top of the Swartberg pass. A real beast of a climb! This would be the first time in South African mountain biking history we would finish on top of an uncategorised climb. To make matters more interesting a R100 000 prize purse for the first team on top to grab the brief case full of crisp green notes.

 

We left Calitzdorp and soon we encountered some problems. A dropped water bottle early on wasn’t ideal, but no reason to panic. We cruised for a few more kilometres, and then trouble struck again as I flatted on a downhill which wasn’t of a particularly technical nature. With two plugs and a bomb we were on our way again.

 

Our day consisted of mostly chasing down team after team until we finally made it back to a group of riders we were with before including the: Robert Daniel/Momsen, Petrus ‘Patroon’ Malherbe (Future life) and Boyes (Contego).

On our way down the Swartberg Pass into Prince Albert with the Dutch boys

We rolled well together to the base of the beast. Here it was every man for himself. We managed to keep things nice and steady and reeled in big time to the Cube/Nutswerk boys from the Netherlands, who had gone out hard early, as well as finish just of the Robert Daniel/Momsen pair. This kept us safely in 4^th position on GC.

 

Tomorrow we tackle another 100km stage but with considerably less climbing so let’s hope it’s not too much of a war zone out there.

Asrin Camp Setup in Prince Albert.

Zami and Hasi Cresting the beast.

While warming up for our prologue yesterday afternoon Oli and I had the same feeling. It was like we were about to do an XCO race. Quite ironic as the Pioneer is as far from an XCO race as there can be.

 

Anyway we had a great ride smashing it around the purpose built trails, opening it out where need be but not taking any stupid risks to finish the day in 6^th place, well within striking distance of the top 5 teams.

 

A big group rolled out this morning and with no seriously big efforts a group of about 7 teams stayed together until the 50km mark. Oliver and I tried our luck with an attack off the front some 40km in. Although we were given some breathing space at first we were reeled in 5km later.

On the attack.

Consistency was the name of the game and after Oli went through a bit of a bad spot he came through strong at the end and we finished in a solid 4^th place.

 

The route was great with quite a good mix including some awesome technical downhills and riding along the Red Stone cliffs.

 

Hasi and Zami also had a good day finishing in the top 30mens teams again.

 

You can catch daily highlights of the race on SS6 at 9pm every night.

 

Until tomorrow, ciao!

 

The event photographers on the move!

Hopefully we don’t see this vehicle this week!

All images credit: Bridge Cape Pioneer Trek

The day has finally arrived!

 

It all came about on a training ride one morning. Oli Munnik mentioned the idea of riding the Cape Pioneer together and after some consideration we were in.

 

Yesterday we made the trek down from Cape Town to the bustling Karoo town of Oudtshoorn. The trip was entertaining to say the least with DJ Haselbacher on the decks and former race car driver, Nizaam at the wheel. They will be teaming up this week to form the second Asrin Cycling Team.

This morning Oli and I went for a quick burn around the prologue route. To say it was rad would be an understatement. The kilometres of flowing, loose, rocky single track are unbelievable and the best part is that we get to ride it again this afternoon!

We’ll be on the starting grid at 14:41 to take on the 16km prologue. A shorter stage, but a tough 6 days still awaits us starting tomorrow. That doesn’t matter though because “honey badger don’t give a sh!t” and that’s the mentality we’ll have to adopt for this tough week in the Karoo.

Warning: Content not suitable for younger viewers.

I’ll try keep the blogs coming through the week, time and signal dependent of course. I’ll be posting more regular updates on my Twitter account which you can follow here and the race Twitter account here.

 

Here’s to a bad ass race!

The Engen Dynamic Cycle Challenge was held this last weekend in Wellington and I some good reasons to be looking forward to the race.

 

The first being that the pro teams from Joburg would be down and this would afford me the opportunity to benchmark myself against them. With Bonitas, MTN, Westvaal-BMC and Tasol GT here it meant a number of the top road professionals in the country would be on the line to race. I wanted to see how I would stack up against them. I was quite happy with how I went, bar my sprint at the end where I got boxed in and didn’t really have much of a chance.

 

Secondly and related to the above I hoped the racing would be more positive and thus harder than what we are normally used to here in the Cape. On this front the race didn’t disappoint. The racing was on from the gun and the climb through Riebeck Kasteel provided an opportunity for the 218 rider strong peloton to be split. There was a group of 5 up front including 4 MTN Qhubeka riders, I found myself in the next group of 20 or so riders. There was also a 3^rd group of also 20 riders and these 3 groups joined on the decent. This selection of 50 riders is where the winner would come from.

 

We were also lucky enough to have rolling road closure on the day. This made a huge difference and allowed us to race properly without having to worry about if we were crossing the white line and would be disqualified.

 

Lastly the organisers had put up some good prize money on the day (down to 10^th place I might add). This is a great incentive to the racing and I can assure you all the pros are grateful for it.

 

So all in all a big up to the Engen Dynamic Race Organisers for a great event! Some of our local race organisers could certainly learn a thing or two from them. There will be two further events in the series, one in Port Elizabeth and another in Durban. I however will unfortunately not be able to attend due to other racing commitments.

It was back to the Boland this weekend, to race in second event of the Western Cape Sprint League.

 

The race would be taking part on the Lady Loch Circuit, which totals just over 13km in length, just outside Wellington. The circuit is a lumpy one with a fast downhill run in to the line.

Image Credit: Mirra Photography

Quite a big move went off the front early on with: RSA Web, Momentum Insurance and Team Focus represented. This was eventually brought back by a combined effort from Smith and Associate/O-Bike Maties and the Cape Town Market Teams. I was content to sit, wait, and follow any potentially dangerous moves.

 

Unfortunately we would only be doing 4 laps of the circuit on the day resulting in the race being a rather pitiful 56km long. This meant that it was neither long nor hard enough to whittle down the bunch.

 Image Credit: Mirra Photography

Image Credit: Ash Smit

The result was a big, fast moving bunch coming into the finish. With the speed quite high it meant every man and his dog thought he was the next Cippolini, and thus quite a dangerous run in. I was dead wheeled behind a rider who broke his wheel at over 60km’h, but managed to impressively hold it upright (nice one!). It left me with a lot of work to do and after taking a few sneaky gaps I was able to come through in 9^th. Not the result I was looking for but so it goes I guess.

 

This weekend we will be racing in the Boland again at the Engen Dynamic Cycle Challenge. I am quite excited about the race as a number of the upcountry professional teams will be down to race. This will make things tough but interesting nonetheless.

Image Credit: TORQUEPICS – Ronel Rust

Ultra marathons are no joke.

 

Sometimes I think I forget how tough an ultra-marathon actually is. I haven’t done one in a while and whilst I had a good race this last weekend, it was still a brutally tough day out.

 

The cool thing about the MTN Ultra Marathon, which took place in Hilton this last weekend, is that it literally took place on the doorstep of where I grew up, and spent my earlier years becoming acquainted with my bike. To give you an idea of how close I’m talking about, the King of the Mountains climb literally goes right past the gate to my parents farm.

Off the start line.

Nearing the top of the KOM and the first feed zone.

 

The race started off at a modest pace and only really started to split up on the first major climb. Not wanting to go too deep too early on, I rode at a hard but manageable pace, and was soon in a group with Brad Stroberg (Fedgroup) and Guylin van den Berg (Bruce Reyneke Cycles). I did for a short stint, ride up to Greig Knox (Private Client Holdings-UCT) but then slipped back into a group with Brad.

 

We rolled well together and tagged onto Marc Bassingthwaite (Merida) as we went over the first KOM.  The top of the KOM was also the first feed zone where my Mom and Ash were on hand to replenish my bottles.

 

After spending much of the race together, Brad dropped off our group as he went through a bad patch. Marc turned off early and then I was solo with Greig, some 30 seconds ahead of me. I put in a big effort before the last feed zone and continued on after it, closing the gap down to some 15 seconds.

 

Unfortunately the old ‘out of sight-out of mind’ conundrum came into play. As we started the last loop with lots of single track, and thus with less vision of the rider up ahead, Greig slipped away from me.

Coming into the finish.

Images Credit: Ashleigh Smit

I came over the line in 10^th place. A result I’m very happy with, especially considering the quality of the field on the day.

 

Max Knox (Specialized) took overall honours; edging our Kevin Evans (360 Life) in a tight sprint finish, with Adrien Niyonshuti (MTN Qhubeka) rounding out the podium.

 

Testament of how tough the race is, was the high number of DNF’s I later saw on the results sheet. I was glad to be one of the ‘surivivors’.