I had more reason to be excited for this last weekend’s racing and that came in the form of a shiny new bike. My new baby: the Black Spade Hard Tail 29er. It was to be my first time on the big wheels and wow was I impressed! I’ll be blogging on this awesome bike soon I promise!

Let’s take things back a notch. I was invited to stay the weekend with the Smit Family in the Knysna Quays. We stayed in an awesome house which was centrally located and I must extend a big thank you to them for their wonderful hospitality. It is great being able to walk to most of the places we needed to be and rolling two minutes down the road to the start line. I wasn’t the only one racing with Shaughn taking part in both the mountain bike marathon and road race and Ash doing the shorter mountain bike race on Saturday. Both did well in their respective races and I suspect they may ramp up their training a bit for the Stellenbosch marathon later on this month.

I wasn’t flying the Asrin flag solo this weekend and Nizaam would be competing in both the mountain bike marathon and the road race. Unfortunately he had quite a hard crash in the mountain bike race but made up for it with a solid result in the road race the following day.

Nizaam lining up for his mountain bike start.

On the grid on Saturday morning a class field had lined up to take on some 80km in the Knysna forests. Fortunately the forecasted rain had held off and I wouldn’t have to subject the new weapon in my arsenal to too much treacherous mud! Nedbank 360 Life put a full team on the line as did RECM with their roadie cousin Lill (Bonitas). Also there was the Blend Properties team, Groustra (RSA Web/Rocky Mountain), Munnik (Go Pro/GT) and Craig Boys (Daiken).

The start is a tough one with the ascent up Simola coming in the opening kilometres followed by a short downhill and another stiff climb which levels out  near the top but carries on for what feels like ages. It was at the top of this climb I found myself in a group consisting Ollie Munnik, Craig Boyes, John Wakefield and two other chaps whose names I didn’t quite catch.

The group worked well together through the flatter sections of the course as we chased the group a few minutes up the road consisting of Evans, Groustra, Bressler Knipe and Morrison. Ultimately we didn’t catch them but did manage to finish just a few minutes shy of them

As the race wore on we shed two riders and approached the fast downhill into town with a group of just four now. It was to come down to a sprint for the remaining top 10 positions. I was really excited as I had some new tricks I wanted to employ after watching Griepel and the boys duelling it out at the Tour last week(No, this does not include lying on the tarmac!). It was unfortunately a bit dangerous as we had to contest this with the shorter route riders on the same track with us having to weave in and around them and try not freak them out at the same time. This you can see in the video clip I’ve uploaded below and I think I managed to just edge out Craig in the dash for the line.

Mountain Bike Marathon Sprint.

(enjoy the commentry: “speeding, speeding, speeding)

 

 

“You see it works like this…” 

 

After a massage, eating over half of the food in Knysna (No Oysters mind you) and a good night’s sleep I was on my skinny wheels ready to race early the next morning.

Unfortunately the racing became a bit negative with a full Bonitas team on the line on the day. I’m not going to go into the dynamics of how this affects the race but I will say I was quite pleased with how I was climbing and found myself in the main chase group after the steep ascent up Hoekwil. We numbered about 15 riders and I found my company to be mainly mountain bikers who had also ripped it up the previous day which was pretty cool.

At the end of the day Bonitas managed to fill most of the positions in the top 10 and I rolled over the line in 12^th. I think the race could have been more interesting if there was another team or two to mix it up which in turn would give the individual guys like myself more of a chance to be more competitive.

Hunting down Renay G in our ‘fun’ sprint at the end of the road race.

(I got him on the line 😉 )

All in all I had a great weekend on and off the bike and come Sunday evening it was time to treat myself with an awesome pizza and a beer which went down particularly well! There were also perhaps a few awesome farm store pies consumed on the trip home but you can’t count those calories all day long!

It felt weird to be cruising to a race on my own again this last weekend after having spent much time with Rene, Phillip, Ishmail and Nizaam travelling to races over the last few months. Hasi is back in Austria, Zaami was sick and so I was flying the Asrin flag solo in Tulbagh.

 

After an hour and half drive in darkness with the odd patches of rain I arrived to gloomy overcast conditions with rain looking to threaten at any stage. Tulbagh is no stranger to mountain bikers having hosted the Cape Epic last year and a round of the National Marathon series earlier in the year. It was however, my first time out at this little dorpie which is nestled amongst daunting mountains with the Winterhoek Mountains on the northern side of the town topping out at almost 2100m above sea level. I would also be riding on a borrowed bike which I rode for the first time the morning before the race, to make matters interesting the brakes were opposite to how I would usually ride them and I would be rolling with grip shift for the first time in 7 years… But, I did enjoy the bike so thanks very much Ishmail for helping me out while my new baby is being built up(more news on that later in the week).

 

The start grid had a few of the usual suspects lining up behind the chalk including: Olli Munnik(GT/Go Pro), Nico Pfitzmeir(Robert Daniel Momsen), Dave Morrison(Blend Properties) and Timo Cooper( Rocky Mountain). It was the 5 of us that surged away from the rest of the field some 10km in up one of the first jeep track drags.

 

Things seemed to stay mostly together with Nico surging slightly off the front and then shortly thereafter Timo unluckily had a chain problem and this forced an early end to his day. I found myself behind Morrison who had been gapped by Ollie on one of the downhills. I came around Dave and pushed to re-join Ollie, after we had joined again Ollie and I set about working well together over the next few kilometres.

 

After a silly crash a short while later I couldn’t re-join Ollie and was left on my own hanging in between him and Dave just behind me. I decided this would be a good time to also make a quick adjustment to my borrowed bike and dropped the saddle slightly. This is when Dave passed me and I was now lying in 4^th place.

 

As we traversed through the vineyards and up and down mountains I could make out Dave about 30 seconds ahead of me. It stayed this way for much of the next part of the race until about 15km’s to go I decided to put in a big effort as we hit a gravel road section to catch him. I managed to do this as we switched off the road and back onto some jeep track.

 

We rode together for the next few kilometres until Dave had to stop to sort out a dry chain, I had some Squirt on hand to help him and set off on my own. There was still a longish climb to be negotiated before the finish though, it wasn’t particularly steep but with Dave chasing it made it hard. I could ease off a bit as we got to the top and hit familiar territory for me in the single track back down to the town.

 

At the finish Nico had taken the win with Ollie in second, myself in third and Dave in 4^th. It was a tough day out to say the least with less than 3 minutes separating the top 3.

 

This week I look forward to tapping off the training a bit ahead of the Knysna Mountain bike marathon and road race this coming weekend.

After two great years the time has come for me to bid farewell to one of my first sponsors who I felt really believed in me, Cube Bikes.

My relationship with Paul, Darryl and Jacques started out two years ago at the Dusi Mfula mountain bike race. I had won a competition they had held for an entry into the event and met them at the event. I rode with Hilton Frost and we did quite well and this seemed to impress the Cube gentleman. After some discussion we forged a partnership and built a great friendship from there.

The AMS HPA 100 was the first full suss bike I had ever ridden and I quickly fell in love with the bike. The bike also had an awesome blue and white spray job which received many cool compliments at races across the country.

In 2011 as I shifted my focus back to XC racing I decided to go back to a hard tail and was privileged enough to be put on the Cube Super HPC hard tail. In my opinion it was one of the leading 26” hard tail bikes in the world last year with a full XTR build, Easton EC90 wheels and a Fox Terralogic shock. The bike was so stiff and responsive yet the flex stays still sucked up some of the rougher terrain.

2011 was also the year which I received my first Cube road bike, the beautiful Litening Super HPC. The really cool thing for me at this stage was that both my bikes had exactly the same classic spray job! The Litening Super HPC is a great bike and extremely stiff and responsive in the sprint.

On a Belgian train going to the Ardennes for a XCO race.

Washing bikes on the small balcony in our Belgium apartment.

The third and final Cube mountain bike I was on was the AMS HPC 100. I had asked to move back to the fully for this year’s ABSA Cape Epic(I had ridden my first Epic on an aluminium hard tail bike in 2010 and can tell you it isn’t very forgiving at all). The bike was great and many commented on the green machine!

ABSA Cape Epic Prologue

Bridgestone Route 69

I would like to extend a big thank you to Paul, Darryl and Jacques for your amazing support over the last two years. I am extremely grateful for it and valued it hugely. I was proud to be an ambassador for the Cube Brand and loved riding your bikes.

Danke und auf wiedersehen!

I was back on the road again last weekend, this time with the vehicle pointed in the direction of the coastal town, Knysna, and with Hasi at the wheel. Reason to be concerned? Not really, although there were a few speeding fines. He does blame this on my inability to point them out to him in time.

Asrin would have four teams taking part in the RECM Garden Route 200 3 day stage race. The race was unique in that there would be a different start venue but with the same finish venue each day. Tapa’s restaurant on Thesen Island would be the finish and it was a pretty cool race village with a somewhat European stage race feel to it.

The first stage would be one of the tougher ones with 67km and almost 1500m of vertical ascent before us. We started at the Knysna Elephant Park which provided my Austrian friends, aka ‘the tourists’ with much enjoyment. The weather was playing its part but as we found out later on in the day it hadn’t in the weeks before and the forest was a mud bath in areas. I was struggling with some stomach issues coming into the race and when the gas was turned on I couldn’t do much more than watch as the other teams rode away from us some 15km into the stage. Hasi and I took the stage rather conservatively hoping that I would be on it for stage two. We rolled over in a respectable 3^rd position in the team competition.

Ishmail protecting our nervous tourists from the ‘big bad elly’

Getting ready for the start.

I woke up feeling considerably better on Saturday morning and managed to eat a bit more than what I had yesterday. We started off conservatively again and found ourselves with the Rocky Mountain pair of Cooper and Hayley up the main berg of the day. I was feeling great and over the top we managed to drop the pair. We kept the gas on as we started the descent and opened the gap a bit. This is when amateur hour started. In the excitement of feeling better and duelling the Rocky Mountain pair I hadn’t eaten much, in addition to me eating less than half of what I usually do my sugar low was met with low reserves and KAABOOOM I blew.. very badly. I think Hasi thought we were on a Sunday morning coffee ride as I struggled through to the finish. We held onto 3^rd team but lost massive chunks of time. The unfortunate thing about feeling the way I did was that I was not able to take full advantage of the magnificent buffet spread put on by Tapa’s restaurant every lunch and dinner, I may have come home having put on a good few kilos!

I again woke up feeling better and wanted to make amends for a poor showing through the first two days. Within minutes of starting the stage I started guzzling down anything and everything I had stuffed into my pockets. Bear Grylls once said the key to survival is ‘if you see a kilojoule, eat it’. This I almost did, bar stopping for a squashed beetle track side. Unfortunately for the Rocky Mountain pair they had tyre troubles early on into the stage. We hung in with the lead group being driven by the Contego pair of Bressler and Venter for a bit longer than previous days. I wasn’t amazing but better. We did have a chain problem when I bent a link but we managed to sort this out with a new one and we were on our way again, clawing our way through the teams who had passed us. Fortunately today Eskom didn’t cut the power short and we managed to finish a more respectable second team behind the Contego boys. We had made some time back on Rocky Mountain but not enough for second overall.

It was a good showing for the other Asrin boys as we placed 3 teams in the Top 10, with Nizaam and Ludi finishing in 6^th place and Ishmail and Phillips in 8^th. If there was a ‘team’ team prize we could have one that perhaps?

Once again a big thank you to Asrin for the opportunity to go and do the race, thanks Nizaam and Ishmail.

Thanks to my partner Hasi for being patient with me through the race.

Thank you to Louise and her Garden Route Events team for putting on a fantastic event and to RECM for backing it.

Final Results:

1. Contego 28E
2. Rocky Mountain
3. Asrin Cycling Team
4. Merrel Pro
5. Epic Speed Merchants
6. Asrin Cycling Team
7. Karoo Octopus
8. Asrin Cycling Team
9. Generation Gap
10. Flavourome

Over the last two months I have thoroughly enjoyed the racing on the road that has been put on by WPCA (Western Province Cycling Association) and more specifically Graham Ward. It has been great to have a winter road league again and it provided great variation when mixing it in with my mountain bike racing. I have managed to do most events on the series bar when a mountain bike race takes precedence and I’m hoping to sneak onto the overall podium. Unfortunately I’ll be missing the final event his coming weekend so we will have to wait and see.

Gunners Circle was the host venue for the second time in the series and as I had known from past experience the circuit is particularly flat with only two ‘climbs’ as the road tilts upwards in the form of a bridge over the railway tracks. It is also doesn’t have any corners which makes it particularly difficult to split the race up as fellow mountain biker James Reid (360 Life) and I found out.

We attempted to force a break and managed to get one going some 20 kilometres in the race. We were joined by 3 other riders and seemed to be working well together. After some confusion as we passed one of the other category bunches racing on the day the cat 1 bunch caught us again some 50 kilometres into the 70 kilometre race.

There were a few more efforts off the front but the right mix of teams was yet to go off the front and hence nothing stuck. I did manage to comfortably win the second sprint prime of the day through this part of the race.

Towards the end of the penultimate lap I saw an opportunity to get up the road and joined Peter Wheeler and Alex Heward (Smith and Associate/O-Bike/Maties) as they attacked and we soon managed to build up a decent gap. We seemed to hold this for a bit before the bunch decided we were not to be and applied the pressure to bring us in.

With about 4km to go as the bunch was about to catch us I took a chance and attacked again hoping there would be a slight hesitation in their chase giving me the gap I would need. I didn’t look back and pushed the pedals as hard as I could but was reeled in some 2km later, 2km out.

The race wasn’t over yet! My legs surprisingly didn’t feel too lactic filled yet and I pushed my way back into the top 10 riders. A few guys tried to hit it out from far but weren’t successful. I was a bit boxed in on the left hand side of the road coming into the last 500m but snuck through a small gap into a decent position and kicked as hard as I could with my 25-12 cassette on. I was a bit under geared on the flat run in but had timed my sprint relatively well and with a big bike throw across the line came in 2^nd behind Heward with Leonardo van Onselen (Flanderia) rounding out the podium.

The final sprint, I’m on the far right.

The podium.

It was a great day racing once again and was topped with a spin around to Camps Bay for a spot of breakfast.

With the racing that took place this last weekend at Contermanskloof it seems that the popularity of the Olympic discipline of mountain biking is on the rise again in the Cape. What is particularly pleasing is the number of younger athletes taking part!

The course set out included two single track climbs with a few steep punchy sections thrown in through the vineyards for good measure and a long downhill single track with a few switch backs and a fun fast section down to the dam. There wasn’t anything particularly technical but as the course was ridden in more it became more fun. The Cape Winter was kind to us as we had sunny warm conditions on the day!

Downhill single track.

Image Credit: Chris Hitchcock

Personally it was my first XCO race in a while and with training having shifted focus somewhat I haven’t been working on my speed as much and I felt the effects of this. I anticipated the usual fast start with the likes of James Reid (360 Life) Dom Calitz (Protek) and a host of the usual cape mountain bikers in attendance and fast it was!

I managed to settle into a rhythm which I felt comfortable with and one which I could maintain through the race, I found a companion in Michael Casey from the Maties team and we spent most of the race together.

The more conservative start paid dividends as we started to real in guys who had started faster than us as the laps ticked by. Casey (an U23 rider) proved a bit too strong for me on the last lap as I started to cramp up a bit. I backed off a bit and rode in conservatively to the finish as I knew I was lying 1^st in the Elite men’s race.

Accelerating out a corner.

Image Credit: Chris Hitchcock

Nizaam took part in his first XCO race ever and had a great day out finishing in a very solid 7^th place in the competitive sub-vets category.

Nizaam at his start.

In the U23 race James took a convincing win with Dom in second and Craig Boyes (Daiken Gu) in 3^rd. I managed to win the elite race with Grant Kruger in 2^nd and an old Maties compatriot Willie ‘Big Blade’ Brink rounding out the podium.

The Elite Podium.

As I mentioned in my previous blog to the race the Sani 2 C is one of the iconic races in South African mountain biking which I have yet to have had the chance to take part in until this last weekend.

The race was all and more than what I expected it to be. The event is phenomenal to say the least in all aspects of it from the riding to the hospitality of the local communities!

Our trip started with in Pietermaritzburg where my parents hosted the team for the evening. Thanks Mom and Dad! I took the boys down to the Pietermaritzburg World Cup Course at Cascades on Wednesday for our pre-race spin. The course blew their minds and I could understand why, I had forgotten how fun it was since I was last there.

Asrin Cycling Team Camper

Team meeting at the infamous rock garden!

Oli Munnik getting into the Sani vibe!

Last spin before the race.

That afternoon we made our way up to Underberg for the event registration.

Racing on day 1 heated up quickly with the 360 Life team of: George and Evans spicing things up at the sharp end some 10km into the stage. Hasi and I found ourselves chasing with the RE:CM pair of Woolcock and Roberts before finally settling into a group including the pairing of Oli Munnik and Andrew Mclean(Cycle Lab/Toyota/Go Pro), Team Contego’s Hannekom brothers and the Robert Daniel/Momsen pairing. The course was so fast and I was surprised at how quickly we arrived at the finish of the 80 km’s at an average speed a whisker under 29km/h.

Mckenzie Club overnight stop day 1.

Day 2 promised to be the queen stage with just under 100kilometres of racing and almost 2000m of ascent awaiting us. The highlight of the day would surely be the descent into the Umkomaas valley on some pristine single track! The views were amazing with the sun piercing through the horizon. It was an experience I won’t forget anytime soon. My legs had now ‘woken up’ and Hasi and I combined well together riding out of the valley and along the flatter roads to the finish we turned the gas on to finish the stage in 11^th position which moved us up to 10^th position in the general classification.

Singletrack into the Umko Valley.

Image Credit: Sani2c

A ‘donkey’ used to heat water for the showers. It’s seriously HOT!!

Ishmail showing us his culinary skills!

The third and final day of the race promised to be a fast one with but it wasn’t all downhill to the C and we encountered a few tough climbs along the way. We had a 50 second buffer on the Robert Daniel/Momsen pairing of Sim and Pfietzmeir and we were eager to defend our top 10 position. We found ourselves with the pair some 15km into the stage and comfortably rode with them. This was until I had a chain problem which we managed to quickly fix. Hasi rode like a machine to pace us back to our group. Unfortunately a second chain problem, this time worse than the last, also saw a group ride past us as I fixed it. We now had to put in a serious team time trial effort to try and hang onto our top 10. Crossing the palates laid across the beach we could just make out the group ahead of us. A huge effort up the tar road climb to the finish saw us catch them. Hasi and I had really laid it all out and had come so agonisingly close.

Pushing up one of the cane road climbs.

Image Credit: Fullstop Communications

We finished in 11^th place overall only 12 seconds off the 10^th placed team of and 40 seconds of the 9^th placed team of. We had finished 10^th in the elite men’s teams.

All in all, the race was an amazing experience and one which I really enjoyed.

Both Asrin Cycling Teams finished!

I have some big thank you’s to make. Firstly to Asrin property Developers for getting us to the start line and for your support through the event, thank you Nizaam and Ishmail, I value and appreciate your support so much. To give you an idea, in order to make sure we had coffee in the morning Nizaam organised a lead cable to a nearby camper’s generator to plug the coffee machine into!

Thank you to Grant and his crew at Adrenaline Cycles for looking after my Cube and the team’s bikes.

Thank you to Megan and her team at R.E.S.T for the massages.

Lastly but certainly not least, to Hasi, for being a great partner and for all your help. Riding with someone of Rene’s calibre is such a privilege and I learnt so much. Off the bike it was a laugh a minute and I had so much fun!

If you haven’t yet, catch the race highlights on Supersport and see what we got up to.

I have been fortunate to race in many of the iconic mountain bike races across South Africa over the last few years but one race that has always eluded me is the famed BOE Sani 2 C. This year I have been privileged to be afforded the opportunity to race the event with former European road pro, Rene Haselbacher, or Hasi. Hasi has really been there and done it having ridden for teams such as Gerolsteiner and Astana. Hasi done events such as the Tour de Franc, Giro de Talia and numerous spring classics, including: Paris Roubaix, Tour of Flanders and Amstel Gold. Hasi and I will be racing in the Asrin colours this week, something I am really looking forward to.

Also representing Asrin will be brothers Ishmail Essa and Nizaam Esa. They will be heading up the Asrin challenge amongst the corporates at the event and logging in some good miles for their onslaught on the Knysna Oyster Festival Challenge in July.

We will make our way down to Durban tomorrow, up to Underberg on Wednesday and then start racing on Thursday through to Saturday.

I am really looking forward to the famed single track that the race promises and I am sure it will live up to its expectations.

Hasi

Sharing a laugh. Hasi wants to know how his hair looks in this photo? Ladies please feel free to comment?

On some Monday’s there are races from the last weekend which you don’t want to write about and some you do. Today was one of those Mondays where I had both of these feelings.

First let’s rewind the clock a week. Last weekend was the 3^rd WPCA Winter League criterium, as it was a long weekend my writing decided to take a break too. The race was once again well organised but I didn’t come away with the result I wanted. A break of 3 riders had managed to go clear earlier on in the race and in the later stages I found myself in a strong move with 3 laps to go, including Charles Keey(Blend Property), James Reid(360 Life) and JP Jacobs(Anderson Transport). We combined well together but left things a bit late and finished a handful of seconds off the front 3. I sprinted like an amateur and took 4^th from four in our group and 7^th overall.

Back to this last weekend, on Saturday it was time to get back on the fat tyres, my first mountain bike race since the Epic and it was to be the Trucape Classic in Grabouw, a tough race renowned for its awesome single track.

For me the race was one to forget, I didn’t warm up properly and struggled a bit in the first 10km with the fast pace being set up front. When I eventually did manage to settle in things took a turn for the worse. The course marking was poor in areas and this saw me getting lost twice, I wasn’t the only one to suffer this misfortune, something for the organisers to look at in the future perhaps. To make matters worse I then cut my tyre badly, a hole the kind of size plugs don’t have a chance of fixing so it was in with a tube. I decided my day at front was now over and cruised home with some of the guys from the Asrin Property Team.

That evening I ate enough to support a small village for a week and recovered as best I could to get out on the road the next morning for the 4^th WPCA Winter League criterium in Ottery.

The usual suspects were there as well as 2011 SA road champion Darren Lill (Bonitas). We were racing on a short 1.2km circuit with quite a few corners in the mix. A proper criterium course, this excited me! More corners meant more accelerations which in turn makes the race harder and thins the peloton out.

I knew which were the wheels to watch on the day and when Stefan Ihlenfeldt (Smith and Associate/O-Bike/Maties) went clear with Peter Wheeler I knew I needed to get across to them. Fortunately Lill had a similar idea and the two of us managed to bridge across. This was within the first 15 minutes of the hour long race but I felt it would be the defining move of the day. We worked well together and managed to put a lap into the chasing bunch as we neared the end.

This is also when the attacks started coming but we were all attentive and watching each other. With two laps to go Wheeler snuck off the front and as we all watched each other, each not wanting to be the one who chased him down Wheeler managed to go clear to take the win. The race was now on for second. Approaching the last corner which led into the finishing straight Ihlenfeldt was in front, with Lill on his wheel and myself on Lill’s. I knew I had to be patient and follow the sprint rather than initiate it. Lill went and I jumped, coming out the gates a bit slow at first but once I got the gear rolling I managed to pass Ihlenfeldt and then started gaining on Lill. On the line I threw my bike forward as much as I could but Lill just managed to take it by a couple of cm.

I was happy to be on the podium on the day but not wholly satisfied with the result.

 

All Images Credit: Deon Raath Photography

Getting ready for the prologue.

Waiting for our prologue start.

C for Serias!

The man behind the lens enjoying a cold one.

Tented Village.

A big thank you to Mike Finch for all the images!