After a good month racing on the mountain bike I lined up on African soil, or tar rather, for my first road race back in South Africa. Although I managed to get into a promising break that stayed away for a couple of km’s the day on the whole didn’t work out to plan. A rear wheel blow out 60km into the 105km race shattered my rim and spelt the end of the race for me. Luckily I managed to borrow a wheel to ride back to Stellenbosch on so at least I got in some decent training for the upcoming marathons.

 

The race was won from a move which went clear with Leanardo van Olsen(brothers Sport) taking the win with Theuns van der Bank( Cape Town Market) 2^nd and Jos le Roux(RSA Web) rounding out the podium.

 

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…

My first race back in the Cape, after my two month racing stint in Belgium and racing up in Joburg last week, was the Swartland Mountain bike Classic.

It was a pretty long drive out to the Org de Rac Wine Estate which hosted the event. A fairly competitive field lined up with most noticeably Charles Keey of MTN Qhubeka there, along with 3 Daiken Gu riders, Neil Bradford (Toyota/Cycle Lab) and a few other lads.

The race stayed together for the first twenty kilometres until we hit Koringberg for the first time, a tough rocky, steep and loose climb. A split of three including Craig Boyes, Greef Moolman and myself chased Charles who had managed to get away until I lost the other two as I had to stop to sort out technical issues.

I managed to chase back on the flats only to have further problems and lose the chase group again which now had six riders present. I was given a bit of a “get out of jail free card” when the group took a wrong turn and then suddenly came back up behind me again.

An old race photo from SA XC Championships earlier in the year.

Image Credit: Hanno Lategan

As we ascended Koringberg again, but now from another angle, I attacked on the steepest section of the climb. This gave me a gap and I didn’t look back. A thorn got stuck in my front wheel towards the top but the Sludge sealed the hole quickly so no problems there.  After a technical downhill I had about 15km of rolling terrain to the finish. This became quite hard as I started cramping and some of the climbs, although not particularly long, were steep.

I held onto 2^nd with Charles taking a solid win and Craig finishing up in 3^rd. I was quite happy with my ride considering my legs weren’t feeling too rock star on the day

The Kargo Magalies Adventure was a race that Sean and I had set out as one of our major goals for the year as Sean had won the event last year and wanted to defend his title. As has become the norm for a stage race the racing is done in teams of two riders in the same way as something like the Epic.

 

The first of three stages was a 25km night stage which saw us setting off at dusk and then finishing in the dark. The racing started from the gun with the team from Trinity Cycles and us breaking clear early on in the stage. We managed to get a gap on Trinity Cycles near the top of the main climb only to be reeled in again as I started having problems with my bike lights. We rode together for the next 5km until I was struggling to keep up in the technical single track with limited lighting as the night grew darker. We came in second on the stage 30 seconds down but knew that the next day’s stage would most likely be the race decider.

 

Following the second placed team from Trinity Cycles

Image Credit: http://www.waterpoint.co.za

 

The second stage of some 75km was the queen stage of the race. With just 1200m of ascent it didn’t sound terribly hard but one should not judge a stage’s toughness on just the numbers. The course was incredibly rough and rocky and it took its toll on our bodies especially towards the end of the day. We managed to ride away early into the stage with Trinity Cycles until the first main climb which was very loose and rocky on the lower slopes and ended with steep concrete strips at the top. This is where we managed to shake off the Trinity Cycles pair. Following this we rode some awesome single track in a river bed complete with purpose built bridges and cool drop offs, it was super fun riding! I had a bit of a mechanical towards the end of the stage with a broken chain but we fixed it quickly and had a good cushion on the second team to take the stage by almost 9 minutes.

 

With a nice cushion over the second placed team of Trinity Cycles going into the third day we still wanted to win the stage and it was a mountain bike race after all so anything could happen. A steep rocky loose climb 10km into the stage allowed us to get a gap on Trinity Cycles again and from here we rode a good tempo until 10km from the finish where we hit the fun single track at Van Gaalens Cheese farm. Sean and I tapped off here and enjoyed the single track keeping a check that Trinity Cycles weren’t going to catch us. It was awesome to take another stage win and to have Darryl and Paul from Cube Bikes at the finish too.

Crossing the line on Day 3

Image Credit: Cube Bikes South Africa

Happy Campers!

Image Credit: Karen Peter Martin

Prize Giving

Image Credit: Cube Bikes South Africa

Sean and I were stoked to take the win for 2011 and I guess we’ll have to be back next year to defend our title. 🙂

My last week in Belgium was a bitter sweet one for me. I had just come back from an awesome trip to France and Italy and had just over a week before I went home. I had three races lined up, two kermesse’s and one cross country race. I had loved my time in Belgium and was sad to leave but on the other hand it would be great to go home and see friends and family again.

 

The first kermesse I had lined up was the Buggenhout 1.12 race. Buggenhout is about 20km from Leuven so I took a spin there before the race to warm up. A huge field of 150 riders lined up, somewhat surprising considering there was a big tour taking place at the same time as well as a few other one day races. The course was tough with a climb of just over a kilometre long and a tough gutter section along rough cement slabs. This thinned the field out somewhat but still saw about a 100 riders coming to the line on the last of 11 laps. A crash 5km from the line spelled the end of the race from me; I had to shift down to my small chain ring and in the process my chain dropped. I couldn’t ‘pick’ it up again by shifting it up again so had to jump off. Anyway a ride home helped spin the legs out for the race the next day.

 

 

Photo Credit: Jean Bollaerts

Photo Credit: Jean Bollaerts

Image Credit: Maryne Poppe

Image Credit: Maryne Poppe

The following day I was on my mountain bike again for the Flanders Cup race in Hechter Eksel. In total I had spent almost five hours on my bike the day before so the legs were quite tired. A pan flat 4.5km course was one of the most fun I had raced on in Belgium with it being almost entirely on fast flowing forest single track. I started quite well but after breaking a spoke I had to take it easy into the tech zone and lost a couple of places. With a new wheel I was off again but started to fade in the last two laps with heavy legs and many accelerations. I finished in 17th place in the elite men race.

Image Credit: Ludo van der Put

I took a day’s rest and then Gerry and I took a road trip up to Baal for another kermesse. It was my last day in Belgium and I wanted to make it count! Despite the very flat course it was a tough race with hard accelerations as usual. After helping close the gap to a very threatening break I found myself near the back on the group when a split happened that I didn’t notice at first. It was a bit too late and the gap too big to close and unfortunately it meant that was that.

 

It was unfortunately a disappointing end to my trip; but one that I will look back on fondly. I really enjoyed it and learnt so much about myself and bike racing. I would love to go back again next year after having sussed out how the whole scene works.

1km to the top of Alpe du Huez

 

Well what an experience it was watching the tour! I met up with Brad and Colin Stroberg and joined their tour group, Bike Style Tours, for the day to ride from Grenoble up to Alpe du Huez.

 

Crowds on Alpe du Huez

Alberto “I ate contaminated meat-ya right” Contador

We set off quite early in the morning and the closer we got to the foot of the climb the more the campers, spectators, cars and cyclists piled up. It was crazy to think so many people had come to watch this.

The climb of Alpe du Huez is 13.8 kilometres long and has 21 switchbacks. I would say it is one of the top 3 all-time famous Tour de France climbs if not the most famous.

As we set up, many other cyclists clearly had the same idea as us and it was awesome to be a part of it all. Highlights on the way up included the Schleck and Dutch corner. When Brad and I got to the top we got some food and headed down the climb a bit to find a good spot to watch the race.

It was quite a long wait until the leaders came through but the junior race and tour caravan helped pass the time and add to the whole experience which makes the tour what it is.

The Tour CaravanDamiano Cunego – The Little Prince

The Gruppeto-World Champion Thor Hushovd far right

Awesome Single track down the side of Alpe du Huez

Crazy Dutch Corner

More of the Tour Caravan

 

After the GC men, and finally the grupetto had come past we started to make our way down. Ever been in a bike jam before? It took us an hour to ride down the climb; it was quite scary with many cyclo tourists who didn’t have much idea of the others around them swerving in and out of groups.

Anyway we made it down safely and started the ride back to Grenoble.

All in all it was a great day and experience I will never forget.

The final round of the Belgacom GP XCO series was held this last weekend in Geraardsbergen. As has become custom in XCO racing the lap was relatively short at just over 5 kilometres but was tougher than usual with up and down all the way round. The climbs were steep with a few tricky switch back sections, a couple of technical downhill sections and the last section comprised of very twisty single track. A highlight for me was riding up Die Muur on our start lap, a famous cobbled climb that is used every year in the Tour of Flanders.

Rolling up to the start.

Image Credit: Danny Zelck

I must say the Cube HPC Elite was the perfect bike for the course. With a section of cobbles and a few tufty grass sections the flex stays came into their own whilst the frame maintained its stiffness which is a huge benefit on a course like Geraardsbergen with lots of hard acceleration s out of the corners and up the steep climbs.

I was now over my head cold and hoping to have a much better race. We lined up at 5pm, crazy right?! and set off up Die Muur. Everything pretty much stayed together up Die Muur on the start lap which meant a short wait as we neared the top and went into the first single track. I held my start position of around 25th on the first full lap but then started to lose a couple of places with each lap. The course is really one where you need to do at least four or five practice laps, something I was unable to do and meant that I overshot a few corners on the first 3 laps and with the level of racing being so high in Belgium, every little mistake you make is to the advantage of another rider.

Second forest section.

Image Credit: Bart De Cooman

My bottle of PVM Octane somehow fell out on my 3rd lap and a missed feed meant I was without a bottle for a lap and a half in what was a fairly warm Belgian day. The solution to my problem came when passing a rider walking after he had broken his chain, in a mix of Afrikaans(similar to Flemish) and English I asked/took his bottle from his cage ‘promising’ to give it back at the finish. For all I knew he could have been French from the puzzled look on his face but let me take his bottle so thanks to you dude, sorry about not getting the bottle back to you but to be honest I don’t remember what you look like…

Pump track section.

Image Credit: Bart De Cooman

First grassy climb.

Image Credit: Glen Coessens

I felt like I was getting more into the swing of things towards the end of the race and made up a couple of positions to finish in 37th elite. Not a fantastic result on paper but considering the circumstances I was satisfied, although to say, happy would be a bit of a push.

Thanks once again to the Versluys Evenza team for making me feel a part of their family and for all the help at the races.

Versluys Evenza Race Pit

Thank you to Nick, the team manager, for allowing me to be a part of the team during my time here and for the support at the races. To Ivan and Dirk who always prepare us great lunches before the races and always ensure everyone is well fed and has something to drink. Thanks to Gerry for sorting my bike out for me on numerous occasions, lifts to and from races, being in the feed zone during races and for all the good laughs! Thanks to Thierry for also feeding during races, making bottles for us and all the encouragement.

Thanks must also go to Mr and Mrs van Hoovels for the lifts to and from races, the support and as well as the help with feeding.

A big thank you to the riders: Kevin, Bjorn, Sebastien and Nicolas for including me during my time here. It was great to get to know you all and spend time training and racing with you. A special thanks to Kevin for all his help through our trip, the numerous lifts and training rides. It has been great to meet everyone and I have made friends that I will definitely visit again in the future.

Visit the Versluys Evenza Team site by clicking here and watch out for them next year, big things can be expected!

I will be doing mainly kermesse races for the remainder of my time here in Belgium. Keerbergen is on the cards for tomorrow and then another race on Friday.