Sardine MTB Super Classic

The Sardine Classic is always a great event, held at the Pont on the South Coast of KZN. The Pont, Beaver Creek coffee and Clear water trails are all linked by some really amazing single track made by Jan Abbott, owner of Clear Water Trails. Jan has put a lot of work in over the years to create some amazing trails...

With the huge amount of rain we have had in KZN over the past few days it was sure to be a muddy morning on the bike.
The race starts at the Pont and heads straight up the Old Pont Tar road which is a fairly big climb for the start of a race. With the huge and really competitive field at the event the start was going to be a tough one. I decided to ride on the front up the hill as to not get caught out at the back, and my plan worked as i crested the hill first and rode on down the dirt road. 2km later we hit a really steep dirt climb and a few of the riders had made their way past me. I held the wheels up the climb and we now had a gap on the riders behind, but we then hit a very muddy section and i was forced to dismount which opened a gap between me and the group consisting of Burry Stander, Andrew Hill, Ty White, James Reid and Luke Roberts. I was caught by Guylin and the two of us were chasing the bunch.
The race was a two lap event and when we came through the start finish area after the first lap the now split lead bunch where all within a minute of each other. After the start finish area we hit the tar road climb for the second time, which felt a lot tougher the second time around. On the steep climbs and in the mud i managed to pull away from Guylin but was unfortunately caught by Dave Leiman (thule) and Kyle Dorkin (Wsquared). Dave pushed hard and left myself Kyle, together we road on till the last stretch on single where Kyle with his downhill experience left me behind.

I eventually crossed the line in 7th place and 2nd Sub Vet just a few minutes down on the Winner Burry Stander

Overall another great day of MTB racing in KZN... and with Powasol bike wash it was easy to clean all that mud off the bike before the next ride!
Back to training tomorrow as there is always work to be done...