This past Saturday was the Compendium Derby Cycle race held in the Hillcrest area, a really great area for mountain biking with huge amounts of single track and jeep track trails.
The race starts at the polo pony fields in Hillcrest and being the end of May it was a chilly 9degs at when i arrived there. But the temperature did not stop the hundreds of riders that showed up for the event. Being a popular event there was sure to be a good strong field in the 40km main race for the day, and so there was. This strong field even included Neil MacDonald and Waylon Woolcock of Team RE CM (team Bonitas) recent winners of Joburg2c and a second overall at Sani2c just a week ago. And of cause all of KZN's top mountain bikers turned up for the event.
We started off along a district road and very soon in we turned right and straight up a hill where the attack went from the BMC guys. Very soon 7 of us had broken away up the climb, and it stayed that way for the first 10km till the RE CM riders picked up the pace. The pack split up and we started to get a little strung out, i then found myself sitting with Tyronne White, Luke Roberts (BMC) and Andrew Hill (TIB). We kept a really hard pace to try to limit the gap to the leaders, till Andrew Hill decided he had had enough as a result of being sick the previous week. Tyronne and Luke the picked up the pace and i dropped off, i rode a steady pace to conserve my place in the field.
The race then dropped into Giba gorge for a bit of fun in the single track all through the park, which would unfortunately mean we would have to climb out of Giba all the way back up to the polo pony fields. On the way out of Giba i was caught by Dave Leiman and Matt Goutsch, and Dave attacked so i went with him and we pulled away from Matt. Dave then kicked again and i just couldn't hold his wheel, i chased him till the finish line where i finished just behind him and claimed 6th place and 3rd sub vet.
At the finish line the Klint from powasol grabbed my bike and whipped it off for a wash, such awesome service from a great company and great brand.
It was a good hard race and i was happy with my result.
A big big thanks must go to the guys from Senqu clothing for making it possible for me to race the Compendium Derby. There are a great company who make some really awesome out door clothing.
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Thursday, 26 May 2011
Powasol and Multitergent
Powasol bike wash makes washing your beauty just that little bit easier and gives you the results you looking for.
It eliminates all that stubborn dirt and leaves the bike with an amazing shine, and best of all it does all this without completely drying out the lubrication in your bearings and on the chain. So once washed all you need to do is put some Waxo lube onto the chain and it's ready to go for the next days ride!
The Waxo Lube is a great dry lube, and a long lasting dry lube at that! I always lube the chain the night before and then give it a little splash of lube before heading out on my ride.
To fight the wet conditions Multitergent has come up with a Wet lube which they will be releasing soon. I had the pleasure of testing out that wet lube at Sani2c this past weekend, and it was an absolute life saver when we hit all the river crossings on day two...especially seeing some of them were ridable which meant i flew through them at full pace which obviously washed all the lubrication off my chain!
Another great product from Multitergent is the Helmet Refresher... On those multi day races this is the perfect product. It's a foam based product which you would spray into your helmet (or shoes) and it foams up then dissipates killing all germs and bacteria in the helmet. So the next morning your helmet is ready to go and it's dry!
To combat punctures i ride with a can of Weld fast, it's a latex based product and the can is filled with co2. So in the case of a puncture you would attach the can to your valve and spray the sealant into the tyre sealing off the hole, and getting you to the finish in no time!
Sunday, 22 May 2011
Sani2c 2011
What a week of racing...
My brother Justin and I were sponsored an entry for the 2011 Sani2c by Subaru and we raced as the Subaru Suunto Cebe team.
Justin had just come off racing Joburg2c so we knew he would have the endurance, especially for day two the 100km day.
Day 1
As was to be expected in Underburg in May...it was freezing! probably about 2 degs when we woke up and think it got to around 8 when we were standing on the start line at 7am.
The race kicked of behind the lead car for the first few km's and the pace was full gas! We rode in the lead bunch till we hit the first set of dual single track where things got seriously fast as the top teams attacked to try make a break. Once out the other side of the track things started to regroup and we got into group consisting of the Garmin, Thule and BMC teams. We rode in the group for awhile till all three teams got away from us in the single track, it was slippery and i was not having a good time there. Once out of the slippery track and onto the district rode we chased hard and managed to catch and pass team Thule in the final 2km finishing in 14th place in a time of 3h3mins, 3mins down on team BMC and team Garmin...a very good first day of racing!
Of cause we then indulged in all Sani2c has to offer, from the endless food, the endless Milk and Juice, the Chill Zone's with free beer, the massage tent, the Itec connect zone with free internet....plus a whole lot more! One other really nice extra was the USN team handing out an Epic Pro sachet (to top 50), Recover Max (rest of field) plus a USN tornado shaker to all the finishers, real big up to USN for that!
Day 2
This is the big day, and the one that worried me a little. It started off as always with a furious pace, i felt i did well to get into the single track just behind the lead bunch as we started the decent into the great Umkomas Valley. Unfortunately i was lacking confidence and dropped off the back of the bunch and got left behind by my brother too, it was going to be a big chase once i hit the bottom of the valley, which it was. The chasing took it's toll on me and i very quickly started to suffer, luckily my brother was feeling super strong so i sat his wheel and he literally pulled me for around 70km... in the final km's we managed to catch a few teams as they started to suffer after the long day.
We finally crossed the line after the gruelling 100km's in 11th place, an awesome result and all thanks to Justin as he rode so strong the whole stage!
Our 11th place and great time of 4h20mins put us into 13th place overall.
Day 3 and the final day
This day is always super super fast day and it starts off with a down hill and straight into single track in the first 2km. Justin and I had a bad start and found ourselves fairly far back in the bunch, i felt good and pushed hard over taking riders till i was in amongst the top 12 teams. Unfortunately doing all the work on day 2 had obviously taken it's toll on Justin as he was quite a way back still and i was forced to sit up and wait for him. Quite a few teams passed me as i waited for Justin to catch up, when he did i could see he was battling and it was now going to be my turn to do the pulling. I sat on the front and worked for around 20km's, but much to my disgust i was just pulling 3 other teams to the finish line and they were not even willing to help, obviously roadies... I then had my first problem, a piece of sugar cane leaf rapped around my cassette forcing me to stop, and i shouted to Justin to carry on going. I pulled it all out and started to chase again, when i caught him i again when to the front and started pull the bunch. We rode really hard through Vernon Crooks nature reserve and the into the Jeep/single track that lead us down to Sea level. It was in this single track where i had my next problem, we were flying in the single track trying to get away from the teams we had been pulling when i hit a bump and had a huge crash... i hit the ground really hard, luckily i never broke myself or the bike. I jumped up got back on the bike and chased hard, again catching my brother.
We rode the final km's extremely hard and managed to still finish in the top 20 teams and held onto our 13th place overall.
It was an amazing 3 days of racing at the Sani2c and was once again an extremely good job done by the Sani2c team and Farmer Glen. A truly world class event...
A big thanks must also go to Dave Harrington from Ultimo and to the Subaru team for giving us the opportunity to race this great race.
My brother Justin and I were sponsored an entry for the 2011 Sani2c by Subaru and we raced as the Subaru Suunto Cebe team.
Justin had just come off racing Joburg2c so we knew he would have the endurance, especially for day two the 100km day.
Day 1
As was to be expected in Underburg in May...it was freezing! probably about 2 degs when we woke up and think it got to around 8 when we were standing on the start line at 7am.
The race kicked of behind the lead car for the first few km's and the pace was full gas! We rode in the lead bunch till we hit the first set of dual single track where things got seriously fast as the top teams attacked to try make a break. Once out the other side of the track things started to regroup and we got into group consisting of the Garmin, Thule and BMC teams. We rode in the group for awhile till all three teams got away from us in the single track, it was slippery and i was not having a good time there. Once out of the slippery track and onto the district rode we chased hard and managed to catch and pass team Thule in the final 2km finishing in 14th place in a time of 3h3mins, 3mins down on team BMC and team Garmin...a very good first day of racing!
Of cause we then indulged in all Sani2c has to offer, from the endless food, the endless Milk and Juice, the Chill Zone's with free beer, the massage tent, the Itec connect zone with free internet....plus a whole lot more! One other really nice extra was the USN team handing out an Epic Pro sachet (to top 50), Recover Max (rest of field) plus a USN tornado shaker to all the finishers, real big up to USN for that!
Day 2
This is the big day, and the one that worried me a little. It started off as always with a furious pace, i felt i did well to get into the single track just behind the lead bunch as we started the decent into the great Umkomas Valley. Unfortunately i was lacking confidence and dropped off the back of the bunch and got left behind by my brother too, it was going to be a big chase once i hit the bottom of the valley, which it was. The chasing took it's toll on me and i very quickly started to suffer, luckily my brother was feeling super strong so i sat his wheel and he literally pulled me for around 70km... in the final km's we managed to catch a few teams as they started to suffer after the long day.
We finally crossed the line after the gruelling 100km's in 11th place, an awesome result and all thanks to Justin as he rode so strong the whole stage!
Our 11th place and great time of 4h20mins put us into 13th place overall.
Day 3 and the final day
This day is always super super fast day and it starts off with a down hill and straight into single track in the first 2km. Justin and I had a bad start and found ourselves fairly far back in the bunch, i felt good and pushed hard over taking riders till i was in amongst the top 12 teams. Unfortunately doing all the work on day 2 had obviously taken it's toll on Justin as he was quite a way back still and i was forced to sit up and wait for him. Quite a few teams passed me as i waited for Justin to catch up, when he did i could see he was battling and it was now going to be my turn to do the pulling. I sat on the front and worked for around 20km's, but much to my disgust i was just pulling 3 other teams to the finish line and they were not even willing to help, obviously roadies... I then had my first problem, a piece of sugar cane leaf rapped around my cassette forcing me to stop, and i shouted to Justin to carry on going. I pulled it all out and started to chase again, when i caught him i again when to the front and started pull the bunch. We rode really hard through Vernon Crooks nature reserve and the into the Jeep/single track that lead us down to Sea level. It was in this single track where i had my next problem, we were flying in the single track trying to get away from the teams we had been pulling when i hit a bump and had a huge crash... i hit the ground really hard, luckily i never broke myself or the bike. I jumped up got back on the bike and chased hard, again catching my brother.
We rode the final km's extremely hard and managed to still finish in the top 20 teams and held onto our 13th place overall.
It was an amazing 3 days of racing at the Sani2c and was once again an extremely good job done by the Sani2c team and Farmer Glen. A truly world class event...
A big thanks must also go to Dave Harrington from Ultimo and to the Subaru team for giving us the opportunity to race this great race.
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
Big5 MTB Weekend
This past weekend was the start of the Big5 series in Zululand up the North Coast of KZN.
For the first year this year they started off the series with an Expo to show case cycling brands and brands around the Zululand area.
I was invited up to the Expo which i was very happy about and decided to go there with three brands, Merida, USN and BuzzRack. Rodney Fowler from BuzzRack came down for the weekend which was a huge help.
The Expo was a good success and a nice idea, and i'm sure it will grow from strength to strength each year.
At the expo they had a small sprint shoot out style race which i decided to give a go! It was a 2,2km circuit consisting of urban and off road track. Tyronne white had set the fastest time so far and it was fast so it would be a serious sprint! Sean Merredew then went and beat Tyronne's time by a mere two seconds making it even more of an ask. I then had my turn on the circuit and raced it with Sean on his second go at the record! There is not much to say other than that it was a flat out sprint from start to finish, and unfortunately i was not able to crack the fastest time and came in with the third fastest time 10 seconds down, non the less it was great fun!
On the Sunday was the first of the Big5 series races, the Zini classic help in Mtunzini just 40km south of Richards bay. The event this year was held on the Mtunzini golf course which was a really great venue.
The 50km race started just after 9am and already the temperature was soaring...we were in for a hot day on the bike.
The race started on a steep tar down hill into the Mtunzini estate, we were led down the hill by a lead motor bike and as we hit the dirt it pulled off and let us free to race.
The pace in the beginning was mellow as no one wanted to come to the front leaving myself and Tyronne White to set the pace for the first 4km till we the hit the first climb. Ty went hard on the climb trying to break up the bunch which he succeeded in doing and myself, Dave Leiman and Jeremey Tompson were the only one's to hang on. Ty then went hard again at the top and Leiman got on his wheel and i was slightly behind with Tompson. I pushed hard to try and stay in contact with Ty and Leiman but i wasn't able to, although i kept the gap at around 500meters till around the 20km when i slowed the pace slightly to recover. I was then caught by one of the Zululand cycles riders and i sat his wheel as he tried to go past...i hung on and once recovered i attacked and opened up a gap between him and myself.
I continued to chase hard and try to limit the time between myself and the two leaders, i then entered the awesome single track layed out for us and quickly forgot about the chase to enjoy the reason i ride MTB in the first place.
I ended up crossing the line in 3rd place, 7min down on Tyronne and 2mins down on Leiman. Over all i was happy with my race and my result and the legs felt good...just in time for Sani2c which starts this Thursday morning.
Overall it was a great weekend.
A very huge Thank you has to go to Zululand Cycles and especially the Dalton family who really made me feel welcome in their part of the world and went out of their way for me.
I would also like to thank Shane and Daryl Webster for accommodating me and putting on a great event!
I will definitely be back to Zululand for the next events.
For the first year this year they started off the series with an Expo to show case cycling brands and brands around the Zululand area.
I was invited up to the Expo which i was very happy about and decided to go there with three brands, Merida, USN and BuzzRack. Rodney Fowler from BuzzRack came down for the weekend which was a huge help.
The Expo was a good success and a nice idea, and i'm sure it will grow from strength to strength each year.
At the expo they had a small sprint shoot out style race which i decided to give a go! It was a 2,2km circuit consisting of urban and off road track. Tyronne white had set the fastest time so far and it was fast so it would be a serious sprint! Sean Merredew then went and beat Tyronne's time by a mere two seconds making it even more of an ask. I then had my turn on the circuit and raced it with Sean on his second go at the record! There is not much to say other than that it was a flat out sprint from start to finish, and unfortunately i was not able to crack the fastest time and came in with the third fastest time 10 seconds down, non the less it was great fun!
On the Sunday was the first of the Big5 series races, the Zini classic help in Mtunzini just 40km south of Richards bay. The event this year was held on the Mtunzini golf course which was a really great venue.
The 50km race started just after 9am and already the temperature was soaring...we were in for a hot day on the bike.
The race started on a steep tar down hill into the Mtunzini estate, we were led down the hill by a lead motor bike and as we hit the dirt it pulled off and let us free to race.
The pace in the beginning was mellow as no one wanted to come to the front leaving myself and Tyronne White to set the pace for the first 4km till we the hit the first climb. Ty went hard on the climb trying to break up the bunch which he succeeded in doing and myself, Dave Leiman and Jeremey Tompson were the only one's to hang on. Ty then went hard again at the top and Leiman got on his wheel and i was slightly behind with Tompson. I pushed hard to try and stay in contact with Ty and Leiman but i wasn't able to, although i kept the gap at around 500meters till around the 20km when i slowed the pace slightly to recover. I was then caught by one of the Zululand cycles riders and i sat his wheel as he tried to go past...i hung on and once recovered i attacked and opened up a gap between him and myself.
I continued to chase hard and try to limit the time between myself and the two leaders, i then entered the awesome single track layed out for us and quickly forgot about the chase to enjoy the reason i ride MTB in the first place.
I ended up crossing the line in 3rd place, 7min down on Tyronne and 2mins down on Leiman. Over all i was happy with my race and my result and the legs felt good...just in time for Sani2c which starts this Thursday morning.
Overall it was a great weekend.
A very huge Thank you has to go to Zululand Cycles and especially the Dalton family who really made me feel welcome in their part of the world and went out of their way for me.
I would also like to thank Shane and Daryl Webster for accommodating me and putting on a great event!
I will definitely be back to Zululand for the next events.
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Tour Durban Road Race
Tour Durban road race took place today.
I was given the opportunity to race for the Marty's cycles Top Club, which was really great as it gave me the chance to race in the Pro/Elite bunch.
The race started at 6:15 at the Moses Mabida stadium and headed out through town, along umbilo road and then up the M7. The M7 is where it got really tough as the Top Teams tried to break the bunch and split things up, they succeeded in this as we shed quite a few riders off near the top as we crested the climb into Pinetown. Then it was down the M19, this got a bit hectic as we hit about 86km down the hill which i'm not that used to being a mountain biker. I managed to hang in and made the bottom of the climb with the bunch.
It was then on to the M4 where the pace picked up as the attacks went one after the other, we hit the turn around point and everyone sat up as the riders collected drinks from the team cars. Once all was settled things got hot again and the teams started to set themselves up for what was surely going to come down to a bunch sprint. We turned into the stadium for the finish and the sprint went, not being anything of a sprinter i managed 16th and 2nd Sub Vet...
Really happy with my result in a National Road Race, especially being a mountain biker.
Well the legs are now super tired after the weekend's racing, but lucky for me tomorrow is my anniversary and myself and my wife have got a really nice relaxing day planned!
Next week i'm back to more serious training...
I was given the opportunity to race for the Marty's cycles Top Club, which was really great as it gave me the chance to race in the Pro/Elite bunch.
The race started at 6:15 at the Moses Mabida stadium and headed out through town, along umbilo road and then up the M7. The M7 is where it got really tough as the Top Teams tried to break the bunch and split things up, they succeeded in this as we shed quite a few riders off near the top as we crested the climb into Pinetown. Then it was down the M19, this got a bit hectic as we hit about 86km down the hill which i'm not that used to being a mountain biker. I managed to hang in and made the bottom of the climb with the bunch.
It was then on to the M4 where the pace picked up as the attacks went one after the other, we hit the turn around point and everyone sat up as the riders collected drinks from the team cars. Once all was settled things got hot again and the teams started to set themselves up for what was surely going to come down to a bunch sprint. We turned into the stadium for the finish and the sprint went, not being anything of a sprinter i managed 16th and 2nd Sub Vet...
Really happy with my result in a National Road Race, especially being a mountain biker.
Well the legs are now super tired after the weekend's racing, but lucky for me tomorrow is my anniversary and myself and my wife have got a really nice relaxing day planned!
Next week i'm back to more serious training...
Saturday, 30 April 2011
Tour Durban MTB
Tour Durban weekend...
Well last night i decided to go and support the guys racing the Crit race around the Gateway Boulevard. It was a really good event and well supported. The racing was fast and was great to watch the guys do their thing!
Today was the Tour Durban MTB race and i decided to give it a go and shake up the legs before tomorrows 125km road event.
The race started and finished on the Gateway Boulevard and took us out into the cane fields around the Umhlanga area. A great new course was built for this years event and the guys really did a good job providing us with a good race route.Unfortunately the marshals on the route extremely poor and caused havoc out on the course.
We set off from the start, winding through some of the surronding streets of Gateway before heading into some nice newly cut single track, through a school grounds and off into the cane fields. The racing was super fast with a lot of fast district roads in the first half of the race, but eventually when we hit the first climbs the attacks went and a group of 4 riders went free. They were Rouke Crouser, Brendan Davids, Ty White and Andrew Hill...I found myself in a group of 4 riders chasing down the leaders, the 4 of us rode hard to limit the loss to the front bunch.
Over the last 3km of the race i rode a hard tempo to try to break my group of 4 down by the time we hit the line. It came down to a sprint between myself and one of the ASG road riders and unfortunately he managed to get half a wheel in front of mine. But this is where we realised the problem, the front 4 riders that we had been chasing down were not even at the finish... They had taken a wrong turn out on the course, finally getting a lift back to the course and then making their way to the finish!
There was obviously now a lot of confusion at the finish and the decision was finally made to award those 4 with the first 4 places...in my eyes not the fairest decision I've ever seen made and certainly not following any sort of rules, never mind UCI rules...but hey, guess that's how life goes!
In the end i was awarded 1st Sub Vet in a time of 1h32min and i think 6th over all, not even sure about this as i don't think anyone really knew what was going on.
Tomorrow is the Tour Durban road race and I'm racing for the Marty's Cycles Top Club, in the Cat 1 race. It should be a good race and hopefully i have the legs to hang in to the end. At least there shouldn't be any riders taking a wrong turn out there.
Well last night i decided to go and support the guys racing the Crit race around the Gateway Boulevard. It was a really good event and well supported. The racing was fast and was great to watch the guys do their thing!
Today was the Tour Durban MTB race and i decided to give it a go and shake up the legs before tomorrows 125km road event.
The race started and finished on the Gateway Boulevard and took us out into the cane fields around the Umhlanga area. A great new course was built for this years event and the guys really did a good job providing us with a good race route.Unfortunately the marshals on the route extremely poor and caused havoc out on the course.
We set off from the start, winding through some of the surronding streets of Gateway before heading into some nice newly cut single track, through a school grounds and off into the cane fields. The racing was super fast with a lot of fast district roads in the first half of the race, but eventually when we hit the first climbs the attacks went and a group of 4 riders went free. They were Rouke Crouser, Brendan Davids, Ty White and Andrew Hill...I found myself in a group of 4 riders chasing down the leaders, the 4 of us rode hard to limit the loss to the front bunch.
Over the last 3km of the race i rode a hard tempo to try to break my group of 4 down by the time we hit the line. It came down to a sprint between myself and one of the ASG road riders and unfortunately he managed to get half a wheel in front of mine. But this is where we realised the problem, the front 4 riders that we had been chasing down were not even at the finish... They had taken a wrong turn out on the course, finally getting a lift back to the course and then making their way to the finish!
There was obviously now a lot of confusion at the finish and the decision was finally made to award those 4 with the first 4 places...in my eyes not the fairest decision I've ever seen made and certainly not following any sort of rules, never mind UCI rules...but hey, guess that's how life goes!
In the end i was awarded 1st Sub Vet in a time of 1h32min and i think 6th over all, not even sure about this as i don't think anyone really knew what was going on.
Tomorrow is the Tour Durban road race and I'm racing for the Marty's Cycles Top Club, in the Cat 1 race. It should be a good race and hopefully i have the legs to hang in to the end. At least there shouldn't be any riders taking a wrong turn out there.
Monday, 25 April 2011
Easter weekend
Well Easter weekend has come and gone in the blink of an eye...
I at least managed to get in some good miles this weekend. friday i did a good 130km on the road bike with two mates Wayne and Lee. Was a good ride with apparently a bit of TT to Ballito, with a quick breakfast and then a nice steady ride home.
Saturday we hit the dirt, i love these days as i get to put he Merida 96 through it's paces...love it! We rode out in the back of Illovo on some fun but wet trails. After the ride we shot up to PMB to check out some real MTB at the World Cup, what an afternoon of racing...was amazing to see. Unfortunately our main man Burry had a bad day in the office and suffered with carshes (which he seldom does) and technical problems.
Easter Sunday i took super easy and bearly moved of the couch, besides a little walk on the beach.
Today (Monday) i rode the Tour Durban route with the Marty's cycles bunch. Was awesome to ride the route before next weekends race, which is going to be crazy!
Well as i mentioned next weekend is the Tour Durban, I'm racing in the Cat1 on Sunday's road race and am going to give the MTB race a good go on Saturday... Going to need some good legs this weekend!
Well that's it from me.
I at least managed to get in some good miles this weekend. friday i did a good 130km on the road bike with two mates Wayne and Lee. Was a good ride with apparently a bit of TT to Ballito, with a quick breakfast and then a nice steady ride home.
Saturday we hit the dirt, i love these days as i get to put he Merida 96 through it's paces...love it! We rode out in the back of Illovo on some fun but wet trails. After the ride we shot up to PMB to check out some real MTB at the World Cup, what an afternoon of racing...was amazing to see. Unfortunately our main man Burry had a bad day in the office and suffered with carshes (which he seldom does) and technical problems.
Easter Sunday i took super easy and bearly moved of the couch, besides a little walk on the beach.
Today (Monday) i rode the Tour Durban route with the Marty's cycles bunch. Was awesome to ride the route before next weekends race, which is going to be crazy!
Well as i mentioned next weekend is the Tour Durban, I'm racing in the Cat1 on Sunday's road race and am going to give the MTB race a good go on Saturday... Going to need some good legs this weekend!
Well that's it from me.
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