First Ascent Big Induna Ultra Marathon 2011

Last Friday morning bright and early I headed down to Cassa de Sol near Hazyview with my new team mate Jacques Van Rensberg for the Big Induna challenge. There we met up with Club 100 members who were having their annual lowveld training camp as well as a few of my other MTN/Qhubeka team mates. After a quick lunch we geared up and led the club for a nice “rolling” ride up towards Sabie and back which was a great way to meet a lot of the club members and talk a bit of shop and get involved in some fun cyclist banter. That evening we all had a nice dinner then turned in early as we all knew what was in store for us tomorrow!!!!

It was an early morning but I was very thankful for the weather as it was quite warm in Induna especially after the freezing cold that we came from in Gauteng. The field and overall attendance of the race was a little disappointing but keeping in mind that the event had a gap year last year I’m sure it will grow again in the near future. The pace was fair in the first 40km and I stayed near the front so not to lose time in the concertina effects of racing as well as not to get caught out in any of the numerous single or quad bike track sections scattered throughout the course.

After the first tech zone the race all of a sudden got serious and inevitably it was Max Knox who put in a huge surge up one of the biggest climbs of the day where there was only one rider managing  to mudflap behind him. I consolidated my pace and soon joined forces with Ben-Melt to set a steady tempo through the mid section of the lap to shake off all the other riders as well as bring back all but Max out front. I did go off course momentarily but was nothing too dramatic and didn’t really make any difference to my race (the next lap the marshals had kindly bunted off that turn (-;).

I came into the 78km tech zone in second together with HB Kruger and now with a slight gap to Ben-Melt who lost contact in the last couple kilometers. Up the next climb I felt good but still tried to keep a consistent pace and ride my race. This was enough to drop HB and open a nice gap until I hit a “dark” area. Double punctured both my legs, lost the music in my head and slipped into survival mode and had the passing of HB make me feel like that was the least of my worries. I hit back some sugar and thankfully just over 10km later I came out of my slump and was able to get back on the accelerator. It was too late to reconcile my earlier placing but I was still very pleased to finish 3^rd on the day and climb up on that podium! 5hrs23min, 2400m asc and 125km of great mountain biking in a very well organized event is probably more than anyone in our sport could ever ask for!!

I was very happy with my climbing and feel like I am riding well at the moment and the training has been going very well (in between being sick but I guess that is usual for Highveld winter). Next on the calendar will be a brief return to xc racing after a year away at Rietvlei Zoo farm then to Hazeldean for race1 of the Nissan series which I’m sure is going to be flat, fast and furious!!

Notable new products for the weekend were the new bottle cages from Elite which were fantastic! Big improvement thanks very much. I also rode a new full carbon saddle from Fizik which offered me a little more suspension which was great for 5.5hrs of hardtail racing!