Legend Gorge, bike safety and Qhubeka by pc

Legend Gorge July 2011

We just got back home from a great weekend away with some of our MTN/Qhubeka team-mates but before I give you a race update here is a quick filler from the past week:

Awareness Ride Centurion @ Epic Sports

Firstly the Cycle Safety Awareness Ride took place from our shop at Doringkloof Mall on Saturday and was a huge success. This ride was to help create awareness about bicycle safety especially due to all the bike hijackings; accidents etc that have been taking place in recent times. This is such a good initiative and it was amazing to see how many mountain bikers turned out (around the 200 mark I believe).  Thanks to Epic Sports Cycle Shop club member Mr John Williams for all of his efforts with the press as well as Anton Bosman for spearheading this initiative. The idea of these rides is to say that we are taking back our cycling areas and show the mountain bikers how to cycle in groups for safety, things to look for and warning signs as well as to show the public that mountain biking is here to stay. Another big thanks is to the Helivac Marshals (also one of our sponsors of MTN/Qhubeka) who marshaled the event and kept the road and railway crossings safe for all. You can follow Helivac Marshals and Cycling Safety on both facebook as well as twitter. Very exciting!

Another fantastic initiative that has just been launched is that of Qhubeka. The best way I can describe this is for you to go check out their website: www.Qhubeka.org (there is a link on our page as well). In brief there is a few ways you can get involved with this but the gist of it is: kids grow trees and earn themselves and their communities bikes mobilizing them both and giving themselves a more productive lifestyle! How does this affect you? Well if you migrate/buy a Qhubeka contract you contribute to this initiate as well as receive other benefits like specials on BlackBerry packages – win/win!! Go take a peak.

Anyway, back to me (-;. Last couple of weeks training has gone really well and it feels like I am going to make it through winter for a change in good shape and ready for the second half of the year! Last Friday we loaded up the Team and headed north to the Legend Gorge classic! We were lucky enough to get a special invite from Advendurance and Legend Gorge Lodge and got thoroughly spoilt! We were treated to fantastic meals as well as 5star accommodation shadowed by the magnificent Waterberg Mountains! Well the mountain looked stunning right up to the point where the race markers directed us up the gorge its self! The 15km or so before that was rather rapid where some of the big wheels set a hot pace through the sand and rocks but when the trail turned upwards all playing came to an end! Now I was asked in my post race interview how to describe this climb and honestly this is not easy to do. The fact of it is that it is close to a 3km climb at a gradient of around 45deg! This basically meant that besides the usual lactic acid and straining for breath that I was in my utmost granny gear, DT Swiss fork dropped and locked out, standing over the bars so that the front wheel wouldn’t lift , could hear the moaning of my Conti’s biting into the cement and still all of my dashboard warning lights were flashing!!

Now this race is straight through big 5 territory (mid pack was stopped for around 50min due to elephants) but at kilo 2 up this climb I was starting to think that getting mauled by a heard of buffalo would actually help ease some of the pain. Anyway I made it up the whole climb without having to test my duathlon skills but a little behind Max Knox and team mate Adrien Niyonshuti. Once on top of the escarpment I found good rhythm and was careful not to make any mistakes on some very rocky and tricky sections through the reserve. Now what goes up must come down and we got to go down the same gorge and I’m quite sure a lot of riders could smell their brakes melting! Once back at the bottom we had a sandy loop around the amazing golf course which includes an extreme 19^th hole. This hole you tee of at the top of the mountain (get there via helicopter) to the green down at the bottom which is shaped like Africa. Having a quick peak up at this I know that if I ever hit anything off there no one would ever find it again! Anyway I kept up good speed all the way to the finish and was thankful that my legs are starting to feel quite good. I finished up 3^rd 21sec behind Adrien with Max taking another classy win.

This was a great weekend away and I’m sure it will grow to be a premier event within the next few years. Well done to all the organizers as well as Advendurance for another good event. Next year we will definitely keep Legend Gorge on the program!

Next week we will be racing the Nissan series Teak Place then Adrien and I will be off to London for a week to give him some fine pre-Olympic course training. 

Remember if anyone is keen on mtb group rides please contact the shop as we cater for all levels of rider and would love to have you with!

Till next time, rubber side down! PC