Gravel Travel and road trip'n with MTN/Qhubeka by pc

Race ready

Hi all, last weekend I headed down with the rest of my MTN/Qhubeka team mates to the 6th leg of the MTN National Ultra-Marathon series and here is some of our weekends story: Firstly as far as the course, marking and organizing went it was probably one of the nicest events we have been to this year so hats off to the organizers! Diemersfontien is such a great venue for an event and also holds great memories for Yolande and I as this was where we started our pursuit of the 2010 ABSA Cape Epic title which is all but a bit of history now!

I had got in a good week of training but was coming off a course of anti-biotics which I was using to shake a bug from the previous weeks cold snap. I was feeling better every day so could only hope for the best and focus hard on the task at hand. We traveled down on the Thursday before leaving Epic Sports in pta at 5:30 and arriving in Wellington just after 22:00 which was a mammoth drive before a race (my sit-bones are actually bruised!) which I haven't had to do in many a year.  Think we were all thankful for our new BlackBerry 9780 phones and MTN/Qhubeka contracts which get us busy during the drive as sing-a-longs seem to be something of the past!

Warming up the tires

Friday we woke up to some nice rain which worked well for race day making the surface perfect for traction and ensured almost no dust.Charles met up with us at the accommodation after spending a couple weeks at home in Cape Town giving us a full team for a change. I managed to get in a good roller-spin to stretch out my legs and Andre did the finishing touches on the Volcans. After reading the pre-race report which made the course sound as though we were in for a rocky rough ride I decided to race on the dual suspension which was ultimately a bad decision as most of the route although filled with patches of single track was quite smooth. On Saturday the start was slightly delayed while we waited for the helicopter and tv crew. This will probably be worth it due to the terrain and the footage they would have been able to get from the air.

Final podium

We started up the same climb as we did in the Epic last year but thankfully the pace was not too hectic for the first couple km. However KOM came at 7.5km where Adrien took the honors and from there it was race on. I lost contact from the front group on the climb but managed to get back up to them again on the technical bits. However the climbing out matched the downs and after a steady but frustrating ride I finished in 12th overall. The Team however did really well and our plan worked out for the most part. Jacques rode a smart race sitting in near the back of the bunch for the first half and then made his presence felt on the big climb of the day. Kevin Evans got a tiny lead on him up one of the last climbs and held it to the finish with Jacques finishing in a fantastic 2nd overall. Adrien and Charles had a solid race and rode well together both staying with each other till the finish ending up in 7th and 8th respectively.

CK KO'd!!

Yolande had a nice day and a great return to racing.The pace of the ladies was quick up the first climb and I think it took her a few km to burn off the cobwebs. After the queen of the mountain where she was around 6th she started reeling them in until she took the lead just before the halfway mark. She stayed in front for a while but Ishcen made a good come back and reclaimed the lead and line honors. Excellent return for Yolande and pretty much what I had expected and predicted at this stage of her recovery. I probably won't need to tell you what I predict for her for Hilton!! Now we are bundled in the Crafter for our day trip back to Gauteng.

Some extra delay!

 Next week we will have a full team racing in my back yard; Cornwall Hill for the next leg of the Nissan series.

Till then, all the best, PC 

thanks Zoon Cronje for the pics