Crater Cruise 2011 - Its a numbers game!

Crater Cruise 2011 – It’s a numbers game!

Dirt road racing

This being the last race of the season for 2011 and on top of the usual bragging rights of winning this prestigious event there was a lot more at stake this weekend. After a year of fierce racing, immense pressure and pure uncertainty what we had for sure was this: Yolande despite the odds had won the series with one event to go and in the most impressive show of character Adrien was in a very outside position to take the men's overall title. However the catch was that he would have to win and his closest rival needed to place 4th or worse. So in short is was race on!!

Very dramatic

The most I could hope for was to stay as close as possible for as long as possible and always in eyesight especially while still stuck in a bunch situation to give assistance should it be required but I had with no doubt known that it would come down to him to finish it off and make a dream come true. I was surprised with my result and actually very pleased to finish off the season with this result and here is the reason why:

I stuck with the lead group through the first very fast gravel and single track sections and up the first climb where I normally in the past lost contact. However it was not until the next really bumpy section that I just slipped off the back. I pushed hard up the KOM and joined up with Jacques and another rider after the rocky downhill where we stayed together with only 2min off the leaders all the way till the last climb about 10km from the finish where I lost contact from the other two. 

The course this year was way bumpier than 2010. They also added an additional 2km grass ball climb where we used to just have a gravel road and the total distance was also 2km longer. Luckily it was a little cooler than previous years. I finished in a time of 3hr38min11sec exactly 18min32sec faster than my time last year. I have a max hr of around 190bpm and I had a 20min peak hr at 180bph, a 10min peak of 182 and a 5min of 185 in the race which I don’t think I’ve been able to do the entire year.

That tan just washed right off!

My finish time this year would have put me exactly 5sec behind the winning time of 2010 so would have been an amazing 2nd place only 1year ago and obviously by far my best result ever in this event. It is also the best I have felt on the bike in probably a year and a half, I was very grateful to have that feeling back bar that it is now the end of the year. So why now? 

Well I went back to my old set up as well as back to the trusty dual suspension. I made a different tire selection as well a suspension swap again. I also changed my training the last month and have done more quality not trying to chase the benchmark hours. I have also tried to isolate myself and get away from all the negativity and try and focus on why I do this and what makes me a faster cyclist as well as build on the fact that my training partner was back in the game and the energy coming from that as well as trying to motivate Adrien was helping me feel a lot better.

Good Pics - thanks Zoon Cronje

Well now back to the numbers: last year I finished 16th and 8 of those riders I beat this year. So this year with a completely improved result I finished a much better ……..16th. Therefore all I can say is that the quality of the field has improved a lot in the past year; hard to believe it is has been that much. The biggest improvement however has been the same as it has the whole year…..just 3inches. And who can argue with that, after all it is just science.

Thanks to MTN/Qhubeka and Doug Ryder for all the support the last 2 years as well as to Advendurance and all the effort they put into this 2011 MTN Marathon Series.