Paul's Blog on Sabie

We loaded up and headed down to Sabie last weekend for what was the 3^rd round of the MTN marathon series as well as South Africas first time to host a UCI ultra marathon event. This just meant that the stakes were going to be higher and above the normal local competition (which is already quite serious) there was going to be a multitude of international competition as well!

The whole Epic Sports gang took over the backbackers which made for an amazing vibe for the weekend as well as for the first time we hosted two neutral tech zones on route as well as a hospitality area at the finish which obviously meant a lot more admin but was a great feeling to have a more hands on approach to a sport that has given us so much pleasure through the years!

Now no one doubts the difficulty of ultra marathons but those who do it probably end up doubting their own sanity somewhere along the line. 75km of hard racing is always a good challenge but then to have to ride straight past the finish line and take off into the mountains for another 40km at almost 40deg I must say took some doing!!

It was great that I somehow managed got to get a top 20 call up to the line which was a fantastic honor and unexpected considering how my cycling has been going the last little while. This was also however one of the last times that I saw the top guys as they vanished up the mountains in front of me at a blistering pace! I tried to keep steady and not stress too much which paid off because I slowly started catching a few “victims” which at least brought some respite for all the effort that had to be put in.

In the end I was pleased to drag myself in 22nd position amongst an international field at what had to be one of the most challenging routes I have done in a while. The Sabie team did a great job to offer a lot of route variation as well as some top class trail preparation, markings, marshaling and water points. Hydration was key to such a long event and this was even more apparent when one scans the long dnf list. This is where just water alone is not enough but a proper supplement can make the difference between finishing or not. Chat to your local bike shop if you have any queries with this regard because it could make a big difference to the quality of your cycling.

Next weekend Yolande and I turn back to XCO racing and travel down to the Momentum XCO series #2 at Karkloof as a part of her preparations for the World Cup a couple weeks later in Pietermaritzberg. Much more intensity and tight racing conditions are expected and the good news is that it should take less than 6hrs to complete (-;

Till then, keep the rubber side down!