Crater Cruise - Arno du Toit

After some awesome riding and a fun-filled weekend at Mankele with the Epic Sports wolf pack, it was time to start planning for the big dash for cash, the final leg of the 2012 MTN and Nissan National series, Crater Cruise.

Marcel Marais and I decided to go on a roadtrip via Ficksburg, my home town, on Wednesday and then leave for Parys Friday morning with our bikes, a tent, a kettle and a box of oats.

As we arrived the weather suddenly changed and it was soon cold, wet and really windy. Just then Marcel realised that he didn't pack any tent pegs. So after sorting out our entries and searching for a outdoor shop to buy pegs (which we still haven't found), an old tannie at a fishing store could sort of help us, but we still had to pitch our tent in the rain. I'm sure there's no better way to kick off a weekend.

Saturday morning in the start chute for the 106km ultra marathon I had flashbacks of my first day in high school, jitte! The best of the best in South African cycling was there ready to dish out a lot of pain. It was no time to be scared though, so I put on my big boy pants and went all in. Unfortunately I could only mix it up with the big guns for the first 40km or so. At the halfway mark I was in a group with Gawie Combrink, Jacques Rossouw, Dave Morrison and a few other riders, just hanging on to the top 15 at that stage.

The rest of my race was really nothing to get excited about. After hitting the wall a few times and having to dig really deep just to reach the finish line, I ended up in 26th place. Not quite the result I was hoping for.

After completely losing my sense of humour on the ultra, I wasn't really eager for the half marathon on Sunday. Once again beer solved the problem...

Three minutes before start time I snuck into the tail end of a batch, still not convinced that I actually wanted to whack it with the juniors. I soon noticed Fritz was taking this very seriously and as the neutral zone ended I launched a proper attack on the tar road. Luckily I didn't really get away!

The real brake came at about 20km. We smashed it down a loose, rocky descent, and once again the Conti tires were bulletproof! I found myself in the lead group amongst six or seven others, all contributing to the pace-making.

Things started to heat up as we flew past the last waterpoint. I noticed a couple of passengers as we approached the final stages of the race. Ryan Gibbons attacked with about 2km to go and the two of us opened a small gap to the rest of the group. I waited for the perfect moment, took a big sip of Cytopower and then rode past him to take the win. Also a great effort by young Dylan Rebello taking 3rd. For me the victory was bitter-sweet. I never managed to win this event as a junior, some elite always spoiled it and this time round I ended up doing the same. Sorry!

Well done to the other PYCycling athletes, Marcel and Edwill both finishing in the top 10 junior men.

Till next time.

Cheers

Arno