The past couple of weeks has been quite
eventful for the Pycycling gang! The action started last weekend with Amy
winning the Single Speed World Champs and earning herself the famous tattoo
“trophy” but she will tell us all about it in a separate insert.
To start with last weekend several of our
riders packed in their camping gear and headed down to the Isuzu 3 Towers stage
race. There were 2 events over the 3 days, firstly the race where there were 2
days of 80km racing and then the Challenge which the first 2 days were 40km
stages but both ending with a 50km day 3.
I teamed up with Arno for our 2nd
stage race together with a goal of top 5 overall. This event is fairly
technical which we felt suited us well. The organizers put huge effort into
building and maintaining amazing trails around the area which is a great test
for both man and machine. During this event one is forever diving into some
amazing little bush tunnel or a beautiful piece of forest single track and I
was thankful for Rudy Project glasses being photo chromatic so I could see
perfectly in this ever changing environment. What they also have at their
disposal are climbs – kilometers and kilometers worth!!! Somehow I managed to
forget about these from the past but after day 1 I was reminded of what was
really going to make the racing.
We rode nice and steady throughout the 3
days and kept very consistent but just lacked the punch to truly mix it with
the top guys. We finished 5th behind Gawie and Phillip which we felt
was a pretty good effort. Have to say that our USN supplements did their job
and I am always so grateful that they have such a wide range to rely on to get
us through all the phases of mtb racing!
Our other members had some great success as
well and I was very proud of our elite ladies Angie and Petru who were doing
their first ever stage race and managed a very creditable 3rd place
overall. Then our junior mixed team of Marcel and Jessica (@slab) finished 2nd
in the Challenge which was also a fantastic effort! Vet racer Francios led his
team mate through the mountains for a fantastic 3rd in cat. And our
“dads” team finished their first ever stage race making their own personal goal
which was exciting to see!
Other parts of the country we had Catherine
Colyn getting a double podium down in the cape at the Engen Dynamic Cycle
Challenge on both the mtb and road race. She won both of her events as well as
a very high overall finish position. We have been seeing a steady improvement
from her this season which has been very exciting!
Amy headed to Voriberg where she took 1st
lady and 4th overall showing again her good form!
Then Yolande after being selected only a
few weeks ago to race in the World Marathon Champs giving her very limited
preparation time headed over to France with the S.A. team to have some fun in
the mud!! She did fantastically finishing 13th in the world (only 1
place off her pb) proving that she still is a huge force to recon with both in
xco as well as xcm! It was a relief to me to hear that despite the mud her GT
Zaskar ran perfectly and the Conti X-Kings kept her upright which is always
first prize! I think Yolande and I can be very crateful for our CycleOps
Powertaps so we could really put in some much focused training making the very
most of our time to get into some great shape!
We are super proud of every ones
performances this past weekend and look forward to a lot of exciting racing to
come!
Next weekend we will have a few of our
riders down at the Crater Cruise as well as Neville and Yolande will be racing
at the Cape Pioneer Trek and wish them all the best of luck!!
Till then keep the rubber side down!
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