It was almost a week after Bridge Cape Pioneer before I pedalled
my GT again, joining @PCordesracing for our usual Friday coffee ride to Bicccs
and losening up my legs for the final @USNSA MTB Cup to be held the following
day.
@USNSA
MTB Cup #5 Red Barn
I felt the familiar feeling of post stage racing legs when after a
fast start of the 50km marathon my legs seemed to 'miss-fire' and I felt like I
was pedalling with the brakes on.
Amy having had a late start cruised past me on her new little bike
with big wheels as if I was standing still and having no answer I took in some
Vooma Gel to kick start my engine. Fortunately this and a stern talking to
myself did the trick and I was now able to chase hard keeping smooth through
the new single-track sections and hoping to make back some time.
It was only enough to hold on for 2nd but happily not too far off
the pace. Congrats Amy for taking the win!
Thanks @USNSA for such a well organised and super fun marathon
series on our door step! I look forward to taking part in it again next year.
Nissan
Trailseeker #5 Hakahana
Another week, a revitalising sports massage from @DimensionSport
and I was ready to take on the last Nissan Trailseeker for the year.
This was held at a new venue, Hakahana and I must commend
Advendurance and the trail organisers on a fantastic route with great technical
single-track, super steep climbs and lots of potential for the future!
Sadly Theressa Ralph crashed out in the beginning kilometers
leaving myself and Yolandi Du Toit to battle it out for the win. I wish her
Simon and Sean a Speedy recovery!
Yolandi took the lead on the first climb and we had quite a cat
and mouse chase until the final technical 30kms where I managed to pull into
the lead. I crossed the line in 1st happy to take the win and that my legs were
finally feeling recovered.
Nissan
Trailseeker ladies podium oh and very bad tan!
Another great MTB Marathon series, thanks @mtbseries and
@advendurance! Keen to see what you have in store for us next year :)
W2W
2012
Another week of intended time off the bike changed to a pre-race
taper week as I prepared for my final event of the year, the 3 day Contego
Wines to Whales stage race.
This would be my first W2W and I was really looking forward to the
promise of all the single track and technical riding it had to offer as well as
my new partnership with Hanlie Booyens as the Momentum Specialised insurance
ladies team for the event.
Team
Momentun Specialised Insurance ladies
I left for Cape Town on Thursday arriving late afternoon after a
couple of flight delays, Hanlie collected me from the airport, we drove to
Lourensford and registered then drove to her house in Stellenbosch. I
reassembled my GT which @PCordesracing had carefully packed the night before
and did our final race preparation., With bags packed we loaded the car for the
mornings early start, had a good meal and discussed our race strategy which
went something like this: "Let's just ride to have fun without any expectations!"
and headed for bed.
Stage
1 - lourensford to Oak Valley 77km, 2300m asc
Now one thing we didn't factor into our race strategy is that we
are BOTH highly competitive. Bearing that in mind this is how our race
unfolded...
We lined up at the start with me on my GT Zaskar 29er and Hanlie
on her 26 Merida which she had recently converted to 27.5 and were excited to
get on our way.
After stressing that she would be the one under pressure from the
gun it was Hanlie that had to wait for me up the first long climb of the day.
Fortunately I soon rode off my 'travel' legs and we started to reel in the
riders up ahead.
We passed Cherise and Mariske having stopped to sort out a slight
technical problem and I was sure they would be back on our tails soon enough.
We settled into a hard but steady pace and heading up the 2nd big
climb we had Ischen and Catherine in our sights, game on...
Passing them on the next flat section where they had stopped to
fix a side wall cut it was hard to believe we were now leading the race. We
stopped at the 2nd water point to quickly fill our bottles and raced on.
Hanlie set a good pace on the single track climb up Hans se kop
and soon we were cruising down some of the most amazing new single-track and our
nirvana only interrupted for a few short sections where we were held up by a
few slower riders.
Gantouw
Pass portage
Reaching the compulsory portage over Gantouws Pass where we
alternated between carrying and pushing our bikes up the steep, rocky climb! I
had to keep Hanlie in check as despite strict instructions from her Physio that
she was not allowed to run due to her knee op she insisted on breaking into a
'high cadence walk'
Big
Dipper over Eikenhof Dam
Gratefully getting back on our bikes and with a nice lead we
settled back into our steady pace enjoying the section over the Big Dipper
wooden bridge on Eikenhof dam and crossing the finish line very happy to take
the win and with a 9:24 minute lead on Bizhub's Ischen and Catherine and
23:15minutes on Contego's Mariske and Cherise.
Now we knew there was no turning back, we were in this race and
needed to focus properly on our recovery for the next day.
After replenishing our initial thirst in the rehydration tent we
quickly sprayed down our bikes, collected our bags and found our tents. We pulled
out our pre-packed shower bags (you can tell we are old hats in this game), had
our recovery drinks my @USNSA Recovermax going down well, showered, headed to
the lunch tent where we were impressed to see a good healthy spread laid out by
Food Lovers market and Fair Cape.Afterwards we went for our massage and apart
from a short interruption to give our race machines some TLC and prepping our
chains with Squirt spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing on our mattresses
along with most of the campsite.
Dinner was good and prize giving entertaining with Paul Valstar
providing us with some comic relief and funny stories of the day.
Race
village for the 2 nights as I found out after packing
my
bags the morning before stage 2 #blondemoment !!
Stage
2 - Oak Valley to Oak Valley 65km, 1175m asc
The start led riders along kms of gravel roads with short power
climbs allowing the bunch to split up before going into the first single-track.
We pushed hard sticking with Team Contego and Bizhub also trying
to stick to the front of the group so we could get into the single track first.
This clearly being everyone's strategy made for a super hard and fast pace.
Finally reaching the single-track we thought the pace would slack
off a bit but it was too smooth and flowing so felt like everyone was going
full gas. We rode together with Contego having formed a slight gap on Bizhub
and after about 10kms we decided to drop our pace a bit and let Contego take
the lead. Shortly after this and with them still in our sights I took a corner
onto a gravel road too fast, almost saved it but then hooked my bar on some
bushes and before I knew what hit me was lying on the ground disconnected from
my bike. Fortunately the crash looked worse than it felt and after Hanlie found
my glasses and I had 'reassembled' my helmet as best I could we were on our way
chasing Bizhub who had passed us in the process.
We caught and passed them but they were hot on our tail and
although we thoroughly enjoyed the amazing single-track through Lebanon we could
not relax for a second. We spent the remainder of the race sandwiched between
Contego who we were slowly gaining on and Bizhub chasing from behind.
We crossed the line just over a minute behind Contego and just
under 2min ahead of Bizhub admittedly feeling the hard days racing!
The remainder of our day closely resembled the previous as we
spent it getting in as much recovery as possible.
Stage
3 - Oak Valley to OnRus campsite 76km, 1338m asc
With 22minutes lead over Contego and 11:14 on Bizhub we lined up
at the start for the final stage.
The start was crazy fast and after sticking with Contego for the
first few kilometres we decided to rather settle into a slightly more
comfortable pace, let the youngsters go and ride together with Bizhub who would
be working hard to hold onto their 2nd place.
Although mostly downhill for the first 45kms we often found
ourselves together with Bizhub fighting a crazy strong headwind.
After stopping to fill our bottles at water point 2 we pulled
ahead of Bizhub and stretched our lead to the finish giving everything we had
left on the last climb and enjoying the last 10kms of flowing downhill single
track and onto the final stretch of wooden pallets along the beach.
Crossing the finish line we were super happy to take the overall
win having thoroughly enjoyed the 3 days of racing!! Ischen and catherine held
on to their 2nd place, Mariske and Cherise wining the last stage and taking 3rd
overall.
Overall
women's podium W2W
Thanks so much to Hanlie for an awesome partnership and great 3
days of racing!
To Rikus and Momentum Specialised Insurance for sponsoring our
entry
And all my sponsors @EpicCycleShop #GT @USNSA @CycleOps_jhb
@asg_PYCycling Squirt Continental Giro Rudy Project making it possible for me
to race on such a competitive level
This was my last race for the year so that's all for 2012, looking
forward to an exciting 2013 season!
Till then,
Yolande
