4 DAYS – 4 STAGES - 4O0 CLIMBS –UN4GETABLE -MEMORIES 4 EVER! LOWVELD QUEST STAGE RACE - Edwill O'Neill

STAGE 1  -  LYDENBURG – MANKELE   : 83km- 1814m ascent

HOW TOUGH WILL IT BE?

The weather was great, the 164 riders were enthusiastic!! With all the adrenaline rushing through our bodies Marcel and I were anxious to get going.  As a team we decided that Stage 1 will be an observation stage just to see who the strong teams were.  We left Lydenburg High School in front of a huge cheering crowd of school kids. Our legs warmed up on the tar neutral zone. The leading motorbike moved out of the way giving us the sign to start racing. 3km into the stage it was clear who the strong teams were, among them were myself and Marcel (TEAM - asg py-cycling), Hennie Kriek and Taygan Robson and Max Knox and Ben Melt Swanepoel. The first 10km was fun with a lot of single track, as soon as we hit the first district road the legs of the more experienced riders kicked in and they started opening up a gap on us and each other. We kept our own pace steady not trying to use up any unnecessary energy as it was the first of 4 days.  We knew we were being chased by the other teams, we went a little bit harder towards the end, taking turns to pull each other, we flew up the last short climb. We finished in Mankhele with a 2 minute gap over the 4^th place team.  We were stocked with our 3^rd overall on the day.

STAGE 2  -  MANKELE - SABIE  : 70.7km -2059m ascent : 

WET, WET,WET!

The rain had started at about 2am and our worst nightmare had been realised. The 4:30 wake up was cold, wet and dark. But after a good breakfast we were ready to take on day 2.  According to the route profile day 2 was to be the toughest day and it sure was for us. We started with the intention to increase our lead of 2 minutes. 2km into the stage we got our first taste of blood, sweat and tears, we hit a climb named “the sting” we put our heads down and kept pedalling hard up the hill, we were in 3^rd again behind Hennie and Taygan. The 2059 ascent was really draining and was eating away the last of our energy reserves. The climbing ended at 45km, at this stage we were soaking wet and full of mud. The down hills were slippery and very doggy and being wet and very cold didn’t make the last 20km very easy. We entered the last single track heading to Marry Pebbles. We had no choice but to take it easy through the slippery narrow tracks. We managed to increase our lead by a small 40 seconds on the 4^th and 5^th  teams. Marcel tweeted that afternoon, “ Today was definitely among my top 5 of one of the toughest days I’ve ever had on the bike”.   

Nature had the last laugh!

ROUTE PROFILE : STAGE 2

STAGE 3  -  SABIE – GRASKOP  :  58,2km  – 2106 ascent

SURVIVAL!

Because stage 2 was tough and we felt a bit tender we made the decision not to go as hard as the previous day.  According to the route profile day 3 was made up out of steep climbs.

 It was cold and misty when we rolled out of Marry Pebbles. Once the lead vehicle pulled off the racing commenced furiously. Marcel and I stayed with the chasing group up the first long climb. The group started to lean out and before we knew it was us and the team of Lourens Beeslaar and Juan Gibson sticking together at a comfortable speed.  Trying to save my legs for the last bit of the stage I reckoned it was a good idea to spin a bit, I shifted down on the front derailleur but nothing happened, this made me worry because the short steep climbs were still to come. We finally reached the top of the first climb. We went down for a bit and Marcel took the opportunity to take a HIGH 5 gel, with both hands off the handle bar a wet rock caused him to lose his front wheel and take a tumble!!!!!! He was back on the bike in a flash with the gel still in his mouth………  Then the steep climbs started, I was suffering because of my gear problem. It was tricky single track climbs and my legs were starting to get tired of muscle tensioning up every steep climb and I started to fall off from the group. I was going into hurt locker. Marcel waited for me on one of the last steep climbs. I got to rest a bit and finally started to feel better.  We caught up to Lourens and Juan and decided to put in a hard effort 5km from the end to get away and opened a gap of 1 minute. We descended into the finish at Graskop, 4^th overall and 3^rd  senior men. On the bright side we managed to increase our gap and SURVIVE day 3.

STAGE 4  -  GRASKOP – HAZYVIEW  :  45,2km -  1006 ascent

DOWN HILL FROM HERE!

The final day, on paper this was going to be a downhill race to the finish. We started fast trying to get into the first single track in a decent position. We hit the first of the very short climbs, we found ourselves in second place and feeling strong. Flying through the awesome single track we got to the first compulsory portage section, here the trouble started, we soon found out that running with our bikes is not our fortè. The chasing teams caught up with us because running with our bikes was a whole new ball game. We tried to decrease the damage done by the portage section by trying to “klap it” down the slippery down hills. This was easier said than done.  Our legs started to feel flat after 3 days of racing, this was not applicable to Lourens and Juan that made mice of the 45km route. We knew we had a decent lead all we had to do was get to Hazyview in one piece and that was exactly what we did.

Very pleased with our 3^rd place overall and 2^nd senior men over the 4 days of hard racing and suffering at Lowveld Quest.

We have learnt a lot in this stage race,  it was an absolute brilliant experience and a great privilege racing with the big boys. We made many good friends during these 4 days. A huge thank you to all involved who made our trip to the Lowveld possible. 

Marcel was an unbelievable team mate, together we did it!!! 

EDWILL O’NEILL