Wartburg Illovo Classic - Alan Hatherly

A race for training and with plenty of hopes that the weather would be dry on the day, that thankfully came through. I had entered for the 45km due to that being the race for my category, which was not a bad thing since I had done this race the previous year so I had a rough idea of what the course was like.

An early start to the day with my race beginning at 8am, I was really excited for the race to start so I could ride some of the awesome single track that Wartburg had to offer. We were off and I started fairly far back, but with a slow start I made my way to the front quite quickly and after sitting with a few riders for about 1km I rode away and went solo from there out. The first 15km of the course were really fun being fairly flat and with some really fun flowing dry single track, with had no traffic yet. At about 18km the real tough part of the course began, being in the bottom of a valley, we had to climb out and they definitely chose a hard way to get out. I started to hit the 62km A batch traffic now, so I was constantly overtaking. Thankfully by the top of about an 8km climb I had gotten past most of the riders, and what was really tough was the hill called "Zig Zag". It was over 16% at places and it felt like it would never end, passing people here was easy because most of them were walking! Going over the top of this dragged out climb was really awesome and made the climb way worth it. It was steeper single track with a few powdery sections where I could really have fun on my Pinarello. After coming out this single track and taking a High5 gel quickly, it gave me that extra boost just to get me to the finish line still feeling good. In the last 8km's of the race there were up to triple single tracks which was really awesome being traffic free and also fun for people to race each other trough the twisty single track's. Soon I was near the rail way line at the finish and it was a short ride home to my first 45km overall win of the season! I managed to improve my race time from the previous year by 10minutes beating the track record.

It was such an awesome, well organised race and I'll definitely be there again next year!

Giba Gorge XCO - Alan Hatherly

After a hard week of training and a long heat wave, I felt pretty excited to go check out and have some fun on the XCO course for the 2nd KZN round to be held on Saturday. The course was really awesome with plenty climbing, around 190m of climbing per lap but what goes up must go down and the descents were awesome. The course was a bit loose, which I enjoyed and with a few really cool jumps it made it a lot of fun.

The amount of laps we were supposed to do got reduced to 4 laps, but the heat on the day was crazy making the course even tougher. My race was at 11am, so we all lined up with elites first, u23's second, juniors third and youth riders fourth, meaning I was one group from the back of the field. The start was a mess with a rider falling over causing a bunch up and chaos. I managed to get going again now quite far back, so I was on the chase. Up the first hill I got myself into about 13th overall and remained there until the course opened up again, which was the second major hill of the course, and with a giant effort I closed down the gap and got to the leading group. I was now in fourth, with the group pulling a gap on the rest of the field.

During the second lap, Travis and Rourke put in an attack and I dropped off to about 30 seconds behind,  I took a High5 energy gel and the chase was on. On my third lap I put the pressure on and by the end of the lap I had caught up to the leading two riders, Rourke and Travis. On my final lap Rourke picked up the pace leaving just me and him out in front to set the pace. My race came to an end with completing my four laps, still finishing on Rourke's wheel with me and him getting the fastest lap time of the day.
I won my category, Junior's by around 4 minutes! Thanks to everyone for the support out there and to Cameron Wareing and Jade for feeding.

It was a really awesome race and I look forward to racing there again!

Asg night race and MTN National Dullstroom

As always teammate Kyle wood and I were very excited about the asg night race , it is always fun and helps remind me why l took up the sport to start with. On the start line we decided not to go too hard because of the first leg of the mtn national mtb series taking place two days later. We put in a hard team effort in the start and we were soon of the front with one other rider . Kyle and I managed first and second in the end. With this behind us I started to focus on my preparation for the national half marathon in Dullstroom.

Saturday morning everyone were filling their pockets with high 5 energy gels and knowing that the route will be very muddy we were drowning our chains with squirt lube at the epic sports cycle shop tech zone. On the start line I was dead keen to start racing the wait felt like a life time. When we got going I wasn't in the front but on the first hill I caught up with the two leaders we rode a hard but steady pace and soon it was only myself and another rider the kilometers flew by very quickly, the singletracks were very muddy I was very grateful for my continental X king tyre helping me to keep the rubber side down. I lost focus for a few seconds and didn't notice the rider getting away this meant that I was back to chasing. The chasing continued all the way to the finish line where I finished 20 seconds behind the first placed rider. I feel that I still have a lot of room for improvement and I'm looking forward to the hard work ahead,  This was my first podium on a national race, and I'm hungry for more !

Jacques

A tough muddy affair at Dullstroom–MTN National MTB Series

It was a very early wake up call, my family and I had to leave Centurion at 3am for Dullstroom.  We arrived to a very beautiful misty morning with friendly marshals’ directing everyone to the venue.   Riding around the venue for a bit of a warm up on the chilly misty morning I felt calm and confidentabout the seemingly though 77km route. 

After all the interviews and race briefing they sent us on our way. The start was very easy, everyone getting the blood flowing through their legs. I felt good enough to go sit in the front of the group up the first few kicks.

 

About 4km into the race team mate Arno decided it's time, he put in a good acceleration, only Jan and Stuart could go with, this left the big group from the start scattered all over the place. After around 3km everybody settled in. We hit a big district road, JP and I found our self’s alone behind the leading group. Making turns at the front we made good progress slowly catching up to the leaders. Going up a very slippery MUDDY climb to the first proper single track of the day we had to dodge some of the back markers of the ultra, riding the continental x-king on the front and race king on the back I could easily pedal through the slippery stuff. We got to the single track, now this was proper slippery, snaking through the trail everything went smoothly until I had to pass a back marker, I made a stupid pilot error and jammed my front wheel into a hole, I got up very quickly out of the very thick, sticky black mud and off I was chasing down the Westvaal man. I turned up a steep single track climb, the words of my coach, Paul, went running through my head, :" use your arms and not only your legs". The climb was over quite quick, I stopped at the top for a second or two just to straighten my bars from the mud dive in the single track at the bottom. I started descending down to the first tech point, there I put on some of the white gold Squirt lube. After the tech zone it was pretty flat and fast to the final big climb of the day. I got to the climb, funny that there was a lot of walking going on up there, following coaches orders I yanked on the bars the whole way up the steep climb. At the top I put on some more Squirt lube for a smooth ride to the finish. The concrete downhill was dirty fast. On my way to the last single track I was almost pulled off my bike by the race organizer, they had to re-route us because of a swarm of bees being a threat to the riders. With some energy left in the tank I gave everything the last 6km.

Covered with mud from head to toes I ended up rolling through the line 10th overall and 3rd in the U/23 category, my first national podium.  It was a tough muddy day on the bike but overall happy with my performance.

Edwill
 

Kicking off the season:

After a couple of weeks off the bike with no real structured training it was time to regain focus and start putting some serious effort into our pre-season base preparation. About two weeks ago, mentors Paul and Yolande, decided we should break away to the Lowveld for some quality training time with the a[s]g PYCycling gang, just before the year takes off in full force.

Training camp in and around the Mankele area was a great break away for all of us and a chance to think about and discuss the challenges ahead and most importantly to get some proper training done. It’s always a great help if you can surround yourself with positive people, all focused and willing to motivate each other.

We arrived back in the city just in time for the first race of the season. Of course I have to defend my USN Cup series title this year so I needed a good result, but more importantly I wanted it to be a good leg stretch and lung burner before African Continental Champs this coming weekend.On the bike side we are really privileged to have our Pinarello Dogma XC's equipped with some Powertap hubs on stiff and lightweight Ritchey wheel sets and the always faithful Continental tires. With the help of Epic Sports sorting out my stallion all that was left for me was to go out and turn those Crank Brother pedals over as fast as I could.

It was good to see some proper talent on the start line, especially a guy called Max Knox. However being surrounded by a group of fluo Rudy Project helmets with encouraging comments made me very excited to kick off the 2014 season on a high. Must admit I had no real plan, but about 5km into the race I put in a big effort hoping to split the group and to see who I should keep an eye on. As I looked back a bit further on I noticed a substantial gap had opened and I was off the front by myself.

To be honest at first I didn't think I could maintain that, but a while later, Coach Paul standing in the veld somewhere, shouted a time gap and I suddenly realised I was gaining ground and that it might be possible to stay clear. From there on I kept my head down, topped up the tank with some High5 nutrition and forced myself not to look back. In the end it paid off and I managed to take my first win of the season.

In general I was surprised with my form this early on, but also realised that there is still plenty of room for improvement and I’m looking forward to a good season with a great bunch of people.

Till next weekend!
Arno

USN Cup #1, the first race of the season

I knew that this race would be a challenging and very tactical race like usual because of the flat terrain and endless single track. Knowing the terrain I fitted my bike with the grippy continental X king tyre in the front and the fast rolling race king at the back.

On the start line I took a High5 energy gel to help me stay fuelled throughout the race. I saw some familiar faces on the start line but I was confident that I could take the win. Straight from the start I immediately went to the front of the bunch to avoid congestion, crashing and losing speed. I tried to make the racing hard before we hit all the traffic from the slower riders for the other distances. It gave me a bit of confidence and encouragement when I saw some good power and low heart rate on my CycleOps, this meant that I could go even harder.

Still early on in the race and when I was still pushing hard at the front Murphy snuck in with a technical issue from my drive-train forcing me off my bike.  This was very disappointing and I knew that it would be very hard to chase back to the leading riders after losing a lot of places and being stuck behind tale markers in the single-tracks. The kilometers flew by very quickly and I couldn't catch up with fast enough while negotiating the traffic.

I learned a lot from this race and I hope not to make the same mistakes again in the future. Physically I feel very strong and I'm ready for a proper and exciting season of racing in the colours of Asg-PYcycling with support from Epic Sport cycle shop and a lot of other great brands.

I hope to see you all at the first leg of the MTN national series :)

Jacques Pretorius

A Step Into 2014 With New Colours

A long drive up to Epic Sports to collect my new gear to get me going for 2014 but to arrive to the site of my Pinarello Dogma XC all kitted out for me made the wait to get there way worth it! The hardest part of collecting my ASG colours and gear was doing the Ergo Fit set up in my kit and then not being able to leave the shop and RIDE. However the trip back flew by because of the excitement of the whole new set up. It felt like a late Christmas!

Friday morning was an early start because the idea of waiting to ride didn't seem right, so I did a quick spin and then did some minor tweaks just to make the ride perfect. Later I was off to the KZN XCO track at Hammersdale to see what the track was looking like for the next days race. 

It looked really good with a few open flat sections, some awesome single track and a steep long hill at the back of the course! I also got to experiment with some High5 nutrition to find the right performance booster for me. I felt ready and at home getting onto the Pinarello which gave me some extra confidence for the race.

Luckily I woke up to overcast weather which had a promise of holding out but everything was soaked, I knew I was racing later in the day which meant the track should of dried out a little by then. It did and the weather held out perfectly. After getting all kitted up in the lumo gear, I climbed onto my bike and started my warm up, feeling quite good and ready to go.

We all lined up a while later on the steep incline, then we were off and the rotor Q ring helped me get a fast start and to the front of the group from the back. A very fast 1^st lap but I was in 4^th overall behind the top U23’s and elites in KZN. The lighting changed a lot during the course which was where my Rudy Project photochromic lenses assisted me with vision. It was a case of buckle up and flat out. The course turned out very brutal with the back climb being so steep and 6 laps of the course became quite a challenge but luckily I had some High5 Isogels to boost me up and get me to the line still in 4^th overall and 1^st Junior. My Pinarello made me fly around the track with its aggressive style for descending and its super stiff design made the climbs feel easier. It's the perfect combination with the 29er wheels!  

I felt it was a good start to my 2014 season, just a few more tweaks and African XCO Champs here I come! Hope to see you there!