Mud and Guts
A star studded field appeared in Underberg for the what was to be one of the most challenging Sani2C yet...
Alban Lakata (ex World Marathon Champ) teamed up with Kevin Evans to form a formiddable team - they set a high tempo from the start leaving no doubt that they were here to do business!
Its now a week later and looking back, the conditions were probably on a par with the 2006 event - it rained heavily on the days preceding the event and the riders on the "Sani2C Adventure" event (which took place the day before the RACE event)churned up the ground to form a challenging course. It certainly tested all of us.
The race is as hard as the competition... and there was loads of that - many of the top teams are on form, especially at this time of year. Its just a few weeks until the Cape Epic so all of the Pro's are peaking. Max Knox and Brandon Stewart made a speedy return to form after being really off colour at SA marathon champs, they made life difficult for the Lakata/Evans duo but couldn't match the class of the champs.
Themba put the hurt into me on a couple of stages... actually on every stage! Our Zula's performed faultlessly - its great having a reliable machine that you just spray the mud off of. After a hard days racing, its great to relax knowing that your bike is robust and reliable... and not have to spend the day servicing a multitude of pivots or looking for cracks in the creaking carbon frame! :-)
Our reception at Scottburgh was awesome - Andre and Rich from Morewood were at the finish line with Cath, Caycee and Themba's dad Ken Leiman. I definitely raced a little harder than the previous stages in attempt to impress my loyal fans! We finished 9th overall.
JT had a really solid race and continued to impress everyone with his skills, muscling the "Kwela" (Morewood hardtail) through a tough course. Nice one JT !
Monday, March 15, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
KZN Cup #2 - Mountain View
Jislaaik!
Hot hot hot. We have been having some crazy weather lately - racing in this kind of heat takes some skill to keep dehydration and heat stroke at bay yet still ride at a respectable pace!
The DCM boys were flying this weekend - Brandon and Rourke put in a solid attack on lap 1 (of 9) to stay ahead the entire race.
Andrew Warr (Spider), Andrew Hill (Mountain Man), Carl Calverly and myself had a lekker ding dong. It was lekker throwing the bike around with the okes - KZN racing is fun. We are really lucky to have our own "Swiss Power Cup" here in Natal! The juniors were crushing it too... great to see such a deep local talent pool emerging. A little birdie told me that we may have the World Cup back in PMB in 2011 !? :-)
Brandon won the Elites, myself second and Carl 3rd.
Teammate Jeremy Thompson (JT) won the vets by a convincing 3 min - good job JT !
Julian Jessop - team Thule - came 2nd in the Sub Juniors
Thomas Jessop - team Thule - won the Sprogs
A great weekend by the Thule-Morewood team. Well done guys!
Photo credits to Darren Goddard of Force12Photography
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
KZN Cup #1 Stainbank
Stainbank Nature reserve was an awesome setting for the first leg of provincial XC racing... I managed to bag my first win for 2010. Andrew Warr rode in his typical attacking style but couldn't hold on - he went off the front with Themba on the 3rd lap and i had to chase hard to reel them in.
Well done to JT for kicking some butt and coming in 2nd in his debut XC race (Veteran category). Respect.
Themba (Dave Leiman) is riding like a madman to come in 3rd. We are going to have a great Sani2C this year, sky is the limit man! :-)
Photo credit: Grant Dekker
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