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 !
