This one is always fun! The pace was fast and furious for the first lap (2 lap race). I got switched into a Mud hole 5k into the race and picked up some foliage, nearly taking Dave out in the process. I also did my bit to sweep the course for the riders behind me by carrying a pile of fern leaves hanging from my pedal for a few km!
Guys were all over the place - its easy to overcook the corners when you can't really see whats coming up! Equipment makes a world of difference - theres big advantage to having a good lighting system.
After lap 1, Dave and I came through the Start/Finish together just ahead of Oliver Munnik. Oli chased hard to catch us on the drag up to the first singletrac. Thats when my light mount broke. No worries, I switched on my 'backup' helmet light, but that lasted 5 min. Eish. So Oliver and Dave dropped me in the technical stuff. I brushed through a really soft looking bush ... it turned out to be a tree with a big hard sawn off branch in the middle of it. Ouch. At least the war wounds look cool.
Dave dropped Oli on the final climb, so it was a 3rd and 5th for Fullimput - not a bad start to the festival ! Nice one Themba! (that's dave's nickname... actually his second name).
Cross Country
I woke up on Saturday feeling drained and with flu symptoms and heavy gastro. So I put all the pressure onto Dave to fly the Fullimput banner! He played the wise option of tapping back on the XC, saving himself for the sprint shootout. Barry Hulett, the course designer did an amazing job - loads of flowing singletrac and enough technical stuff to take a couple of victims out there :) Nice one Baz. This is my favourite XC course in Natal, for sure! (I practiced it the week before the race).
Sprint Shootout
Its a tough game. Brandon got eliminated when he burped his rear tyre. Renay snapped his chain. The final was really exciting! Dave got switched into the side of the bridge, forcing him to stop which lost enough time to get him eliminated. Johan van Zyl flew the GT flag high to claim victory in the event - nice one MR.49% !!
75km Classic
The big one. Every year the course gets better. The locals put a helluva lot of effort into making it fun and challenging. This years course was even better than last and is undoubtably the finest marathon course on the South African circuit.
Mr 49% went out hard to claim the Hotspot, setting a hard pace for the rest of us! Mannie was on his wheel with a chase group of 6 of us. On Lebanon, Mr African (Heymans) put the hammer down showing his class to take the KOM and stay away till the line. I fell off the chase group, the pace was just too hot. Dave joined me. Riding the conservative race definitely paid off - I caught JP Pearton at the airstrip (about 25km from finish), Mark Bass 15km later and then Brandon about 3km from the line. Johan took a wrong turn, following the motorbike instead of the course markings which cost him 5th place. So its a 3rd place for XLB ! Super stoked to be on the podium at Karkloof again! Melt rode a solid race to come 2nd. Dave rode a solid race to come in 7th. Lekker.
