Pommie Madness - off season XC running

The brits are crazy.

"You head out of the training grounds [military site] through a short forest section and after a couple of kays, you will come across some ice. Don't worry - its only an inch thick and the water is waist deep. We broke through it yesterday with pics and shovels so you will be able to get through. Then you head up ..." Warmly wrapped in his Barbour jacket and wellies, this race organizer didn't seem too concerned that it was 0.5 degrees and snowing!

"Whatever", I thought - typical race organizer trying to hype the event up. Sure enough after 2km, we came across a muddy puddle of ice / sludge. Some fancy footwork around the edges, grasp at a few trees - all good, my shoes are still dry. Nice one! Getting into my stride again, we came around the next bend to this :



"B-loot-e Elle" I thought... but before even having time to chicken out the race leader charged into the Ice Lake promptly falling over and grasping for the only thing which offered a slight bit of traction... the plastic barrier tape ! EPIC.

The race continued in and out of another 3 ice lakes and finally went through some seriously undulating (ie so steep not even "the caveman" would run up them) and then over and over and over and over the "Iraq Desert" sand dunes.



Respect to British Trail running - this was hands down (literally) the best running I have ever done. Great fun! The race organizers certainly lived up to their description of "muddy, gritty and downright knackering." Well done Cat, Ang and Grant on organizing and conquering this broodal run with me - respect! All this snow talk is making me thirsty ... time for a pint of British Tea !

Sani2C 2010

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 !

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

Barberton 75km

Well Done DAVE!!

Winner of the 75km Barberton Classic.... respect.

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

Cape Pioneer Trek

When I saw the images of the route on the CPT website , it was too much to resist. Sure, according to traditional periodisation and old school training regimen, you should be resting at this time of year... but this year has been a bit different for me. And sometimes you just have to follow your heart ! Besides - we do it for the love of biking man ! Who can resist riding in such splendour !??

I rode with Donovan "Powerhouse" Jackson. If you were born anytime in the 70's or earlier, you will recall a clothing brand with a Gym addict, musclebound Bulldog cartoon character as its logo. The brand was "Powerhouse", and that's clearly the image that comes to mind when you see his riding style. He just doesn't let go. Vasbyt, tenacity... call it what you will - this guy just has it in abundance!

The stages were typically 100km long with 2000m of climbing. It was incredible terrain - really rough in parts but totally worth the effort it takes to get up into those fold mountains. "Dankie Katot!"


We had a good battle with the "Memory Foundation" team of Pro's Johnny Kritzinger and Erik Kleynhans... they took the first couple of stages but we managed to counter them with 2 stage wins (after many hard attacks).

Christoph Sauser and Bobby Behan of Specialized added some real colour and humour to the event - they sure know how to party too!

I hope to be back next year... any mtber who has travelled through the spectacular Cape mountain ranges and gone "I wonder if there are any trails up there... ?" has to do this race. Katot Meyer is clearly a sadist, but he took us into some untouched majestic country that few people have ever been privileged to enjoy (!?). Make no mistake, this race was physically very demanding and we took 28.5hours to complete the event's 6 stages but this is an event that will really blow your mind!

Africa Continental Champs (Mankele)

Mankele certainly raised the bar for XC courses in South Africa - the guys there are doing an awesome job of making permanent trails. The course changed a bit since our National earlier in the year becoming slightly shorter and more technical.

Last time I raced on my Morewood prototype hardtail and this time on the new Full-Sus. Jislaaik what a difference! The bike is so supple, it just eats the bumps up - you can drive the corners hard and brake late - there is just no way you could flow like that on a hard tail... it just wouldn't be possible.

My form has been down a bit and I managed a 6th place. So why was I slower than earler in the season?? Definitely NOT the bike! Here are the excuses... maybe you can use them one day too !!! Hehehe! The season started in January and racing was intense all the way up to the European World Cups in May. Its just not possible to hold form all year (unless you are superhuman :-) ... being pro would also help a bit !) So I think its a good idea to take a bit of a break mid season, build up again and hit the end of the year firing on all 2 cranks (!??) - well, thats the plan anyway!

After the racing, they announced the National Squad for World Champs in Canberra, Australia - I cracked the nod - super stoked - its gonna be a blast!

Giba Gorge Birthday Race

Giba gorge is a brilliant mtb park, situated just outside Pinetown - loads of fun singletrack - check out my sportstracker file

James Reid (Mr Price/Scott) is riding like a demon and finished 1st, Davie 2nd and me 3rd.

Duzi Mfula Day 2

Aaaaah bringing home the bacon :-) One of the highlights of the day was crossing this steel pipe bridge crossing over the stinky Duzi river. Check this image taken with my Nokia N79 - quite a nifty little piece of technology!

Duzi Mfula 2009

Check this http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/workoutdetail/index.do?id=1099514">link to my race stats from the Duzi Mfula. I used my new Nokia N79 mobile phone - its quite a nifty little gadget with built in GPS, Heart Rate monitor, 5MP Camera - its the leatherman of mobile devices ideal for the sports enthusiast!

Themba (Dave Leiman) rode like a king today and had to drag me through the last 10 km - thanks bro ! :-)

SA National XC Pretoria

Bad luck strikes again!

Tire problems seemed to be the flavour of the day for lots of riders, myself included - I paid special attention to getting a tire that would work on this course. Its quite tight forcing you to use a lightweight tire but the rocky nature of the trail also means that you have to use something with a strong carcass. So its all about compromise - as always, performance comes at a price.

The stakes were high with just a couple of points separating Marc Bassingthwaite, Brandon Stewart, Renay Goustra and Craig Paul - the SA title would come down to the last of the 5 race series. No pressure!!!

The race started out well, I settled into the racing for the first couple of laps then started pushing the pace up a bit, dropping Marc and Philip(Garmin) to take the lead. Then i burped my tire, and again ... and again - forcing me to slow down on the technical stuff to avoid pinch flatting. Marc started clawing back and passed me just into lap 6. I stopped to bomb my wheel, losing around 1min30 sec ... On the last lap, I managed to catch back slightly but not enough! Thats the way it goes.

Marc rode a solid race and deserves to have a good win - he had technical issues at the World Cup and his form is good... its just a pity that a Namibian wins the SA XC Cup ! :-) Good work Bass. But watch out next year! hehehe!

KKC ... KarKloof Classic

Awesome showdown. These timber/dairy farmers know how to put on an event. Everything ran super smooth. All of the courses were perfectly marked and prepped ... each year it just keeps on getting better.

Burry cleaned up in the Sprint Shootout and cracked Kevin Evans in the last km's of the classic to take home the bacon.

I managed to take the XC race... Brandon Stewart made it tough work for me though! The legs did take a bit of extra time to warm up on the classic as a result. Pete Smith managed to take 5th overall in the classic amongst a star studded field, placing in amongst the full time pro's - nice work brother! Dave had a solid ride to finish top 15, I came 8th.

Shale is riding like a machine - 8th in the ladies - way to go sis! Respect!

Houffalize World Cup

They say that Houffalize is the Grandfather event in the World Cup - it is definitely the most exciting WC that I have been to! The crowd is insane! It is said that cycling in Belgium has more supporters than football - well, i can believe it! Spectators were 4 deep on the main climbs, the atmosphere was electric... if you ever have to choose a European event to spectate, i can recommend this one!! The Belgians even know how to braai :-)

Preparation for Houffalize WC #3

Much better! Its been an interesting week for me in Europe – day after Offenberg, I took a relaxed recovery spin and caught up with Michael Broderick and Mary Mc from USA ... we did a yoga session in the birch woods and drank some freshly ground coffee :-) aaah, the simple pleasures!

I then headed back out to Tom's place (old german friend) near Stuttgart to catch up with him and his youngster Luke who is a real character and a typical 2.5 year old! It was good to chill out there, the weather was KAK but I still managed a 3hr ride in the rain... GPS is a wonderful thing when you are in another country! Tom suggested a route and I took to the hills donning a rain jacket and GPS... its awesome to just go exploring trails without worrying about not finding your way home... especially when the sun is in the wrong hemisphere!

Mad Tom took me for a flip in his YAK 52 – an old aerobatic plane... its a good thing I know him otherwise I would have been kakking in my broek... we arrive at the hangar and the engine cowlings are off. Tom puts on his work jacket, out with the pliers, hammer and takes to fixing the engine! At this point, its good to know some of Tom's history – he has flown down through africa from Europe in his Antonov WW2 cargo plane... TWICE ! So he should know what he is doing with the engine covers off.... hopefully!!

Unfortunately there are no pics of our flight – tried to take some before takeoff but they were severely blurred due to engine vibration (or shaking terrified hand!). I thought that I had a strong stomach... before I got into a stunt plane! We pulled 4G's through the bottom of a loop, flew inverted, couple of loops, Axle roll (he flew 2 of them and I flew the other 1 !!) It was all good until about 10 min into the session, you know when you feel flushed and get all hot? Even when its 5 degrees C ? Yip, one of those. I don't know how those jet fighter pilots do it... evidently you get used to it.


Then it was off to Houffalize... sans booked accommodation :-) The accommodation online was either super expensive or full – so it was better to just wing it when I got there... Things worked out in the end – after a lot of searching and asking around, I found a Guest House about 15km out of town with some Dutch speaking hosts. There are 9 kids running around and the little 1 year old has a cold – so its all fun and games! Lots of action and laughter with the kids – speaking zulu and entertaining them... I even had a conversation with the one kid in Chinese !!??!?!!

On the racing side, I did a practice lap with Burry on Friday – he is looking strong, Todd is sick so I think he is a little concerned that he is going to catch it too.... but so far so good. It was lekker to catch up and ride with our local WC superstar!

Today, I did one loop with Hannes Metzler, then managed to shadow Absalon for a lap – its a real privilege to ride amongst these guys – hopefully more South Africans will get inspired to greater heights and come and join in the action! Houffalize is a crazy place – the town is in a valley and the course weaves up and down, in and out cobbled streets, along the river and its pretty technical too. Usually it rains for Houffalize but this year it looks like we are going to have fine weather, Murphy's law now that I have bought a set of mud tires ! :-(

Anyway, its time to hit the hay... life is good here in Belgium – check out my Yoga spot... somewhere near Houffalize !

The course...

You can't see how steep it really is ... photos always lie! It was techy. Seeeyriaas.

Ortenberg Castle Youth Hostel

This must be the coolest youth hostel in the world! Every year they have over 20 000 people stay. There was a brass band staying there on the weekend and their Oompah Ooompah's were echoing throughout the castle, it was quite medieval !!



Rapunzel offered to sew my number onto my shirt... unfortunately I couldn't get her to pose next to the sewing machine as her underarm hair blocked the view out the window!

Offenberg World Cup

World Cup #2

Jislaaik. The pace was HOT HOT HOT! Totally different course to PMB – short power climbs with technical descents and big drops, rooted climbs and just “VOL GASS” (german for FLAT OUT!) all the time. There wasn't really anywhere to feed on the course – if you weren't climbing singletrac, you were descending. There were about 200 starters... I got a start position of 56th and planned on staying there for the first 2 laps and then attacking (don't tell Absalon my tactics... its a secret ;-) ). Um, no. Sorry, no legs today! I just went backwards the whole race – on the 3rd lap, I took a mocha gu to try and give me a bit of a kick but it did nothing!!


Burry had an awesome race finishing 1st under 23 and 5th overall – the awards ceremony was amazing with big screens and the vibe out on the course was incredible. They were expecting 20 000 spectators and there were all of that – Zuper Gut !

Chini's Secret trail !

  Cale and Pete at the top of the "Lung Buster" Its downhill from here... well, almost!
 











The view out over "Horse Gulch", Durango is in the next valley.
 
 

Dry Fork Trail

 
Somewhere on the Colorado trail near "Dry fork"... tell me this isn't fun!!??

Moab Link

Hey guys, check out http://addictedtobicycles.blogspot.com/ and see what my trusty support dog LG had to say... gives you an idea of the wind ! Out.