Imana Wild Ride - 2nd

Tyrone White partnered me on this unique pairs team event - he has excellent skill on the bike - we combined well to come within striking distance of the win on a couple of occasions. But it was not to be.

Days 1,2 and 3 were challenging and fun - a lot of playing catch-up for us, trying desparately to keep our tyres on the fastest sneaks.

Day 4 in the past has been quite a demanding day but this year, it all fell apart for us. We had tripped the route one month prior to the event and had virtually everyting in check but unfortunately, at the race briefing after day 3, the organisers changed the rules.

They took out a technical section by allowing "mcDonald's sneak" and then allowed everyone to do an additional "peleton shortcut" to cut out the previously compulsory "charles camp". Well, this put the nail in our coffin, Nick Floros and Pete Smith rode a good day, not putting a knobbly out of line to come out victorious. We rode into the bush a couple of times in search of the "new route", sorry for U-us !! Don't worry Nick, i think I found a new sneak on our wanderings !! HA HA - watch your wheel next year...

I had forgotten how much fun the Imana Wild Ride actually is - its certainly my favourite stage race. The navigation adds an interesting dimension to everything - you win some, you lose some. The guys that do their homework reap the rewards. Well done Nick - your knowledge can only be rivalled by your google-earth-wielding boss "farmer Glen", congratulations on a good race.

R

Jeep Msinsi - Albert Falls - win

Multicross is a new race format for the Msinsi series. Its an offroad duathlon. 5km run, 20km mtb, 2.5km run.

Tyronne White had a good race coming home in 2nd spot, Land Rover Gear - USN had an excellent day out. Iain don-Wauchope won the main event (run,ride,paddle) and Martin Dreyer was 2nd. Jeannie Bomford won the ladies category too. Pretty much a clean sweep for LRG. Well done team!

Tina did really well and was storming around the course in second place when she unintentionally only did one loop of the 2 loop bike course. Maybe next time we will get to the race briefing on time! Well done Tinski.

Duzi Mfula

Day 1 saw a chilly start to the 2nd Duzi Mfula stage race. The track takes in endless footpaths through the duzi valley, this is a unique mtb experience. Just watch out for route markers or you could find yourself in a kraal taking a closer than comfortable look at some Nguni cattle... or even worse a couple of "hunting" dogs... or if you are weary, maybe you are lucky to land up in a shebeen!!

Max Knox and Shan Wilson set a hot pace from the gun, the chase pack of 3 Land Rover Gear/USN teams ensued. The Mfula is a pairs race, Shaun Peschl, was my partner. Unfortunately, he had been sick with food poisoning and was a bit off colour for the first hour.

Shaun started settling into a good pace and we dropped the other guys in pursuit of Wilson and Knox, They took a wrong turn and we ended up chasing each other through the thorn trees in the valley around the 40k mark. Then Max's cleat on his shoe came loose, we had the gap and managed to put about 2 min between us. They chased back hard and at the Inanda Dam bridge were only about 30sec behind. That was the turning point. We put the hammer down hard. Shaun's diesel engine suddenly switched on the turbo charger, intercooler and supercharger simultaneously ! Showing his mettle as a stage racer, we rode solidly for the last 15km and managed to put 7 min into Knox and Wilson. My bike again went like a dream, check out the specs here.



Day 2

Today, it was up to K & W to make the moves, they certainly did. An easy start turned ugly at about 10km and the race was on. We made a wrong turn in our pursit but were fortunate enough not to lose too much time there. The TV motorbike blocked the entrance to a bridge for us, hats off to a very ambitious motorbike rider who was trying to get his 300kg, 650cc Paris-Dakar hunker motorbike over a 1m high concrete block, now thats what I call optimism!

We chased hard and managed to limit the damage to a 5 min gap. We lost the battle but won the war! Martin Dreyer and Jeannie Bomford punished the rest of the field on both days to take overall honours in the mixed category. Charl Keet and Tyrone White were very unfortunate to miss third position by mere seconds, well done on some hard racing.

Thanks to Jonsson for a great event. If there was one blemish on an outstanding race, it was that there was no prize money. It is tough to make it as a professional athlete and every bit helps. Thanks anyway for a superb race.

SA Champs - Pretoria

Every dog has his day.

Puncture on lap 2 cost me the race. I bombed my tubeless tire which actually held out, I wasn't sure if it would hold out for the race so decided to get my spare wheel in the tech zone. All the antics cost me around 1min30.

Kevin won the event, a mere 45sec ahead of me and Johan van Zyl snuck home in 2nd. Not a bad result for me, always nice to be on the podium at National Champs.

My new GT carbon i-drive goes like a bomb. Sucks up all the rocks and was awesome to race, such control - I think i am sold on full suspension!

Karkloof Classic

The form is coming back. I felt good out the gate, decided not to chase Pearton for the first sprint prime. Bad move in hindsight as I lost my edge after 20km. Falling off the pace, I passed Mannie over the top of Lebanon and rode steadily for the last 30km. The legs don't have enough racing in them yet but watch this space !

7th overall.

Karkloof Night Race - 20km

Broke my light whilst in the lead with Brandon and Kevin on my wheel. KAK. Finished 8th? with the help of some good 'ol duct tape.

Xterra SA - Grabouw

YES, ITS KICKING !

This weekend saw the biggest field yet decend upon the little western cape village of Grabouw. Nearly 600 athletes came to flex their muscles and strut their stuff at the final of the SA Xterra series - proof that we certainly have the interest and talent in our country to become a dominant force internationally in this exciting sport!

Note to self: " don't follow someone who is going in the wrong direction" !! The swim was an abortion for me, I decided to "cleverly" follow someone's feet and ended up in the middle of the dam. As Homer Simpson would say... "Dawup!" Anyways, that put me 6 minutes back at the end of the swim - the bike was always going to be tough but this made it even harder!

2007 saw the mtb course designer getting a bit soft - it definitely was not on a par with the previous years' courses but still remains one of the tougher mtb courses on the circuit. (buffelspoort takes the prize) I had a good ride managing to catch back to 3rd overall by the end of the first (+-24km) lap roughly 3 min clear of Anton and Kent in 4th and 5th. On the second 9km loop there was confusion with the marking and lots of athletes unintentionally cut the course. So Anton and Kent appeared on my heels heading out onto the run. JP van der Linde went from 9th to 14th position on the second bike loop without anyone overtaking him... go figure! Its unfortunate but kak happens. Hopefully they up the standard of marking for next year.

The run course was the same as last year and included a river crossing, fire road and a very short section of single track. Iain Don-Wauchope put in the fastest individual run split with an impressive 43:40 for the 12km track. Kent also clubbed it leaving Exelby cramping for death licking his wounds to round off the top 5 !

Well done to all the athletes who gave it stick out there on Saturday - it was great seeing so many people getting out there having fun in the Kaap. See you at next year's event - hope you got to sample some of the cape's finest produce whilst you were there!

Cheers, R