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

Xterra Shongweni 2006

From Xlbracing

Clearly, I need to still do some serious work on my swim coming out 7 minutes behind the leaders cut my work out for me on the bike leg. Chasing hard, I managed to climb to 9th place, but it was to be short lived. Toward the end of the first lap of the 2 loop course, I double flatted! Dejavu (sp!??) last year in Richards bay, i had exactly the same problem. So, I rode into the transition zone where athletes are allowed assistance so that i could get a second tube and pump. Eventually, I got back on the bike and got back up to 8th by the end of the leg.

The run course was the best I have experienced at an Xterra event anywhere, it was gnarly and included a 700m section in a tunnel and numerous climbs and technical trails. Naaaaais!

Mudman series

To all of my loyal supporters: THANKS FOR WAITING !

Everytime I get reports from my website hit counter i feel bad - people are visiting my site but it never gets updated .... well here is some news - at last!



I won the Aquelle Mudman offroad triathlon series. The series consisted of 4 events held over the first few months of the year. I was doing them in order to condition and train for the Xterra series but they ended up giving me more exposure than the Xterra! Thanks to all of the organisers and people who made the series happen.

Cheers for the next 6 months ! :)

Xterra Witklip

Rain once again greeted us for the 3rd leg of the SA Xterra series.

Result: 2nd overall

Witklip dam is really scenic, unfortunately the organisers changed the bike course at the last minute saying that it was "too muddy" for the competitors !!?? This definitely weighed against the people with better technical skills - the new course was just open fire roads with the occasional slippery patch.

The swim put me 4 min off the leader and I only managed to bike into second place, 1min 30s behind. Pure speed was the order of the day for the run leg. Nothing challenging or interesting at all for the atletes, it was basically a road run.

Well, I am really looking forward to the final event at Grabouw. Hopefully the organisers use some of the awesome terrain and singletrack in the course like they did last year!