6 Day Mountain Bike Stage Race, 659km, 13500m
Stage 1, Oudtshoorn-Calitzdorp, 107km, 2161m
The first stage of a tour is always the most nervous and potentially most important in the race.
You also never sure what the legs will do and how the body will react. The route for the day was
fairly easy to begin with, besides the rough Karoo jeep tracks with many thorns to get through.
The racing began in earnest after the first water point when we headed into the ‘Red Stone Hills’
and old Cape Epic trails of past. Dave and I turned up the pace, the temperature turned itself up,
and soon the splits had formed. Up the long steep climb before the final climb, we had our gap,
and put in a big effort to capitalize on our lead and make the most of what we could.
We came in around 5min ahead of Melt Swanepoel and Nico Bell, Adrien Niyonshuti and Jacques
Janse van Rensburg finished in third place. Sauser and Knox had a series of errors, to cut a long
story short, which cost them 30minutes plus, a one-hour penalty.
Stage 2, Calitzdorp-Riversdale, 128km, 2756m
This stage was reminiscent of the old Epic stage from 2008, and started with the infamous
Rooiberg Pass climb. The Contego King of the Mountain prizes each day really spiced up the
racing and made the big climbs of the day that little extra harder as riders raced for the R2500
up for grabs. Once over the climb, the front group, consisting of the four main teams, rolled
through until we hit some more rough and tough ‘Katot’ jeep track through one of the beautiful
reserves. It was in this section, trying to show the boys how to ride a river crossing, that I got
stuck in a really deep section, couldn’t unclip, and completely submerged myself to the point of
near drowning.
Past the last water point, altogether and aiming for a gentle final 40km to this long stage, we
were thrown a major curve ball where we hit the roughest 4x4track of the race. Forced to run
and scramble, Sauser and Knox got a gap as Dave and I gave chase to no avail, but we did
manage to distance ourselves from our rival teams of the previous day. After some sense of
humor loss, we eventually rolled down the Garcia pass and finished second, but put in some
really big time gaps to Melt/Bell and MTN/Quhbeka. RE:CM not too far behind having a really
tough day out there, learning some real Karoo mountain bike lessons at its best. (respect!)
Past the last water point, altogether and aiming for a gentle final 40km to this long stage, we
were thrown a major curve ball where we hit the roughest 4x4track of the race. Forced to run
and scramble, Sauser and Knox got a gap as Dave and I gave chase to no avail, but we did
manage to distance ourselves from our rival teams of the previous day. After some sense of
humor loss, we eventually rolled down the Garcia pass and finished second, but put in some
really big time gaps to Melt/Bell and MTN/Quhbeka. RE:CM not too far behind having a really
tough day out there, learning some real Karoo mountain bike lessons at its best. (respect!)
Stage 3, Riversdale-Albertinia, 106km, 2379m
Today’s stage, the weather decided to up the game a bit for all the riders out there. Gusts of
wind at 90km/hr were blowing, fortunately Westerly though, meaning tailwind, however, ‘Katot’
managed to wind the route that in some way, we had block headwinds and mean gutter
sections. Just as the race was splitting up going into the mountain reserve, we had to stop to fix
a flat rear wheel on Dave’s bike. Unfortunately the front guys continued to race on, leaving us
with around a 60km chase to the finish. Melt/Bell were trying to catch Sauser/Knox, around a
1minute gap, we were trying to catch Melt/Bell, another 1minute gap, but for 60km, the gaps
stayed the same and all of us made a meal out of this stage, with no real gains other than
Sauser/Knox taking the stage in torrential rain. Not a pleasant day out on the bike, and even
harder for the back markers, coming into a non-existent race village due to the weather. The
school would host the riders in the classrooms, and plan B turned out to work well for the
organizers and tired riders.
Stage 4, Albertinia-Mossel Bay, 98km, 1579m
Riders set off in much better weather, and with the winds on our backs, we were off on a
beautiful days racing through to Mossel Bay. The highlight for the day, well there was two, was
one: crossing the ‘Island’ in the Gouritz river. This section had the most thorns I’ve ever seen
besides the first day of the Grape Escape. This took Sauser/Knox out of the days racing, and
gave Dave and I a few problems ourselves, but nothing that we weren’t able to solve on the go.
We had to chase a few times to catch up to the same front teams, we were pretty much all
content to roll through to the end, and let the other teams battle out a stage win. Highlight two
was going through Gondwana Reserve, with its 7 Kalahari wild lions. Unfortunately, or fortunately,
we never saw any, but they did do a compulsory roll call through this section!
The most scenic section was the final 15km along the coast at Pinnacle Point, and I must say the
Golf Course was looking in great nick! But the racing was on as RE:CM had put the hammer
down with Melt/Bell in pursuit. We were following wheels, MTN/Qhubeka just off the pace, and
for a change, the front two teams, or should I say, Dave spotted a tricky left/right sign board,
and we actually went the right way, so before we knew it, with no intentions of winning the
stage, we had. Unfortunately for the other guys, they did a small detour, but made their way to
the finish although somewhat disappointed. Don’t worry; we know the feeling, well.
Stage 5, Mossel Bay-George, 127km, 3046m
10km on Dias beach to start the queen stage of the tour, I seem to remember last year being
low tide, and high tide this year really took its toll on the legs, not to mention what the poor
riders at the back would be going through!
Again the racing split, but the pace was really turned up after the KOM where Sauser decided he
would like to try win another stage. This time Dave and I followed and from here on, the racing
was fairly flat-out. On numerous occasions they tried to drop us, but we were determined to take
this stage and not disappoint our supporters at the finish.
After 120km of tough riding, we were still neck and neck, and we knew that a sprint finish would
have to decide the outcome of a five and half hour day!
Knowing Dave’s sprinting ability, or lack thereof (joke), I told him to attack with 5km to go. As he did, Max followed and Sauser and I watched them ride ahead. Its always easier sprinting one on
one, and it’s the second rider over the line that counts for the stage win, so I left myself up the
‘creek’ to sprint against the World Champion, but for the record, he beat me by half a tire!
(damn)
Stage 6, George- Oudtshoorn, 93km, 1594m
The last day will never be an easy day in the Pioneer, from my experience, and starting with the
Montagu Pass, I’m sure the back riders were thrilled: a 12% 7km climb, before ‘Katot’ sent us into some more ruthless jeep tracks with the final 30km going through the rough Chandelier
reserve. Again Sauser/Knox decided to try for another stage win, but the rest of us, RE:CM, Melt/Bell and ourselves were content to just roll through to the end of a tough tour. All was going well for me, not the best legs on the day, but up one of the rocky climbs, the camera man (BigShot Media) was trying to get me to ride up an almost impossible section, when I came to a stop, couldn’t unclip, fell over on the high side (yes its all on camera) and just about broke three ribs. I won’t lie, I didn’t have a fun ride for the remaining 50km, and I wasn’t getting much sympathy from my teammate either. But the race was in the bag, and we had turned our stage race luck around to win the 2011 Cape Pioneer Trek.
Henco and Carel, plus all the crew, too many to mention, put on another amazing event, and
really kept the riders interests first. Dryland is fast becoming a world-class events company, and
Nedbank 360Life are proud to have been invited to their race and hope to be back to defend our
title next year.
And to all the ‘die hard’ riders who make up the field, you have our utmost respect for
completing this grueling event. I suppose it’s the toughness that makes you guys come back,
however I’m amazed at how well prepared you all are! Best of luck with the recovery!
Provisional Results:
1st Evans/George (Nedbank 360Life) 26hrs53min
2nd Melt-Swanepoel/Bell (Specialized/Bell Cycles) 27hrs25min
3rd Nyionshuti/Jvan Rensburg (MTN/Qhubeka) 27hrs51min
4th Woolcock/Macdonald (RE:CM) 27hrs57
5th Sauser/Knox (Songo36one) 29hrs23min
Next race, that’s a wrap folks, season 2011 done for Team Nedbank 360Life. In the end of a
dreadful start, what a finish, and with the support and like-mindedness of our sponsors, all we
can say is, ‘roll on 2012’!
Thank you and proudly Nedbank ambassadors!
Till then, cheers.
Kevin Evans
Cape Pioneer Trek
I was supposed to do the Cape Pioneer Trek (CPT) last year, but a late minute injury to Jock Green meant I had to postpone my participation to this year's 3rd edition of the event due to the lack of a riding partner.
Competing at the Cape Pioneer Trek also meant missing one of my all time favourite races – the Isuzu 3 Towers, so it had some big tire marks to fill!
After driving down to Oudtshoorn last Thursday I started my 10 day trip through the Klein Karoo by doing the Ladismith Cheese Seweweekspoort race. Race organizer Pieter Blignaut has been inviting me to the race for the last couple of years and finally I had the privilege of racing at his event.
A strong field consisting of mainly Cape based riders set off from the Amalienstein farm stall about 20km outside the quaint little town of Ladismith. We made our way up the Seweweekspoort road, did a loop at the top and came back down again before heading back to Ladismith via undulating roads winding through the farms alongside the R62 road. The front group split and reformed a few times before David George (360 Life) launched his winning move into a strong headwind. Behind him the lead group dwindled under the race pressure and on the final climb it completely disintegrated. George's team mate Kevin Evans (360 Life) snuck away to get 2nd while local lad Ruan du Toit managed a fine 3rd place ahead of me (4th) and the Blend Properties pair of Stewart Marais (5th) and Dave Morrison (6th).
On to the DCM Cape Pioneer Trek presented by KHS…
Come Monday morning, it was hard to leave our extremely hospitable pre race accommodation on the Beukes' farm, but race starts wait for no one and 650km of Klein Karoo and Garden Route racing awaited the 500-odd starters of the 2011 Cape Pioneer Trek.
We rolled west out of Oudtshoorn on the R62 and with the sun at our backs the journey started. The first half of stage 1 was on wide open district roads and the field was happy to roll along at a sedate pace. When we finally turned off the big roads we had some flowing jeep track riding to gently ease us into the race. About halfway through the stage the climbing started and that was where Max Knox decided to lay down the law. His acceleration got the ball rolling and split the field leaving teams 360 Life and SONGO in front with Nico Bell and myself (Specialized/Bell Cycles) chasing alongside MTN Qhubeka and RE:CM. Somehow Max's partner, Christoph Sauser (current world marathon champion), missed a marker and took an unintentional short cut which would cost their team a 1hour time penalty. 360 Life went on to take the stage win and with it the race lead. Nico and I managed to drop MTN on one of the final downhills, taking 2nd on the stage with MTN in 3rd.
Stage 2 was a long 127km pull from Calitzdorp to Riversdale. After hanging on for dear life over the Rooiberg pass at the beginning of the stage, I suffered a cut tyre which cost us a lot of time as we had to stop and repair the tyre 3 times during the stage. Even worse was that we were on our own riding into a fierce headwind as the 4 leading teams took turns pacing into the blustering conditions. Course designer, Katot, also had his say with a 10km section where you had to push your bike more than you could ride it. Nico and I stuck to our guns and made up most of our lost time to everybody but stage winners SONGO and 360 Life as we finally rolled into Riversdale after 5 hours and forty-odd minutes!
Stage 3 was a tailwind assisted mad dash between Riversdale and Albertinia, broken up by a detour into the Langeberg mountains. Nico and I came out of the 'detour' in 2nd place just behind SONGO, but trying to catch them on the open district roads that followed proved impossible as Susi (Christoph Sauser) flicked on the afterburners. We kept the gap steady for the next 50-odd km's and finished 2nd again on the stage with 360 Life in 3rd. Rain and a howling headwind in the last 5km made for tough conditions and had us sleeping in Albertinia classroom halls that evening as our tented accommodation was literally blown into the school fence!
Stage 4 took us from Albertinia to Mossel Bay through the Gouritz river and a thorn field which claimed several victims, chiefly among them world champion Sauser who limped in after having to fix more punctures than he would care to remember. With 5km to go we escaped with the RE:CM team and were set to contest a stage winning sprint when we took a wrong turn. 360 Life duly took advantage for another stage win while Nico and I sprinted in for 2nd yet again.
Stage 5 was the queen stage covering a massive 127km and 3000m of ascent between Mossel Bay and George via the Outeniqua mountains. We started with a 5km stretch on Diaz beach which made for a pretty unique riding experience. Susi accelerated on a big climb about 35km into the stage with only 360 Life able to follow, leaving us MTN Qhubeka and RE:CM to chase. The race stayed like this the whole day with MTN sneaking away in the final kilometres to take 3rd on the stage.
The last stage from George to Oudtshoorn over the Montagu pass was anything but easy. SONGO again took control of the race early and with Susi powering the break they took an impressive 4th stage win with RE:CM outsprinting us for 2nd.
Final overall results:
- Nedbank 360 Life (Kevin Evans and David George)
- Specialized/Bell's Cycling (Nico Bell and Melt Swanepoel)
- MTN Qhubeka (Jacques Janse van Rensburg and Adrian Niyonshuti)
- RE:CM (Waylon Woolcock and Neil MacDonald)
- SONGO (Christoph Sauser and Max Knox)
Nico and I were really happy with our result and it was way beyond our expectations. The friendliness and hospitality of the local people was a big contributing factor to our success along with all the help we received from event staff, other teams and race partners so a big thanks to everyone who helped us.
I really enjoyed the event and the relatively small number of competitors made for a great family atmosphere and memories to cherish!
Until next time, happy trails!
Melt
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