Splash
Race Dog
Something different - I help out at the 94.7 Mountain Bike Challenge held at Waterfall Estate in Kyalami. One of the benefits was to ride through areas which are normally off limits like Waterfall Estate and Leeukop Prison. The route went as far as and past the Gautrain yard.
Friday afternoon was a pre-run of the route so we at least would know where to lead the field. It was decided that Ronald would take the 50km route, I would do the 25km route and Graham the 10km route. This took a little longer than we had imagined only finishing around 6:00pm.
The plan was to have one last look before the race on Saturday morning. I only did the start section of the race, Ronald managed to do the 25km loop. The race started at 7:00am with packs of approximately 300 bikes leaving at eight minute intervals. Ronald was first off and had to burn rubber as these guys are fast, especially downhill.
My group arrived at the start line and I gave myself as much time as possible to start - waited at the first corner. The race started and I stalled my bike – I kid you not. Had enough time to start it and get moving. One rider seemed to immediately pull away from the other rider and was heading towards me at an astonishing pace. No way was he going to keep that up for the whole race, no the less I needed to move. The 25km riders had different colour numbers which helped once we reached the back markers of the previous group. Not always so easy to see the number so I decided I had better remember his helmet and shirt colour - much easier to track him that way.
Amazingly, he just kept attacking the whole race, no matter if it was uphill, through a bottleneck, stream or anything. I did not have much time to enjoy the scenery as I was mostly trying to keep some distance in front of him. He did catch me on some bottlenecks that he just whizzed around. At one of the water crossings, he was right behind me and instead of just letting him pass me I decided, in desperation, to rather crash in front of him hoping stopping him for a while – no luck, was passed me in no time. The marshals helped at all the road crossings and made sure they remained clear for him – no time to stop and rest at all. He did not even take anything from the refreshment points.
Arrived at the finish with no other 25km bikes in sight. He must have given then a good riding lesson. Well done, an amazing ride.
Was still early so did the 50km loop. Found some slow backmarkers. Such a contrast from the riding I had just witnessed. I felt sorry for these as they where only around the 30km point. At one point was going slowly behind a woman riding in thick sand. Her front wheel dug in and she went sideways down. I almost went into her, skidding to a stop just touching her bike. She was not happy with me. I may have distracted her, my apology.
An amazing mornings riding and best of all I also had my bike washed. What a day. Fun it definitely was.
Pictures
Friday afternoon was a pre-run of the route so we at least would know where to lead the field. It was decided that Ronald would take the 50km route, I would do the 25km route and Graham the 10km route. This took a little longer than we had imagined only finishing around 6:00pm.
The plan was to have one last look before the race on Saturday morning. I only did the start section of the race, Ronald managed to do the 25km loop. The race started at 7:00am with packs of approximately 300 bikes leaving at eight minute intervals. Ronald was first off and had to burn rubber as these guys are fast, especially downhill.
My group arrived at the start line and I gave myself as much time as possible to start - waited at the first corner. The race started and I stalled my bike – I kid you not. Had enough time to start it and get moving. One rider seemed to immediately pull away from the other rider and was heading towards me at an astonishing pace. No way was he going to keep that up for the whole race, no the less I needed to move. The 25km riders had different colour numbers which helped once we reached the back markers of the previous group. Not always so easy to see the number so I decided I had better remember his helmet and shirt colour - much easier to track him that way.
Amazingly, he just kept attacking the whole race, no matter if it was uphill, through a bottleneck, stream or anything. I did not have much time to enjoy the scenery as I was mostly trying to keep some distance in front of him. He did catch me on some bottlenecks that he just whizzed around. At one of the water crossings, he was right behind me and instead of just letting him pass me I decided, in desperation, to rather crash in front of him hoping stopping him for a while – no luck, was passed me in no time. The marshals helped at all the road crossings and made sure they remained clear for him – no time to stop and rest at all. He did not even take anything from the refreshment points.
Arrived at the finish with no other 25km bikes in sight. He must have given then a good riding lesson. Well done, an amazing ride.
Was still early so did the 50km loop. Found some slow backmarkers. Such a contrast from the riding I had just witnessed. I felt sorry for these as they where only around the 30km point. At one point was going slowly behind a woman riding in thick sand. Her front wheel dug in and she went sideways down. I almost went into her, skidding to a stop just touching her bike. She was not happy with me. I may have distracted her, my apology.
An amazing mornings riding and best of all I also had my bike washed. What a day. Fun it definitely was.
Pictures
