South African Mountain Bike Marathon Champs race report

With the thermometer sitting at a very chilly minus two, we set off on the technical and rocky 115 km course. All the usual suspects were there, each just as eager to claim the honour of wearing the sought-after national stripes for the following year.

The first few kilometers were flat and fast through the farmlands. To make sure that Johann and I would be first into the first steep technical climb, we kept the pace high. Our plan worked, with Johann leading the pack up the climb to clinch the ‘King of the Mountain’ title at the top. Johann continued to power ahead, followed by Nico Bell (RECM), Adriaan Louw (Contigo), Brendon Davids (Kargo) and Arno du Toit (Scott). I was just a few seconds behind with Ben ‘Melt’ Swanepoel (Squirt/ Merida), Konny Looser (Wheeler iXS) and Darren Lill.

Eager to rejoin the lead pack, Melt set a furious pace and, as a result, we managed to open up a small gap on Konny and Darren and catch up to the leading five guys. With none of the other riders having teammates in the group, I went to the front to keep the pace high. I opened up a small gap on the rocky descent and kept going from there, thus ensuring that Johann could get a free ride as the others had to commit to chasing me down.

Taking a few risks and close calls with trees and massive rocks, I had just over a minute lead on the chasing group as we headed out into the headwind on the district roads. Once again our tactics paid off with no one willing to commit to chasing me down and the gap extended to 5 minutes.