Mountainbiking is really growing on me, and since the road season has come to an end I am happy to be able to do lots of MTB races instead. To keep the fun of racing!
This weekend saw 2 races in this area. Saturdays race was The Breerivier MTB challenge outside of Worcestor. The long route was55 kmand had1340 metersof climbing. There were some really steep climbs and rocky downhills, it makes it hard since there is no time to rest.
In total it was 700 participants on all the distances. But the field was not that big on the long one. Mountainbiking can get a bit lonely sometimes cause there can be stretches where you don’t see anyone else for a long time, especially in smaller races. I had a few guys around me that I raced with instead. I won the ladies category and first prize was 42 bottles of wine!!! A bit of an odd prize.
Todays race was here in Stellenbosch, at the Zorgvliet wine farm, just around the corner. The weather forcast said rain and I did not feel that I was ready to race in the rain just yet, my MTB career is a bit too young for that… Since it was so close and I wanted to support the organisers I decided to race, even though my legs were a bit tired from yesterday. And I am glad I did! I had my best MTB race so far:-)
There was more competition today then yesterday. Ariane Kleinhans is the best female mountainbiker inSouth Africaand probably top5 inthe world in Marathons. Leana De Jager is racing for the Bizhub MTB team. I knew that those 2 would be at the top and it was going to be a tough route over 55km and1700 metersof climbing. The places actually got decided already in the neutral zone, Ariane rolled away just in front of me and I never saw her again for the whole race and I was just ahead of Leana and she never saw me again. I had the pressure on me all the way so that she would not catch me.
The route today was one of the toughest I have done, the last5 kmwas a bit of a shock, I was already tired and then came lots of uphill single tracks on very technical terrain, I think the last 5km took 30min to ride!! I was completely finished but also very happy with the day!
So a 1st and a 2nd is the summery for the weekend :-)
Less then 2 weeks until I start my big challenge, the 9 day Joburg2c MTB stage race!
Getting my prize at the Simonsberg race.
more pictures will come...