CLARENS MARATHON RACE REPORT 2017
LARENS MTB 2017 RACE REPORT As usual Mountain Bike races always end up to be one hell of a ride! This weekend saw the return of Brendon Davids back to his routes and myself far from my roots. For those that don't know by now Brendon used to be an exceptional XC Mtb rider and is also currently my teammate at Team RoadCover.
We didn't know what to expect as both of us haven't been on a mtb for a very long time. My last Mountain Bike race I did was back in 2016 at the Balito Ultra Marathon where I finished 7th overall. We both knew our skills were going to be rusty. As for myself I had to use whatever tool I could find in my toolbox of mountain biking experience, but for guys like Brendon it always comes back quickly. Whenever you do a bike race near Clarens you can expect the altitude to play a big roll. Some guys go very well from the start others take some time to adapt. Its just the way it is. But you never really know until you get going. For some it might turn out to be mental and for others not. Whatever the case may be you better push hard on those pedals because it sure as hell ain't going to do it by it self. The race has started. That scared feeling that haunted us five minutes earlier is gone. Its all or nothing now. The roads in Clarens are unforgiving and sure as hell takes no passengers and its every man for himself now. The air is thin, lungs are burning and skies are clear. The stars seemed to be aligned- everything seems to be going well. Oh don't you just love bike races. Halfway into stage 1 Matthys Beukes and HB Kruger rode away to stay clear of the chasing pack, and took respectively 1st and 2nd. Nico Bell Finished 3rd to round off the podium. Myself and Brendon Davids managed to finish 9th and 10th, 1min30sec down from the winner. I crashed hard coming out of the final single track of the day on a big open road...don't ask.
Stage two and also the final stage was 53 Kilometers. As usual on such a short stage it was flat taps from the start and a big fight to get into the single tracks first. About 10km in we were only fifteen riders left. Everyone knew that the deciding factor of the day would be the utterly steep climb before entering the technical descent into Clarens. Philip Buys and Matthys Beukes crested the final climb of the day first and rode daylight out of the chasers on the descent. It wasn't that the descent was that technical but it gave you the option of going fast with lose off-camber, rocky turns around every corner. The faster you go the bigger your chance off your front wheel washing out. As simple as that. I rode the final final descent very conservatively keeping Joburg2c as our main priority in the back of my head. I crested the final climb with Gert Heyns but lost 3minutes to him on the final descent. To be honest if I took some risk and really pushed hard I could have gone about another minute and thirty seconds faster but it wouldn't have been worth risking it as It wouldn't have been for a podium spot.
In all it was an awesome event and it went really well for myself and Brendon taking everything into consideration. We are feeling good in the lead up to J2C with two weeks left. There is still a shit load of work to be done but we are always up for the challenge. Im playing a conservative catchup game - but with the guidance of John Wakefield as coach and Team RoadCover in full support behind myself and Brendon we have no excuses.
Overall Results 1. Matthys Beukes 4h31m19 2. HB Kruger 3. Philip Buys 4. Nico Bell 5. Max Knox 6. Travis Walker 7. Brendon Davids 8. Timothy Hammond 9. Konny Looser 10. Arno Du Toit 4h38m27 11. Waylon Woolcock 12. Gert Heyns 13. Willie Smit 4h40m42
