05/10/2011
Oudtshoorn three day marathon victory for bizhub
 “There are so many mountain bike races all over the country to choose from that it is sometimes hard to make your pick” Said Ischen. “But we opted to do the Oudtshoorn 3 day MTB Marathon with Catherine Williamson, my bizhub partner for the Cape Pioneer Trek, she had just arrived back in South Africa from her home country Great Britain on the Wednesday.
I reckoned this would be a good way to ease her back into mountain biking as the routes are mainly open gravel roads and not very technical; but good hard riding and long distances for us to get some miles in the legs and spend some time together on the bike. Caitlin De Wet, our younger cross country rider from bizhub, joined us for this weekends’ racing to get some hard training miles in the legs.”
The Oudrace consists of three routes all starting and finishing in Oudtshoorn; each just over a 100km. The first day takes one on a beautiful scenic loop towards the Swartberg Mountains, along the Oudemuragie Road.
Catherine and Ischen crossed the line together on the first days 107km stage in a time of 3h55, 10th & 11th in GC. Caitlin De Wet did well to come in 3rd in the ladies field, even though the distance was quite a bit further than she is used to as a Cross Country rider.
On day two everyone awoke to a beautiful but chilly morning The start was once again flat, maybe not quite as fast with the bunch staying quite big for a long time “I was happy when the pace got harder and the group got smaller” Said Ischen
Up the main climb of the day around 30 km into the race it was again the Blend Boys, Dave Morrison & Stuart Marais with Petrus Malherbe and two or three brave souls, who broke away, leaving Catherine and Ischen in the second bunch . Day two took the riders through some really beautiful rocky jeep track through farms and the veld flowers were once again unbelievable.
“It was wonderful to be in the position of actually being able to look around and enjoy nature whilst racing, for a change” Continued Ischen “Our time of 3h47 for Day two was only slightly less than day one, even though the distance of 97 km was 10km shorter with less climbing (1270m asc), as the terrain was rougher. Again we finished in 10 & 11th position in GC, with Caitlin following as 3rd lady”.
Grim weather had been predicted for the Sundays stage after two really beautiful spring days in the Klein Karoo. Luckily when everyone woke up at dawn conditions were overcast but there was no rain.
On the third day riders were taken on some really great jeep track roads through some game farms and the Mount Hope Nature reserve. With some long drags and climbs which added to the days difficulties During it also began raining which meant for a cold wet finish to the stage.
Catherine and Ischen again finished together to take first and second overall. Their total riding time for the 3 Days was 11h04min28sec. Caitlin took the third spot in overall
For Team bizhub the mission for the weekend was accomplished, good multi-stage race training, hard riding, lots of accelerations closing down gaps and following attacks to help with leg speed. This all in final preperation for the Cape Pioneer Trek.
All good training and practice for the Pioneer, which goes through some of the tracks from today. The scenery was urm… apparently very nice though I could probably tell you more about which tyres the people in front of me were riding” Said a tired Catherine after the final stage.
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