09 May 2012 Van Wyk thrilled with victory at African Continental Championships, Mauritius
The 2012 African Continental Championships was held on the lovely island of Mauritius on the 5th of May. Team bizhub-FCF’s Junior Linda Van Wyk participated in the ...
Jade Roberts
(January 2010, Clarence Training Camp)
The Herald VW Mountain Bike Challenge 2011
January has just passed and already our third big mountain bike race for the season!
Port Elizabeth had become a hot-spot of nervous excited energy the week of 01-05
Feb 2011 with all pro and serious amateur road cyclists gathering together for the
SA Road Champs. Less than an hours’ drive away, just outside the small village of
Addo, I was quite happy to stand at the start line of a much smaller event on my
solid Specialized S-works, ready to tackle the rough terrain of the mountain bike
challenge.
It was a humid but beautiful morning after a welcome thunderstorm the previous afternoon
had settled the dust. In the ladies field we were only a handful, as the race was
on the same day as the elite ladies SA road champs, but with Ariane Luthi (the Swiss
Miss riding for Contego) and my own team mate, Yolandi du Toit, lining up next to
me I knew it was going to be a tough race again! I soon realised why they let us
start at the ghastly hour of 6 am… an unusually early start for mountain bikers...
as the temperature soon rose to over 40°C!
The start was flat, fast and furious winding through orchards and farms until we
reached the bottom of the Zuurberg Pass. I managed to hang onto Yolandi, who is
much better at fast starts than I am, with Ariane not far ahead of us. On the climb
up Zuurberg Pass Yolandi dropped off slightly as I chased to catch Ariane. As I
rode up next to Ariane she looked at me somewhat surprised, almost as if she was
daydreaming and suddenly realised she should be racing: she just geared down and
slowly accelerated away from me to go over the King of the Mountain about 200m ahead
of me.
The descent started with gentle jeep track but very soon we were faced with a single
track ponytrail: tight switchbacks and the log steps slippery from the previous
nights’ rain. Ariane disappeared in the distance as I was painfully aware of the
fact that I was losing huge amounts of time in this section. Once down in the beautiful
valley we had to negotiate our way up again with an extremely challenging steep
single track climb out of the valley that felt like forever! The rest of the route
was a balanced mix of good gravel roads and jeep track, with some beautiful views
all around us. I dug deep, hoping to make up some lost time in the final 30 km.
The route was a little longer than advertised and we ended up doing 90km instead
of 85km. Isn’t it amazing how long 5 km’s can feel if you are not expecting them???
It was Ariane Luthi (Contego) who came in first after dominating the race, I had
to settle for second and Yolandi du Toit in third position, making it 2nd & 3rd
for Bizhub.
What a beautiful race!! We went through a section of the Addo Elephant Park, but
luckily I didn’t encounter any of these huge creatures on route! This is a race
to mark on your calendar for 2012: a challenging, interesting route with beautiful
single track, fantastic views and sure to test your strength as a mountain biker.
Next one up for me will be Clarens and then Sabie (both part of the MTN marathon
series), while Yolandi will be racing at the African Continental XC championships
in Stellenbosch with two of our younger team mates, Caitlin de Wet and Candice Neethling.
Good luck girls – go get them!
