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)
Mr Price Karkloof Classic
The Karkloof Classic is a highlight on the mountain bike calendar as it is the biggest
mountain bike festival in SA with more than 3500 participants over the weekend.
The weekend's racing kicked off with a night race held on the Friday night, followed
by Cross Country and Downhill racing on the Saturday and then finished off with
the main 60km marathon on the Sunday. What makes the event so unique is that the
Karkloof trails are purposely built by expert crews and maintained all year round
which makes them incredible fun to ride.
On Saturday I took part in the Cross Country event. It was definitely the most technical
(and exciting) course I've ridden thus far. One of the technical sections was named
'the super tube' as it was dropping and climbing just like a super tube. Every time
I went down the 'huge' drop leading into the super tube, I got butterflies in my
stomach....it was scary and awesome all at the same time!
The XC wasn't my priority event on the weekend and therefore I decided to ride it
as best as I could to still get a good result without tiring myself too much before
the main event the following day.
On my first lap I decided to ride behind some of the girls in order to get more
familiar with the course. On lap 2 I found myself alongside local rider, Amy Jane
Mundy (Team Jeep)in 2nd / 3rd position behind a flying Eszter Elderlyi (Team MTN/
Qhubeka).
I didn't know the course that well and 'practised' riding some of the technical
sections during my first few laps. By the end of the 3rd lap, with a few properties
to my name, I managed to figure out what was rideable and what not.
On lap 4 of 5, I managed to ride away from Amy to finish in 2nd place behind Eszter
Elderlyi with Amy Jane Mundy finishing in 3rd place. It was a great XC course and
I am still amazed at all the effort that goes into building the Karkloof trails.
On Sunday I lined up for the main 60km Marathon event.
It was my first time competing at this event and therefore I didn't know what to
expect. As our group was set off, my legs felt pretty good and I managed to go hard
from the beginning and found myself in the lead within the first 10km.
With her strong cross country background, Eszter Elderlyi managed to ride back up
to me during the first technical single track section (around 16km). From there
the route took us straight onto the 2nd long climb. Eszter and I started the climb
together but halfway up I noticed that she was slowly dropping back from my wheel.
I continued pushing hard on the climb and on reaching the top (around 35km) I couldn't
see Eszter anymore. I realized that this was my opportunity, I had to put my head
down and go flat out because 'once out of sight, then out of mind'.
We still had one long climb left along with its technical downhill single track.
I knew that Eszter might be able to get back to me on the single track, but fortunately
I rode the Cross Country race the day before which helped me to get a familiar feel
for the technical sections.
I felt really good throughout the race and managed to ride the single track and
climbs fast enough to maintain my lead until the very end. It was very rewarding
to take the VICTORY at the Karkloof Classic!
I feel very fortunate to be the winner of such a great event and shared the podium
with Heletjie van Staden (Team Mr Price/GT) who finished in 2nd place and my team
mate Caitlin de Wet (Team Bizhub) in 3rd place.
