Double Century - Results

As said in previous posts I was riding in the Double Century yesterday as part of the Wannabee Better CCH team one of five Wannabee teams in the event. We finished in a respectable 7:47. The goal had been 7 hours but unfortunately I was the slow-coach who held the guys back. Thankfully as a team we had already agreed to stick together so three of the guys were amazing at actually pushing me up bits of the last three hills, thanks go to Petie, Schalk & Smiley! I was determined to finish, but was equally happy for the guys to drop me and go for a better time. Now I have to live with the guilt. ;-)

I was fine for the first 150k's but then my bum gave out. I've had some issues previously with my saddle but yesterday's race was the last straw! The saddle will be replaced imminently. The lads kept offering me cramp-stop as well as advice on eating etc. but the problem quite simply was a very sore bum on which I struggled to sit. That being said, the last three hills going into Swellendam each felt like Mt. Everest and I had probably underestimated how tough they would be.

The official results have just been posted on the Winning Time website and our team time was 7:47:04 with my personal time being 3 seconds behind. We finished 86th out of 191 teams so just within the top half of the field. My personal result was 687/1579 which puts me well into the top half which makes me quite happy. So next year I'll train a bit harder and hopefully finish a bit stronger.

Overall the race was a lot of fun along a brilliant route and the weather was just about perfect. The team were great, a real pleasure to ride with and our support crew of Archie and Ina were amazing, Thanks guys!

We passed a few friends along the way and my friend Nigel from church finished 10 minutes ahead of us, although I know he was disappointed with the time.

Full results available here.

Karwats Results

On Saturday Rod and I rode the Karwats MTB Feast in Hermanus and had a great time.

As we were driving towards the venue the rain was lashing down, but it had stopped by the time the race started and it turned into a really nice day.

The ride was great, quite a bit faster than most 50k races and it was all laid out really well. In fact the whole organisation was very good and many of the other MTB races on the calender could learn a lot from these guys! One aspect that we both really appreciated was the fact that there was a very short gospel message followed by a prayer before the start and everyone was respectful of this.

Once again Rod beat me by a few minutes, but he's an Ironman so he really should! Rod came in 20th in a time of 2:52.32 and I was 23rd, 6 minutes behind him in 2:58 which put us both in the top half of the field of 54 finishers (61 riders started the race), see full results below.

Below is the profile of the course. The point where the red and blue separate is the point at which the 50k route went its own way but the two routes joined up again for the last few kliometres. Rod's Garmin recorded the total ascent for the ride at 1267m.




50K Results
1 Oliver Munnik 2:07:54
2 Cornelius Muller2:10:33
3 Francois Steyn 2:14:24
4 Juan van Deventer 2:21
5 Erik Kleinhans 2:22:10
6 Morneen Maritz 2:22:30
7 Marius Carstens 2:29:48
8 Etienne Jordaan 2:31:45
9 Philip-Ben Kotze2:33:10
10 Simon Munnik 2:40:14
11 Duncun Palmer 2:43:49
12 Adam Pike 2:43:50
13 Cillie Hamman 2:47:17
14 Gerrit Pretorius2:47:27
15 Pierre Rocher 2:48:09
16 Nico Marias 2:49
17 Danie Viljoen 2:50:32
18 Jean de Jager 2:50:33
19 Francois de Villiers 2:52
20 Roderick Gilson 2:52:32
21 Tania Myburgh 2:52:55
22 Philip Gruntter 2:53:54
23 Dean Finnie 2:58
24 Mark Cryans 3:02:04
25 Andries de Villiers 3:02:09
26 Anton De Waal 3:02:50
27 Jessie de Boer 3:03
28 Hannes Lourens 3:03:35
29 Stiffie du Toit 3:04:00
30 Elzaan Visser 3:08
31 Luke Powers 3:08:56
32 Marusa Mason 3:08:58
33 Werner van der Berg 3:11:44
34 Warren Hoek 3:12:03
35 Stephan Munro 3:12:04
36 Pieter Visser 3:13:47
37 James Rimell 3:14:08
38 Rob 3:17:15
39 Lafras Moolman 3:24:08
40 Mario January 3:26:44
41 Gys du Toit 3:27:01
42 Chirstiaan SW Swart 3:28:27
43 Marisa Rocher 3:28:51
44 Erik Evans 3:29:16
45 Johan Swart 3:29:25
46 Eliena Lourens 3:32:19
47 Marleze Gillespie 3:32:26
48 Altus Mostert 3:37:40
49 Charles Moody 3:38:41
50 DJ Versfeld 3:40:22
51 Andrew Ellis 3:40:55
52 Kierry Mayeku 3:45:25
53 Gideon Bosman 3:45:29
54 Francois Rozon 3:49:09
DNF
James Verster
Carl Kiss
Peter Rimell
Jason Meiring
Henning van Wyk
Mikhaela Levitas
Andre Botha

I'm a very happy camper as I've just upgraded from the Polar CS300 to the Polar S725X HRM and so far I'm delighted with it!!

Official Results

The official results from the Krakadouw 80k MTB Classic are now on the Winning Time website.

My time was 4:45:47s which I remain a bit disappointed with, especially as it puts me in the bottom half of the field at 126th out of 184 finishers. My friend Rod beat me by 9 minutes, finishing in 113th place. Two other friends from church finished 21 minutes and 30 minutes behind me, 149th and 160th respectively. However, we all agreed it was a tough ride!

Tru Cape MTB Race

I rode in the Tru Cape on Saturday morning and had a great time. I entered quite late but in the end couldn't resist trying to redeem myself after last year's poor showing in the race (read about it here). This year I managed not to wipe out or to contract some vile illness which was a relief.

This race takes place at Grabouw Country Club and most of the trail is through the MTO forestry commission. This race is not for the fainthearted as it involves a lot of climbing. Once you've done it you realise why it's only 40k's when most MTB races are between 55 & 60k's. To add to this the Northwester was pumping and at one point as I was rounding an exposed bend with five other riders a gust knocked all six of us off our bikes! However, the views are stunning, the riding is superb and the single-track is some of the best around. I noticed that this year they closed off the really rocky section of single-track, probably because so many people struggled on it last year, me included, but all in all this is a very good race.

The official results are on the Winning Time website and can be seen here.
I finished in 2:43:18 in 78th place out of 185 with an average speed of 14.7kph. I'm a bit disappointed with my result. I rode the first half with Rod who finished 4 minutes behind me and Jono another friend from church finished 9 minutes ahead of me.

There's not much point in posting a weekly summary this week as I only rode twice, once on Thursday morning with Petie from Helderberg Cycle World and in the Tru Cape. On Thursday I was feeling very strong on the bike and really pushed my heart rate and race day is always a bit disastrous in terms of keeping the heart rate down. Despite this, both rides were a lot of fun! The crowd on Thursday was a bit different to normal so it was also good to meet some different riders.

Petzl Adventure Nights

Rod and I, team Pepe Rapidissimo, had a blast riding in the Petzl Adventure Night in Jonkershoek on Saturday. We managed not to disgrace ourselves by finishing 10th out of the 20 finishers on the Pro course in 1:51:14. Local knowledge of Jonkers' proved invaluable as we only missed one marker (which had been hidden). Some teams enjoyed some very scenic detours which would have been great in daytime but not so funny at night. One team even took a detour down Heartbreak Hill and had to ride back up again. It's not called Heartbreak Hill without reason. I was particularly pleased with myself as I was one of the few who rode the drop-off, the 6 riders in front of us at that point all got off and walked it. The course had some interesting features with lots of singletrack, but the best bit was probably the dam crossing. Two canoes had been strapped together and teams had to pull both their bikes and riders across without getting wet. We managed amazingly well thanks to Rod and his Ironman skills.

Our race stats are:
Start time: 19:35:53
Checkpoint 1: 19.26
Checkpoint 2: 35.39
Checkpoint 3: 42.20
Checkpoint 4: 62.18
Checkpoint 5: 73.01
Checkpoint 6: 83.18
Checkpoint 7: 91.01
Checkpoint 8: 96.31
Checkpoint 9: 104.00
Checkpoint 10: 111.14
Finish Time: 1:51:14 at 21:27:12
The course was 19.8k's and we averaged 12.2kph.

One interesting aspect was being asked to carry a GPS tracking unit so that our progress could be watched on a big screen in the main tent. After the race they displayed all 10 teams who had been tracked which made for some good entertainment. Thankfully we did very well in terms of navigation so spared ourselves any embarrassment.

The event was organised by Magnetic South and they score top marks for their organisation, route planning and general helpfulness, patience and management of the event! Respect also goes to the guy who rocked up with an impromptu beer cooler and sold the beers for R5 each!

Vigne à Vigne

On Saturday I rode the Vigne à Vigne and was pleased with my time of 3:31 according to my Polar HRM. The official results are now on the Vigne website and I finished 86th out of 438 riders in a time of 3:31:18 so I'm very happy as again I finished comfortably within the top quarter of the field.

The Vigne runs alongside the Cape Epic and next year the plan is to be competing in that rather than a sideshow.

The mountain immediately behind me is the Helderberg which dominates Somerset West.

Photo courtesy of Actionography.