Telkom Satellite Challenge

The weather for the Satellite Challenge this year was somewhat better than last year, and the size of the VA bunch was impressive. There are less road races on the calender this year, so clearly there were a lot of people wanting to test out their form before 94.7.

A number of strong teams were present, Toyota Cyclelab, Dimension Data, MTN/Club 100, Harmony, Garmin-DCM (better known for their MTB exploits, but very accomplished road riders nonetheless), MR. Price KZN, Metal Used Spares, to name a few.

From an Absolute Systems/Bulk Pack Meat perspective, the team had Marco van Biljoen, Craig Harvey, and Bruce Diesel. The Hekpoort climb comes towards the end of the race, so Marco was definitely one of the race favourites.

Disaster struck early in the race with Marco puncturing. Craig stopped to help bring him back to the bunch, which he managed to achieve even though the first half of this race is very fast. Numerous attempts were made to get away, so tha pace was fast throughout the race. With Marco and Craig chasing back, I had to cover a lot of moves and was a bit isolated.

Finally, a good move went away just passed Bekker Skool. It was quite surprising because it was quite a soft move. Suddenly there were about 8 of us away from the main bunch. This group included both the Labuschagne brothers, Danie Marais (Toyota Cyclelab), Shaun Mackenzie (Garmin-DCM), Donovan Jackson (MTN/Club 100), Stefano Madies (Dimension Data) and myself. We had a gap of about 20seconds at the start of the Hekpoort climb.

Johan started the climb hard, and opened a gap on the rest of the group. Having spent a lot of the race chasing breaks I tried to ride a comfortable rhythm so I didn't try to get across to Johan. Soon David joined him, and Shaun Mackenzie, Donovan Jackson and myself were the only riders left chasing them. At the top of the climb David and Johan must have had about a 30sec gap on us, which we started trying to close - a tall order given that the pair of them were so strong and would work well together.

Donovan Jackson pulled up with cramp, so the chase was then left to Shaun and myself. We weren't closing the gap on David and Johan, so thoughts now shifted to staying away from the chasing bunch (being driven by MTN/Club 100) and try to get third place. Unfortunately Shaun hit the wall and I was left alone with about 2 km to go. The bunch caught me just before the top of the last climb. I tried one last attack but didn't have the legs to make it stick, so ended up rolling in at 10th place!

Even though the result wasn't great, I was very happy with my overall ride. I was involved in a lot of the racing and did well over the climb.

Some race stats:
Time: 2h36
Normalised Power: 327w
AP on Hekpoort Climb 383w for 9min.

Crater Cruise - 101km

This was the worst I've felt on a bike after 'bonking' riding the Double Century a few years ago! This race has always been known as a 'roadie' friendly mountainbike race, so I thought it would be no problem!

The race started very fast. I managed to get to the front of the bunch and felt comfortable. I kept an eye on David and Johan Labuschagne, who I race against a lot on the road. I felt if I could just follow their lead, I would be fine - since they are very experienced mountain bike riders as well.

The first jeep track section cause the bunch to split up, with the main contenders going away. I was in the second bunch, with some good riders and feeling comfortable. A new section has been added to the race, a climb with a lot of loose rocks. Going up the climb I was not able to keep up with the group that I was in, and by the time I was at the top, I was pretty much alone.

I chased hard on the flat roads after the climb, hoping I'd be able to get back on to the group that I had lost. At the halfway mark, I stopped to fill my water bottle, and a group came past me. I got onto that group, hoping that I'd be able to stay with them to the finish. At about 40km to go the wheels started coming off!! In the next section of singletrack I just could not stay with the group, my back and my wrists were getting so tired that I was having difficulty going fast over the technical sections. Once again I got isolated was all alone after a section of singletrack that went along the side of the Vaal River. The ride would have been really enjoyable had I not been so tired.

The roads back to Parys were horrific. They were seriously corrugated, and I was really struggling. I just could not get comfortable and tried to stay on the wheel of every group or rider that came past me. I was losing plenty time and all I could think about was the finish!

With about 15km to go, the race goes onto a tarred section of road, and I was hoping that it would be tarred back to Parys. The route soon turned off the tarred road and although the terrain was flat, there were a lot of rocks and rough sections. One thing I have learned is that speed is your friend over rough terrain, but I was too tired to maintain momentum. I slowed down completely and the last 10km were sheer hell!

I finally got into the finish in a shade over 4 hours, feeling very sorry for myself. I was very surprised to see from the results that I had finished 34th overall, out of a field of 600. I thought I was the last man when I was coming to the finish.

Power stats show just how much my power dropped off through the race!