Pick & Pay 94.7 Cycle Challenge

As Marco said at the end of the race, "Absolute Systems/Bulk Pack Meat are destined not to win this race!". We have had second place in the last 3 years running, but this time around we didn't even manage to get onto the podium, missing it by one place.

Congratulations to Mark Davel from Mr. Price KZN for taking the victory, and Moolman Welgemoed from Daikin taking second, Jac-Louis van Wyk taking third.

Changes to the route this year made it very hard to split the bunch up. With none of the hills being long enough to snap the elastic.

The pace started slowly, with a few very minor attacks along the M1. The first major move was made by Craig Harvey (Absolute Systems/Bulk Pack Meat) who spotted a smooth section of tar along the flyover and shot off the front of the bunch, with a Toyota SuperCycling rider in tow. The gap opened up nicely, and heading into the CBD they were out of sight. The pace picked up through the CBD, but on exiting the buildings onto the Mandela Bridge, a strong headwind was encountered and Craig came back to the bunch.

I then tried to get away on the last hill before the Zoo Lake descent. Again, a nice gap opened, but nobody came with me, and the bunch caught me easily on the descent into a headwind.

The pace was quite high, but few attacks came all the way into Randburg. When on the last climb into Randburg, Marco van Biljoen and Werner Moolman tried to split the bunch up. Once again, the hill was too short and the bunch stretched out, but the elastic did not snap. Through Bryanston and coming down Douglas Road, the pace was high. We tried a few moves, but few people were willing to commit everything to the move with the Witkoppen climb coming.

Once again, Werner Moolman set the pace up Witkoppen, the bunch stretched but did not snap, so heading on to the highway it was still 40 or 50 strong.

Plenty of attacks along the highway, but still, nobody could get away. The last chance would be the drag near Diepsloot up into Bluehills. The main rivals all took turns attacking and counter attacking. Two riders did manage to get away, but I did not see who they were.

Last opportunity to do anything came on Heartbreak Hill. At this point I suddenly saw riders that I didn't even know were in the race appear out of nowhere. Obviously sitting in and hoping to be opportunists at the finish. With Werner the only person in the bunch prepared to bring the two man break back, I put in a last big effort to close the gap coming up to Crowthorn, hoping that this could create the opportunity for one of my teammates to launch off the front and get away.

The effort cost me, and I nearly went out the back on the descent past Kyalami. Marco was well placed at the front of the bunch, and with an uphill finish I thought he had a good chance for a result. Mark Davel went early (I thought too early at the time), opened a gap and managed to hold it all the way to the line. Moolman Welgemoed could not close him in time so had to settle for second.

So, that's the end of the season and my last race with Absolute Systems/Bulk Pack Meat. It didn't work out the way we wanted, but that's racing!

94.7 Time of the Year

Well, the final race of the calender year has arrived along with some really bad weather!

Last weekend was supposed to be the final warmup race for me. The Bakwena SuperClassic which is a flat, out-and-back race. I was not feeling great heading out to the race, had a bit of an upper respiratory infection and has also suffered from a serious saddle sore last week. I headed out to the race and on the way there the weather was terrible. At the start line the weather looked okay, but anything could happen in the 50km the race would go to the turn point. The first time in my life I've got to a start and not started, I decided not to risk it and jeopardise the 94.7.

Overall, the second half of this year has not been a very happy period for me. With my Mom passing away a few months ago, and the associated loss of training, as well as work issues that have intruded, I have been on the back foot the whole season. The financial market crash that has been experienced globally also set back some business initiatives, so all-in-all things just haven't come together.

This week the weather has also been really bad, so final tuning on the training has been difficult, but this affects everybody so no point in getting too hung up about it.

So, here we are, last race of the season and it will be the last race with my current team, Absolute Systems/Bulk Pack Meat. I move up an age category next year, and will be racing for Toyota SuperCycling 40+ team, supporting Andrew Mclean and Graeme Cronje. I'm looking forward to it, it should be good fun. I'll also be trying my hand at the MTB discipline, given that I will be coaching the DCM Chrome MTB team, I should at least get to know MTB better than I currently do!

The Bulk Pack Meat team will continue, and will be centered around Marco van Biljoen and Craig Harvey. They have recruited a new rider Jason du Preez who is just entering the Vets category. They are a strong team and I'm sure they will continue to enjoy the success that they have in the past. Good luck guys!! And thank you for all the great fun racing over the last 2 years.

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!

First MTB Race - Bekker Bundu Bash

I have been asked to coach the DCM Chome MountainBike team, so I decided I had better do some races to get a better feel for what this sport entails. I had been thinking about doing some mountainbiking for a while now, so this was the perfect reason to go out and do it.


The team arranged a bike for me, and I have a disc version of the powertap, so I was really looking forward to seeing the data that comes from this type of racing.


The race was 60km, which much of the race on dirt roads. Perfect introduction to offroad racing for a roadie like me.


The first 20km were predominantly single-track with some very rocky climbs and descents. Riding in the middle of some experienced offroad riders, I could not believe how fast we were going through this terrain, I was just hanging on and concentrating on the guy in front of me.


Most of the race was sand roads, so I was able to really push it.


Overall, it was great fun. MTB races have a very festive atmosphere and a great vibe. I'm looking forward to doing more of these events.


Power stats are very interesting. RPE is definitely a lot higher vs. power output. I found that my back and arms were feeling really tired towards the end of the race, and that was limiting me more than my legs.