This new race on the calendar was quite exciting, a new course and route and some decent distance to race was looking good. The weather was absolutely perfect and The team was feeling good.

The first 15km were to serve as a warm up until we hit the Hels Hoogte climb, but as I cruised along the smooth tarmac I was feeling good and had a dig, I opened a gap and was chased down, I went again and held it longer trying to make sure I was warm before the climb. Surprisingly a group of about 8 of went clear and as I looked back I realised we were being allowed some freedom.

The break on Hels

The break included all the main teams and we set about growing the gap before the climb. We had around 2 minutes at the base and set about the climb, the riders setting a steady hard pace that was just about my limit. Slowly riders couldn’t hold on and one by one they fell back off the break leaving only four of us to descend and head to Paarl.

Driving the Break

We had some decent flat fire power in myself and Luke again, Neil Swarts and Andy. We rolled through and worked well and held our advantage all the way through Paarl and over past the Fairview wine farm, onto the R44 and outwards Wellington. We turned left onto Voor Paardeberg road and through the rollers there. Thats where we had our first casualty, Andy got dropped and we were down to three by Grand Prix hill.

At the crest of the hill Luke popped a spoke in his rear wheel and we slowed to see if he’d fix or be relieved it if it rectified itself. It didn’t and he’d have to stop. We looked back and our break had withered down to just a few seconds. Luke stopped to repair and rejoined the chasing bunch, neil and I pressed on to the top of the last roller and eased up as we got swallowed.

The catch was not a full peloton, and we pressed on to keep the secondary break the same size of around 30 guys. I sat in a bit and rested, chatted to my team mates in the pack and decided on a new course of action. We turned left onto the R304 and into a head wind that hit slightly from the left. A few breaks went and came back, then team Aurecon put everyone in the gutter. Jacques and I took a few hard long pulls in the gutter and shelled a couple of riders, but the main contenders remained.

it was then back to back attacking, my legs were recovering fast and I launched attack after attack, I forced a lot of riders to close gaps and got them to burn matches, but I was burning mine too and I attacked maybe three times too many. John Wakefield countered and Neil Swarts went on his wheel. Our team now had to chase and the guys were already tired and still trying to protect Clive.

For the final 5km  We couldn’t close John’s perfectly timed move and even though I buried myself to get within 5 seconds for points it wasn’t enough. I dropped Clive off at the base of the uphill sprint way too early, but he was strong enough to hold onto a long sprint for third place.

A small mistake cost us the race but our team had done well and salvaged a podium. I was pleased with my legs on the day, but disappointed in my lack of patience. Another lesson learned.

After taking some time off the bike and getting some windy base miles in the legs over the Christmas holidays, the day dawned for the first race of the season only two weeks after the Christmas pies had run out. Needless to say I was not in the shape of my life and was still struggling with anaesthetic after-effects from my operation in early December.

I jumped into the start pen in A group sporting my new Aurecon colours. Thankfully the wind was up in full force and this helped me tremendously as the climbing goats would get held up on the two major obstacles of the day.

As expected the assault on Ou Kaapse Weg was limited by the wind and i made it over the climb in touch with the leaders for the first time in my life, I showed my appreciation by attacking on the descent but it was playful and wasted as I’d never get away there. Through to Ocean view drive it was plain sailing with the wind and again a side wind didn’t hurt over the hump to Witsand where again we turned into the teeth of the wind. I held back and sat in all the way up to Red Hill triangle, again the wind holding up the climbers from laying down too much pain, then it was a fast frenzy of chase and attack up the final slopes of Smitswinkel.

about 2km from the summit a small group went clear and hovered 50m off the front, I could see the gap was not being closed as the chase group tired, shortly before the crest I launched to cross over the gap taking Luke with me. On the fast descent we didn’t take long to get in touch, and immediately began to work the break clear. I could see by the calibre of riders present that this was going to be the move of the day.

We rode homeward at upwards of 60kmh ave and pressed a 2 minute gap, then the infighting began. Alister Davies attacked up the rise to the golf course at Simonstown, I took up the chase and close him down, then Luke and Neil attacked together and stayed clear right until Sunny Cove.

The infighting had slowed us down and John Wakefield and James Tennant gassed it to close on us alone by the time we exited Fish Hoek. I was hoping for a head start up Boyes Drive but I couldn’t get away, and the steep 15% gradient sent me out the back and the rest of the break into pieces as well. I rode at my own pace and hoped to pick up some riders that had dug too deep.

I caught 4 riders at the Westlake turn, unfortunately Clive who had crashed earlier, Luke and Neil. Craig Boyes crashed as we turned and I swerved to avoid him. We needed to maintain our gap on the chasing bunch and worked together for the final 5km. Luke got up to sprint and I jumped after him, I rounded him with 100m to go and stayed clear to finish 9th.

Overall I was happy to have made the move and finished strong so early in the season, hopefully more to come.

Having won my age category at the Msundusi World masters qualifier the pressure was on for me to perform in my own back yard. I wanted to prove to myself that it wasn’t a fluke and importantly to go to SA Champs as the champion from the Cape.

I hadn’t yet aquired a full spec TT bike and resorted to converting my Venge again for the job. The course was out on the Paardeberg road that has hardly any flat parts at all. The rolling hills made choosing the Venge a little easier and I had a known setup to work with. I fitted Swift’s 90mm Hemoglobin wheels which took a little getting used to on my warm up, but luckily my start time caught a break in the terribly weather.

Converted Venge with 90mm Tubbies

The weather was dramatic with gusting winds and not very much assistance. It was a headwind out and a sidewind home! I set off at a steady tempo, nicely downhill to start so I didn’t fill up with lactic acid. I had a good rhythm and caught my 1 minute man in under 3km, and caught two more before the turn around at 15km. After that it was all mental as I had no marker to chase, and had a big gap behind me. Steven was driving backup for me on the day and he kept me motivated throughout with shouting and hooting from the car.

The last quarter was mostly uphill, I had to keep turning a big gear and keep momentum up but save something for the final uphill drag to the line. I rode a very calculated race and finished on empty, I had no more left in the tank.

I waited impatiently for the results but after chatting to my main rivals and getting their times I was confident. Finally the announcement came, I had won and by about 1 minute over 30km. I was elated and relived at the same time and an now looking forward to putting the blue and white stripes on my new skinsuit

After parading around with the youngsters, students and Pro’s for a year with team RSAWEB, the new year meant new challenges and also a new team.

I signed for team Aurecon for 2012 and look forward to some excellent racing and hopefully some good results. I’m back to racing in the Subvet 30 plus age cat. Hopefully I can use my racing and experience over the last year to good effect to provide the team with some results.

It’s going to be a jam packed season with 7 race strong road league starting in January, interspersed with local classics and then onto SA TT Champs and SA Road Champs in March. Straight off the plane and into the fire for the Cape Epic 2012. Later in the year the main event, the Worlds Masters TT and having just made the cut, the road race as well!

Here’s to an excellent year ahead

Team Aurecon's new colours

We decided to drive up to to Bloemfontein, not because we loved each others constant company, but because flights were ridiculously expensive to the lush brown capital of SA. We split the trip into two parts to minimise fatigue and stayed overnight in Beaufort West. The three of us, Ed, Jos and then drove the remainder of the way through to Bloem the next day. We arrived around lunch time and set off to find out hotel and get sorted for a training ride around town. The Hotel was in the …um…business end of town, and we kept our stay there to a minimum, although the rooms were perfectly fine. After our ride we set about a wild goose chase for some Future life cereal for Ed and Carl, while I played taxi. Once we decided bloem had never heard of such a thing nor staying open beyond 5pm on the weekend that thousands of hungry cyclists turn up we headed home for a shower and change and then out to dinner. I wont elaborate again but see below to see who came to the rescue.

The start was very early, 5:30 am and we could ride to the start area from our hotel to warm up, for got up at 4 so had plenty of time to doodle around once we got there. The weather was great and I expected a fairly uneventful day as it was pretty flat aside form the two back to back 14% grades that would attempt to kill me later.

From the gun the race was very fast, averaging well over 40kmph we cruised along mostly in the gutter at the will of MTN who clearly had early flights home. The constant gutter split the field and saw us all in the tail end… we moved through to the front and gave chase. i tried to keep my work to a minimum but eventually had to lend a hand in the pacemaking. We caught.

We sat in for a while until the next fast gutter and managed to get split off again as dead wheels ahead couldn’t hold the pace, this time a much longer chase was needed and when we got back there was a break away from the lead group and they had all sat up. We chased with some other teams but in the end we couldn’t do it all and sat up and let someone else do the work for a change. The gap grew.

The kays has ticked along very fast and now the bunch was easing up in anticipation of the double climbs at 75km, I rolled to near the front and hammered it as we hit the climb but my legs had nothing, I just went backwards. Edward gave me a shove or three and tired himself out in the process, I went over in touch but the second roller did more damage and the field had been shattered. The 3 man breakaway was now joined by 2 more as they caught up over the climbs and a group of 20 or so gave chase. It was Carl’s turn now to pull me over and we went over with the team cars and tail of the pack in sight. We hammered it so hard for ages and were closing the gap between us, but we could only manage so long. We caught and passed riders as they fell off the lead pack, now still in the gutter. Jos was up ahead after making the split. Carl and I couldn’t get back in. The pack turned into the final stretch and we were into a headwind.  We relented and slowed to a manageable pace to finish.

In the End Jos got 18th place in a tough bunch sprint, and I was still the 1st SV 30+ man home but they didn’t cater for my category here. It was great hard and fast racing and all adds to the teams experience. Learning each course through the year will bring better results each time we revisit.

Ok I’m a bit behind on my blog right now, but it’s been flat out racing for the last two months, so it’s time for a bit of catchup.

This is a little back to front time wise but it actually works out perfectly, you’ll see why in a bit…

The team and I drove up to Bloem for OFM weekend, we scampered around town at dinner time and hoped to find a good pasta. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast on the drive and were now beside ourselves. We cruised into the Bloem waterfront, spotted Primi Piatti, and strolled in. It was packed to the rafters (understandably) and we decided to check out the competition nearby to get something sooner. This was perhaps the single biggest mistake of the whole weekend!

We sat down at another restaurant nearby, they advised they were kinda full but could have food out after a short wait. We waited, this was 7:20pm. After getting a round of waters, and an hour later there was still no food. We resorted to eating the biscotti off their closed coffee bar to satisfy the pangs and kept waiting… at just before 9pm we got a little upset, asked if our food was nearly done, but the disappearing waiter kept coming back empty handed – we couldn’t wait anymore (and they were running out of biscotti) so we left money on the table for the water and ninja bombed.

We climbed the stairs straight into Primi Piatti and sat right down at 9pm. Our friendly waitress advised they were close to shutting the kitchen but they could still help us if we ordered quick. We ordered four Recco Con Pollo’s in a heartbeat and got drinks in the short wait. The service was seriously fast and we were elbow deep in fettucini not even 10 minutes later. We realised soon we were going to hit rock bottom on the porcelain and ordered a large pizza to share in between mouthfuls. Another record delivery later and the twirling forks were exchanged for a hands on attack, as slice by slice disappeared.  Meanwhile the bill arrived and we could hightail it out of there to get some sleep before the 4am wake up.

In by 9pm, two main courses done and bill paid and in the car park by 9:30 – Now that was something to behold. Primi Piatti you rocked our worlds.

So… this leads to my next announcement (after realising we couldn’t race without them) that Team RSAWEB will be fuelled up by Primi Piatti for all races from now on, and we’ll never have to endure a culinary nightmare again. Not to mention those morning Primi breakfast rides and cups of coffee, I cant wait to get training!

And just so you know (because I didn’t know either until now) they have a great carbo loading menu and a sweet loyalty program for frequent flyers (that’s the elbows up at the table kind) check the menu out below and visit their website to find out about the Primi Loyalty Card

Winning becomes a habit, and the harder I ride the luckier I get!

I’d been off the bike for the whole week, after cramping in the Msundusi Road Race and pedalling through them, my legs were damaged, my tendons were inflamed and swollen and I couldn’t walk without pain. Monday was bad, Tuesday was worse but thankfully Wednesday brought some respite, I could walk more freely and I felt I could ride the crit without too much hassle. My Aim was to spin out my legs to loosen them up for the weekend.

It was windy, so I planned to hide in the pack and roll around doing as little as possible. Lap one put an end to that when a huge wind split opened up only half way around the track, I looked ahead and saw only top contenders in the race, not very good news and the flailing dudes on the front of my group weren’t bringing it any closer! I had to get across or it was game over.  I went…hard!

Into the wind my flat road TT style was closing the gap, with the wind I wasn’t making much inroads, but I could maintain what I’d brought back. It took a lap of effort to get across, dragging two Daikin riders with me but I made it, and without the main bunch. I had now joined the breakaway and it already contained my team mate Jos. We helped each other and worked the break into a sustainable gap, then the infighting started. Gutters and attacks came at will as the guys tried to shake each other down, the bunch of 11 was thinning lap after lap.

I would open gaps into the wind and made riders chase me down to tire them out, and the same came from other riders all round the course. In the final three laps I made a break and caused a major split and when David Garrett and Darren Lill joined forces to give chase, they broke away from the rest. I rode solo for a lap while they worked their way back to me. David rested behind Darren in the closing stages and I eased up on the pedals before they rejoined me to take a breather, it was now a three way dice. As I suspected DG attacked soon after closing me down. I jumped immediately not allowing a gap to open, Darren didn’t follow.

It was down to David and I with 1 lap to go. There was still a 6 man chasing bunch so we couldn’t ease up and start attacking each other just yet. We worked together somewhat until the final bend where David sat on my wheel and wouldn’t roll through. I knew he would and I kept the pace high so he couldn’t get a big leap if he jumped me. I rolled up to a place I was happy to open up the sprint. I knew I had a bigger kick, it was just a question of how much was left in the tank. I got it all right and DG followed and held my wheel but couldn’t come around once out of the slip, I held the power to the line and crossed with half a bike length. 2nd win for me in the series and I am now 2nd on the points ladder. Happy days!

Sprint Finish