Showing posts with label race day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label race day. Show all posts

MTB Photo

Here's a photo from my most recent mountain bike race, more can be seen here.

The weather was glorious even though the ride was tough.

We had a great time that weekend, see: Weekend below for more.

Recent MTB Race Photos

On Saturday I rode in the Vigne à Vigne and had a great time and finished in a very respectable time. For more info take a look at my Mountain Bike Blog.

Here are two recent photos of me mountain biking. The first is from the Vigne à Vigne and the second is from the Boschendal MTB Challenge which is part of the Cape Argus.

Cape Argus

So here are my official stats for the Cape Argus yesterday:

Time: 3:31:02
Ave Speed: 30.99
Overall Position:6925/28669
Group Position: 7/422
Age Position: 1096/3366

Cape Argus

I rode the Cape Argus on my road bike this morning and cracked a respectable time of 3:30. In truth I'm a little disappointed as I know I could have gone better but circumstance and my legs conspired against me. At least I know what I need to do next year to crack a sub 3hour.

On Sunday morning I rode the Boschendal 55k MTB race and finished in 3:18 which wasn't too bad for the first MTB race of the season. The course was very fast and easy with only one hill of note two thirds of the way into it. The course was also very sandy which made for some challenging riding at times. All in all this is the easiest of the MTB classics but a nice prelude the real race season which starts shortly.

Next Sunday morning I'll be riding in the Cape Argus
which is the 109k road race. Last year's post is here.

On Saturday I rode the Lourensford Classic MTB race, a tough 60k's around the stunning Lourensford wine estate at the foot of the Hottentots Holland mountains. The weather was almost perfect apart from a brief spell of rain, with the sun remaining firmly behind the clouds.

On Friday I went with a crowd of friends to Groot Brak where we stayed over night before heading to Uniondale at 4.30am to get there in time to register for the Karoo To Coast 100K MTB Challenge. We had a lot of fun before and after the race but had agreed that during the race it was each man for himself. So at 7.30 the race kicked off and we had a fantastic ride through to Knysna, over the Prince Alfred Pass and through some truly stunning scenery.

The race itself was tough and at the 50K point I wanted to puke, but held on. I caught Pete at that point which helped motivate me through a rough patch before hitting the 65K mark at which point I got my second wind and really stepped it up.

The results of the Stellenbosch Wes 55k MTB race are available on the RaceTec site.

My official time was: 4:04:13, with an average speed of 13.51kph which was due to the numerous portage sections.

Stellenbosch Wes MTB Race

This morning a few of the guys I ride with went to the Stellenbosch Wes MTB race to ride the 55k race starting from the Oude Libertas theatre.

This was a tough race as the mud was far worse than at the last Stellenbosch race. Despite the race being 5km's shorter and with only 1200M of climbing as opposed to 1400M in the previous race this one felt tougher, probably because of the mud. Also, my maximum heart rate was 1bpm less on this race and my average heart rate was 2bpm less. I also burnt 4435Kcal on this ride! Think I've earnt a beer or two tonight.

Gravity Adventure Festival

On Sunday I missed church (sinner!) and joined a friend for a 35k mountain bike race as part of the Gravity Adventure Festival. I have no intention of posting my time simply because I was riding to keep my friend company and have some fun along the way. The route was very easy with a gentle 4km climb at the start followed by a lot of flat and downhill. The route was through the Kogelberg Nature Reserve and followed part of the 2007 Cape Epic route. The scenery was stunning and the weather was perfect so all in all a good fun morning with excellent company.

MTB Race Photos

A couple of photos from the Stellenbosch mtb race:



Stellenbosch MTB Challenge

On Saturday my friend Paul and me went to Stellenbosch for the annual Stellenbosch MTB Challenge. We entered the 60km race and didn't disgrace ourselves! We had a lot of fun but cracked fairly decent times. I've never seen so much mud! Everyboy was havin problems with the mud in their gears which made for some interesting moments.

MTB Race

I rode the Tru Cape 40km mountain bike race this morning and whilst I enjoyed it I'm now very tired and just a little bit sore, more about that in a minute! I rode with my friend Paul and a friend of his, Paul & I ride early on Wed mornings. This was my first MTB race and like an idiot had to choose what is arguably the toughest on on the calendar. The race venue was the Grabouw Country Club and the surrounding mountains.

So here it is.. a long overdue photo of Dean on his bike in the Cape Argus. This photo was taken somewhere in the last 10km's of the race which would explain the lack of a smile on the face having done around 100km's at the time.

As you can see the scenery was truly stunning and the weather was perfect for the race. Some more stats from the race: I finished comfortably in the top half of all the 28748 riders who completed the race and I was 54th in the starting group of 420 riders, not bad!

Cape Argus

Wow! I rode the Argus, lived to tell the tale and cracked a decent time of 4hours 6minutes according to my bike computer. The official results will be out on Thursday and I expect it to be a bit longer, maybe 4:20ish as I stopped for a few drinks along the way. My computer stops when I do but the official timing chips don't register stops.