01 December 2011 No better way to finish the season
Team bizhub finished their season on a successful note winning the overall ladies elite category in the Omnicane Southern Tropical MTB Challenge ...
Mountain biking, mountain biking, 12km of road racing,
more mountain biking and the aftermath... Lise OlivierTraining Camp
It has been a fun month of mountain biking. After spending a few days at San Lameer
with my parents I headed to George for a week long training camp. Ischen and her
husband were kind enough to host me and Yolandi for the week in their lovely home
at the foot of the mountains. We headed out each day for about a four hour ride.
Every ride was in a different direction, over longer climbs and surrounded by prettier
scenery than the day before. I love that place!
MTN Clarens
The MTN Clarens race was up next just shortly after our training camp. I felt a
little bit flat to say the least and it was a little bit technical for my liking
but it ended off a perfect block of training going into Joberg2c.
Joberg2c
Just six days after the Clarens race it was time for Joberg2c. Earlier this year
Yolandi and I did Sani2c which I really enjoyed and I was extremely excited to be
a part of the inaugural Joberg2c. Going into this 9 day stage race I did not really
know what to expect apart from knowing that there was going to be a great amount
of saddle time involved. Going into this race I was probably more worried about
camping for 9 days than the actual riding that had to be done.
The race organisers do an amazing job of involving the communities along the way
and it is nice to see the financial impact all the way from Heidelberg to Scottburgh.
I was blown away by the race villages. The community around each race village did
a really great job and made each overnight stop as special as the previous one.
The video and photo presentation as well as the additional funny stuff (mouth 2
mouse (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlZhkFMfEhY) video, ITEC keep it clean prize,
Andrew and Shan jokes, etc.) included in Doug’s presentation after dinner every
evening ended each day with even greater memories.
The racing ended up being a little bit more demanding than we initially anticipated.
The stages were long and the terrain, especially the grassy sections of the first
three days, was tough. I am not a big mountain biker and I was probably the only
one who enjoyed the district roads more than the single track but the longer stages
played a little bit in my favour and I felt a little bit stronger every day.
I enjoyed every moment (ok maybe not exactly every moment) of the trip down to the
coast. There might have been just a few times when I uttered a few bad words out
of frustration while taking yet another spectacular fall but it was all still great
fun. We travelled through incredible places with breathtaking scenery. Very few
people will ever get to see the places we did and I feel really lucky to have been
a part of this journey. Thanks to Glen, Gary, Craig and all the other people involved
in organizing such an incredible event!
Tour D’urban
We finished Joberg2c on the Saturday and the rest of the Bizhub ladies came down
for Tour D’urban the following day. I was just happy to be back in a real bed after
being tent bound for 9 days. After a good night’s rest we headed to the start. It
was nice to put on the nice and clean white kit again after being pretty covered
in mud, dust and I do not even want to know what else for the previous 9 days. During
the entire Joberg2c neither Yolandi nor I had any type of mechanical but 12km into
the road race the brakes of my bike were clamping my front wheel. I guess the cables
of my road bike got rusty from spending so much time on the mountain bike lately.
It was taking too long to fix and John said to just get in the car and follow the
race. For all those who ever wondered it is not as nice as it seems sometimes.
Karkloof
I guess when you were lucky enough to have no medical, mental or mechanical issues
during a 9 day stage race it was going to catch up with you at some later stage.
Being sick the entire week after Joberg2c I was not sure whether or not to race
but I travelled down to Karkloof to decide whether or not to race the morning of
the race. Probably not one of my best decisions to line up at the start but having
made the trip down there I could not resist. It seems that in mountain biking when
one thing goes wrong it has a domino effect and everything else go wrong as well.
I bent my rear derailleur on one of my few tumbles over the handle bar. I was literally
a tree hugger for the day. Halfway up the big climb for the day I stopped and turned
around to head back after being really frustrated with my gears hopping all over
and off the cassette. I nice gentleman then offered to have a look and got it to
work a little bit better. Not knowing the way home I decided to head back up the
hill and take an easy ride to the finish. It was Jade’s first mountain bike race
and she rode the technical sections like a seasoned professional.
The aftermath: Hit the road Jack and don’t you come back (to mountain biking for
a while) no more, no more, no more...
After all the mountain biking this past month or so I am ready to dust off the road
bike. Hopefully I will be healthy to race the Magoebaskloof race this coming weekend.
MTN Clarens