Engen Dynamic Cycle Challenge 22 August 2010

It was a brilliant day for cycling when we lined up at the start line in front of Moses Madiba Stadium. The Mr Price team was represented by Werner Moolman, Mark Davel, Gwyn Pine, Iven Scharein and me. The field was not too big with 26 cyclists lining up for the VA race. We knew a tough day in the saddle was ahead as we had quite a bit of climbing to do. When we discussed tactics the morning before the race I understood it that the plan was to get as much of the team as we can to the top of M19, trying to get a break and have a team time trial from there. As usually things did not go according to plan during the race but this time it was for the better.

It was 6h06 and off we went. Gwyn must have missed the race briefing because he was off the front of the bunch even before we turned right into Battery Beach Road, which is only like 100 metres or so from the start line. Werner, Iven and Mark were at the front of the bunch and I rolled to the front to join them. As we turned left into Snell Parade Martin Atterbury (Bring it On) went off the front of the bunch to cross over to Gwyn. I asked Werner if I should follow and he told me I should, so I got on Martin’s wheel and he pulled me to Gwyn.

Now usually in my reports I can write what was happening in the bunch, in this case I can’t.

As we reached Gwyn I rolled to the front and Gwyn and I started rotating with Martin sitting our wheel. We turned left into Athlone drive, right onto the M4 north and left into Riverside Road. Martin was at a disadvantage because it was him against two Mr Price riders, but he was not getting a free ride and he started working with us after Gwyn had a chat to him. Looking behind us there was no sight of the bunch, they weren’t chasing. We worked together to the bottom of the M19 where I went to the front and led the three of us up the climb. Martin could not maintain our pace and dropped off at about half way up, I kept going making sure Gwyn was in contact. Leon Grobler managed us better than Johan Bruyneel would have and he gave us time gaps, asking us if we were alright and telling us what was happening behind us.
At the top of M19 we had about a 2min30 sec gap on the bunch. Gwyn is a specialist when it comes to time trialling and the next part of the route was his kind of riding. We kept on rotating taking turns on the front. We went through Pinetown, down the M7 heading to the Bluff. It was nice seeing familiar faces, next to the road and riding, cheering us on. We turned left into Bluff Road, where the next session of climbing started, then right into Lighthouse Road which becomes Marine Drive and then right into Badulla Drive. I was still feeling strong and Gwyn was looking on form, although he said he was digging on the hills a bit. Gwyn asked me here how many races I have won this year. My answer was that I have not won a race ever. Then Gwyn said that I am going to today. I was in doubt if we were going to stay away but it motivated me to keep going and so we did.

We caught up with the leading tandems on Himalayas Road, apparently the driver of the winning tandem took them on a bit of a scenic route. The stoker on that specific tandem looked like he was scared to death!

From there we went on to the R102 South Coast road, turned left into Prospecton Road which becomes Andrew Zondo Road and where our last big climb (or rather kick) for the day was, did a loop through that area and then back down Andrew Zondo, right into South Coast Road and entered the M4 Northbound. Leon was motivating us all the way and was giving us heads up on what was ahead on the route and happening behind us. I was pulling on most of the hills and then Gwyn and I rotated on the other sections. On the M4 Leon told us that we had this race in the bag and that Werner and the team was controlling the bunch behind us.

With 15km to go both Gwyn and I were taking strain. The route led us left into Margaret Mncadi Ave and then left into Samora Machel Street (Aliwal) which becomes Masabalala Yengwa Ave. Gwyn assured me the race was mine calling me a Lion. Well, I was about to roar of pain! I never in my life would have thought I would be so glad to see Moses Madiba Stadium. We cruised over the finish line with me in first and Gwyn in second. How was that for a 100 km break!

In the bunch, attack after attack followed on the M4. Werner, Iven, Michael Adey (Mr Price club rider) and Andrew Reeves (Bring it on) got a lead on the bunch and contested the bunch sprint. Andrew finished in 3rd, with Michael in 4th and Iven in 5th which made up the podium for the day.

Thanks for the win Gwyn!

What a great route and race it was! I am looking forward to this one next year.

Emile Fouche

Mid-Vaal Vets Tour 7 to 9 August 2010.

The first time when I was introduced to the Mid-Vaal tour was in 2008, when I was an up and coming “fun-rider” (Which I probably still am). That year I was asked to help in the service vehicles and I was in awe of the Mr Price Vets team and how good they were racing, not expecting I would get my chance to be in the team to do this tour two years later.

I could not help to be a bit nervous when we left Hillcrest heading for Walkerville on Friday the 6th of August. After registering for the race at the Boswell Wilkie Circus (No, we didn’t see any clowns), we headed to Lapeng Hotel where we unpacked and then went for a warm up ride. The team that went was Werner Moolman, Mark Davel, Norvyn Pitout, Gwyn Pine and myself. Michael Adey entered the 30+ category as a club member. David Yapp entered the 40+ category.

It was freezing when we got on our bikes on the Saturday morning when we cycled the 30 odd kilometres towards the start of the 8km time trial. I had a discussion with Werner on Friday night where he said I did not have to concentrate on the time trial that much, as I was already was at a disadvantage without the proper equipment and should save my legs for the 70km stage the afternoon, so my plan was to give a good effort without exhausting myself too much. The time trial route was more or less at a descending gradient all the way and we were lucky enough to have a tail wind so good time results were expected. I was quite happy with my result in 12th position with a time of 00:10:26. Werner klapped Gwyn with 1 second to be in first place and at that stage our biggest threat was James Louter from MTN who finished in 3rd place, 6 seconds behind Werner.

The results for stage 1.

1. Werner Moolman - 00:09:20
2. Gwyn Pine 00:09:21
3. James Louter 00:09:26
4. Paul van den Heuvel 00:09:32
5. Russell Lund 00:09:39
6. Gary Rabie 00:09:46
7. David van Straaten 00:09:56
8. Gavin van Aswegen 00:09:59
9. Michael Adey 00:10:05
10. Adam Sargent 00:10:07
11. Norvyn Pitout 00:10:12
12. Emile Fouche 00:10:25
13. Martin van wyk 00:10:26
14. Mervin Scorgie 00:10:29
15. Deon Calder 00:10:35
16. Gavin Jacobs 00:10:41
17. Carel Bosman 00:10:44
18. Christo van der Merwe 00:10:45
19. Lyle Hanekom 00:10:47
20. Hannes Wessels 00:10:52
21. Mark Davel 00:11:02
22. Willem Bezuidenhout 00:11:02
23. Carl Lotter 00:11:11
24. Johan Joubert 00:11:28
25. Andy Robertson 00:11:31
26. Zuko Nonxuba 00:11:51
27. Tijl van den Winkel 00:12:01

At the start of the 70 km stage at 14h00 on Saturday afternoon we had both the yellow jersey (Werner) and green jersey (Gwyn) wearers in our team. The pace started off quite leisurely and I rolled to the front and just kept it quite easy waiting for some fireworks to happen as requested by Werner. It was nice to race with radios as the race bible said nothing about radios not being allowed. A couple of attacks started to happen and eventually I got in a break with Mark, Martin van Wyk (MTN) and another individual rider. We kept the pace going as we wanted to make sure none of the contenders got any bonus seconds at the hotspot that was coming up at the 18km mark. Martin van Wyk took the hotspot with Mark second and me in third. As we completed the task Mark and I sat up and we waited for the bunch to catch us. Not too long after that another break formed containing Mark and Gwyn with 6 other riders. We were happy that we had two riders in the break so we did not have to put on a chase and for a while the rest of the bunch seemed content with that as well. Mark contended the KOM and got a 3rd. From the 50km mark the pace went up quite a bit so that we can keep the gap close to a minute. Werner, me and Norvyn were doing hard pulls on the front with the other riders like James Louter. I got shelved at the 10km to go mark and a split happened in the chase group containing Werner, Michael Adey and 7 other riders. In the front bunch of the race Martin van Wyk got away with a 7 second lead to take the win with Russel Lund in second and Gavin van Aswegen in third. Gwyn took over the overall lead and was now in the yellow jersey.

The overall results were as below after stage 2.

1. Gwyn Pine 01:49:26
2. Russell Lund 01:49:36
3. Gavin van Aswegen 01:49:58
4. David van Straaten 01:49:59
5. Martin van wyk 01:50:16
6. Werner Moolman 01:50:21
7. James Louter 01:50:27
8. Paul van den Heuvel 01:50:33
9. Mervin Scorgie 01:50:34
10. Gary Rabie 01:50:47
11. Mark Davel 01:51:05
12. Willem Bezuidenhout 01:51:07
13. Michael Adey 01:51:30
14. Adam Sargent 01:51:35
15. Christo van der Merwe 01:51:51
16. Emile Fouche 01:51:52
17. Hannes Wessels 01:51:58
18. Deon Calder 01:52:00
19. Gavin Jacobs 01:52:09
20. Carl Lotter 01:52:12
21. Carel Bosman 01:52:12
22. Lyle Hanekom 01:52:15
23. Zuko Nonxuba 01:53:19
24. Tijl van den Winkel 01:53:29
25. Norvyn Pitout 01:56:42
26. Johan Joubert 01:57:41
27. Andy Robertson 02:11:50

A long day in the saddle was ahead on the second day’s 126km stage 3. The race plan was to keep it together and close any attacks, but James Louter (MTN) had other plans. Luckily Werner noticed at the start line James had something up his sleeve as he had his bike on the big chain ring already. From the word go James put in an attack! Werner followed with Michael Adey and Paul van den Heuvel on their wheel. Gwyn asked Werner if we had to chase and Werner told Kelvin to make the call, we decided to let the break go and so it did! No-one in the bunch was interested to chase. For kilometres and kilometres we just rolled through without putting in any real effort. Norvyn mentioned at some stage that we are rolling through at like 200 watts which was a cruise. When Kelvin asked if anyone wanted to return to the car to get bottles everyone in the team who were in the bunch were keen to drop back. When a commissaire came to tell us that the break of the 40s categorie was on their way, some of the individuals in the bunch decided it was time to increase the pace and about six guys went to the front to work a bit and it was our turn to suck wheel. Eventually we did get slowed down by the commissaire to let the break of the 40s category overtake us and long enough for them to get away. That opened the gap to our break even more up to about 10 minutes. In the last 40 kilometres of the stage there was an attack from a Bulk Pack Meat rider with another rider on his wheel. The wind was hectic so the second rider dropped back saying it is nuts to ride away in that conditions. We cruised along forgetting about the Bulk Pack rider until Gwyn mentioned to us that he is still up ahead, from there we decided to put on a bit of a chase as Gwyn was still on 5th position on the GC. After the lone rider was caught it was quite a hard ride home. The wind was having its share of the fun and we had to fight for a sweet spot in the bunch not to be guttered too much. This guttering caused a couple of riders to drop off. Meanwhile in the front there were some politics being played out and Paul van den Heuvel (Cyclelab) managed to get a gap on Werner and James towards the finish. Paul went over the finish line first with a lead of 1 minute and 16 seconds over Werner and James. Michael finished 4th about 22 seconds behind Werner and James. Gwyn was having a good go at the bunch sprint when we got to the finish but some intelligent taxi driver thought it was in his best interest to slow everyone down. Everyone in the bunch was given the same time, 10 minutes behind the stage 3 winner. Werner said afterwards the strongest guy in the break definitely won the stage.

The results after stage 3

1. Paul van den Heuvel 05:11:23
2. Werner Moolman 05:12:27
3. James Louter 05:12:33
4. Michael Adey 05:13:58
5. Gwyn Pine 05:20:29
6. Russell Lund 05:20:39
7. Gavin van Aswegen 05:21:01
8. David van Straaten 05:21:02
9. Martin van wyk 05:21:19
10. Mervin Scorgie 05:21:33
11. Gary Rabie 05:21:46
12. Mark Davel 05:22:04
13. Willem Bezuidenhout 05:22:06
14. Adam Sargent 05:22:34
15. Christo van der Merwe 05:22:50
16. Emile Fouche 05:22:51
17. Hannes Wessels 05:22:57
18. Carl Lotter 05:23:11
19. Carel Bosman 05:23:11
20. Lyle Hanekom 05:23:14
21. Tijl van den Winkel 05:24:28
22. Norvyn Pitout 05:27:41
23. Zuko Nonxuba 05:42:14
24. Deon Calder 05:44:23
25. Gavin Jacobs 05:44:26
26. Johan Joubert 05:47:20
27. Andy Robertson 12:11:50


It was freezing cold when we arrived at the Mid-Vaal race track for the 4th stage, which was a kermesse. We were in an interesting scenario. Paul van den Heuvel was now in the yellow jersey with Werner in second, 1 minute and 4 seconds behind Paul. How we were going to close a minute on the yellow jersey was nearly impossible, but as we discussed on the Sunday evening before the race, anything can happen.

The kermesse started at quite a pace and had quite a different feel to it than normal road racing. I was wondering how many of these 2.4km laps we were going to be able to fit into one hour before they sound the alarm for the last lap. There were quite a couple of attacks and eventually two riders got away on the front. On the following lap I got a small gap on the bunch and tried to cross over to the two riders, but couldn’t. Luckily I was caught by the bunch as I did not realise that Paul was sitting on my wheel (Werner told me later). Norvyn managed to cross the gap and so did James Louter, so the chase was on as Werner had only a 6 second lead on James. Werner, Gwyn and Mark were pulling hard on the front to close the gap down. Eventually I worked myself to the front on the S bends of the track to try and help Werner who was sitting on the front of the bunch. After receiving some verbal abuse from Werner to slack a bit down so that they can get on my wheel I did my share on the front and then got shelved back to the back of the bunch trying to recover. Disaster struck for Paul as his chain dropped, Werner tried to give him a helping hand but Paul was uncleated and committed to stop to fix his chain. On the next lap there was a split containing Werner, Michael, James and Gary Rabie, with Paul chasing trying to get back to the main bunch. The pace of the bunch slowed down as not we or any of the MTN riders was working anymore and Paul hooked back on, going straight to the front and started pulling the bunch trying to limit the damage to the time gap already done. Unfortunately for Paul and fortunately for us Paul had absolutely no one to help him chase the break and the time gap increased to just over a minute. Gary Rabie won the stage with James in 2nd and Werner in 3rd.

We were concerned that Paul might still be in yellow after stage 4 but was pleased to find out that Werner just managed to get yellow back. For the first time in the Mid-Vaal tour’s history the first two riders had exactly the same overall time and officials had to determine the overall yellow jersey winner by looking at the previous stage results. Paul had one stage win, Werner had one win and two third places.

The yellow jersey is back with MR PRICE Cycle Club KZN.
What a great first Mid-Vaal tour for me it was!
Thanks Werner for giving me the yellow jersey!


The Results after stage 4

1. Werner Moolman 06:15:41
2. Paul van den Heuvel 06:15:41
3. James Louter 06:15:47
4. Michael Adey 06:18:16
5. Gwyn Pine 06:24:47
6. Gary Rabie 06:24:58
7. Gavin van Aswegen 06:25:19
8. David van Straaten 06:25:20
9. Martin van wyk 06:25:37
10. Mark Davel 06:26:22
11. Willem Bezuidenhout 06:26:40
12. Adam Sargent 06:26:52
13. Christo van der Merwe 06:27:08
14. Emile Fouche 06:27:09
15. Hannes Wessels 06:27:15
16. Carl Lotter 06:27:29
17. Mervin Scorgie 06:29:06
18. Russell Lund 06:31:12
19. Norvyn Pitout 06:31:59
20. Carel Bosman 06:33:44
21. Lyle Hanekom 06:33:47
22. Tijl van den Winkel 06:35:01
23. Zuko Nonxuba 06:52:47
24. Johan Joubert 06:57:53
25. Deon Calder 15:44:23
26. Gavin Jacobs 15:44:26
27. Andy Robertson 22:11:50


Emile Fouché