We woke on Monday morning to a wet and miserable day. After 308km in the last 3 days, the last thing any of us felt like was the time trial in rain! We decided to end our ritual of rolling down the road on our bikes to the start and rather took the car.
Mr Price (Sean and myself) were first of out of our team. We started 30 seconds behind Isabel Moolman(Blommie) and Mark Davel and said that we want to catch them as soon as possible. We started of hard and caught them after 1.5km. From there we pretty much rode at a hard, constant pace over the undulating (more uphill than downhill) course. We finished our time trial with a time of 45:20 and total tour time of 10.39.31, which gave us 14th in the sub vet category.
Boksburg-by-the-sea (Andrew and Mike) finished the TT in 45:58 and a total time 10:20:30 in 11th place in the sub vet category.
Emile finished the TT with a time of 45.30 and total time of 09:57:22.
Although it was tough, we all had a fantastic time and vowed to be back next year for more punishment.
Thanks to the Julian Cox our team manager for all the arrangements!
Werner Venter
09 May 2011
Panorama Tour 2011: Stage 2 - 30 April
After the tough first day, it was a shorter and faster stage on day two, with 80kms and 1192m of climbing. The route took us from White River to Brondal, along the revamped N4 and past the Airport, then back on a hilly run in to the finish at White River.
The route had a few steady climbs in the first 25kms and lots of fast flats and descents until the last 20kms, and then the tough last set of climbs would decide the stage results.
So with tired legs we set out from Casterbridge centre at 7am into a cool but clear morning. After the neutral zone the bunch accelerated into a fast but steady pace. The bunch stayed intact over the first few gradual climbs and was hitting speeds in excess of 70km/h while dodging potholes on the descents.
Once on the N4 a break of two riders rode clear and the bunch was not concerned with chasing them as they knew the last 20kms were very hard.
As we hit the last 20kms and a series of six sharp climbs, the pace shot up as attacks started off the front. The bunch started to break up under the pressure and soon teammates were looking around for each other. My teammate Michael and I were up with leaders until the last 10kms but dropped off the pace and ended up about 4.30 mins off the stage winners from Toyota CSA U/23 team.
It was a good stage and the rest of the team finished well a few minutes later.
From Left to Right: Mark Elferink, Emile Fouche, Iris Schreuder, Werner Venter
Andrew Reeves
06 May 2011
MTN Panorama 2011 Stage 1
On the morning of the 28th of April we drove up north to the little town of White River for MTN Panorama Tour which took place from 29 April to the 2nd of May. The Panorama tour is a two man team event and we entered into the Sub-Vets category as three teams. The teams were Irish Mielies (Bryan Cusack and Emile Fouche), Boksburg by the Sea (Andrew Reeves and Mike Viljoen) and Mr Price (Sean Merredew and Werner Venter). During the drive up I received some concerning news via sms from my partner, Bryan, that he had some bug. But it did not bother me too much (Little did I know). We registered at Casterbridge and then went home to get some rest for the next day’s race.
When I got a wake-up call from Bryan at 5h00 on the Friday morning, I did not receive good news at all. Bryan was still as sick as an anorexic old dog and had to withdraw from the tour. After having a chat with Oom Hendrik Wagenaar, I was told I can ride, but would not be in contention for any prizes or official results. So a solo tour for me it was.
The route description for Stage One is White River – Kiepersol – Sabie – White River, over a distance of 115km and 2213m of climbing. Andrew, Mike and I were seeded in the A group and Werner and Sean just behind us in B. The neutral car led us from Casterbridge through a 3km neutral zone at 30km/h, on an uphill climb. If you did not manage to be near the front there you would have been in trouble already. Mike, Andrew and I were in the mix but Werner and Sean were missing. Only later we would find out Sean had some bad luck with a mechanical. The MTN Hotspot for Open Men, Women and mixed categories was at the 25km mark at the Da Gama Dam Climb. I managed it over the hill and Andrew and Mike were in a chase group which caught up to the front bunch just before Jacques Fullard and Jacques-Louis van Wyk launched an attack. In the excitement of the Blue Mountain Lodge climb I lost Mike and Andrew and ended up in a chase group which caught the main group somewhere on the Hazyview/Sabie road. From here it was pretty much a cruise to the gradual 15km Spitskop climb where I almost got dropped near the top but managed to ride myself back to the group. As we approached White River we were directed through the back roads of town to Casterbridge. I was sitting near the back of the group chatting to my coach (and Panorama partner in 2010), Werner Moolman when suddenly, around a corner, our bikes touched and I bought a plot of White River tar, about 1.5km from the finish. Could this day get any worse? (As I sit here, typing this, I’m still grinding my teeth from the agony of the roasties!)
After losing some time and getting helped onto my bike by the officials I went solo over the finish line finishing 14th on the GC overall and a would be 3rd for Sub-vets. But all that for an apple as my result didn’t count.
At the end of stage 1 Boksburg by the Sea was in 6th place and Mr Price in 14th in the Sub Veteran Category.
Overall and bad luck excluded it was a good day out on the bike and an Awesome ride.
Emile Fouche.
When I got a wake-up call from Bryan at 5h00 on the Friday morning, I did not receive good news at all. Bryan was still as sick as an anorexic old dog and had to withdraw from the tour. After having a chat with Oom Hendrik Wagenaar, I was told I can ride, but would not be in contention for any prizes or official results. So a solo tour for me it was.
The route description for Stage One is White River – Kiepersol – Sabie – White River, over a distance of 115km and 2213m of climbing. Andrew, Mike and I were seeded in the A group and Werner and Sean just behind us in B. The neutral car led us from Casterbridge through a 3km neutral zone at 30km/h, on an uphill climb. If you did not manage to be near the front there you would have been in trouble already. Mike, Andrew and I were in the mix but Werner and Sean were missing. Only later we would find out Sean had some bad luck with a mechanical. The MTN Hotspot for Open Men, Women and mixed categories was at the 25km mark at the Da Gama Dam Climb. I managed it over the hill and Andrew and Mike were in a chase group which caught up to the front bunch just before Jacques Fullard and Jacques-Louis van Wyk launched an attack. In the excitement of the Blue Mountain Lodge climb I lost Mike and Andrew and ended up in a chase group which caught the main group somewhere on the Hazyview/Sabie road. From here it was pretty much a cruise to the gradual 15km Spitskop climb where I almost got dropped near the top but managed to ride myself back to the group. As we approached White River we were directed through the back roads of town to Casterbridge. I was sitting near the back of the group chatting to my coach (and Panorama partner in 2010), Werner Moolman when suddenly, around a corner, our bikes touched and I bought a plot of White River tar, about 1.5km from the finish. Could this day get any worse? (As I sit here, typing this, I’m still grinding my teeth from the agony of the roasties!)
After losing some time and getting helped onto my bike by the officials I went solo over the finish line finishing 14th on the GC overall and a would be 3rd for Sub-vets. But all that for an apple as my result didn’t count.
At the end of stage 1 Boksburg by the Sea was in 6th place and Mr Price in 14th in the Sub Veteran Category.
Overall and bad luck excluded it was a good day out on the bike and an Awesome ride.
Emile Fouche.
04 May 2011
Lassen Series Race #4 - 17 April 2011
On a cold and cloudy morning we lined up for the 4th Lassen series race in Camperdown.
The pros from the Tasol GT team made an appearance as well as Burry Stander and Christoph Sauser fresh from their Cape Epic win.
This meant the race was going to be tough, and it was.
Burry and Christoph were on their 29er MTB's, this obviously gave them a big advantage as they could corner quickly in the wet corners and never had to swerve for any of the numerous potholes. Good thinking by team Specialized.
The bunch remained together on the 1st of the 7 laps, but the pace picked up on the climb on lap 2 and the bunch started to splinter into smaller groups.
Halfway through the race a break of 5 riders moved clear off the front group. Stander, Dean Edwards, Mat Goetsch, Mike Adey and Martin Hillerman were in the move. In the 2nd bunch was Sean Merredew and Andrew Reeves from Mr Price, and we had Christoph Sauser, Deno van Heerden and Jean Spies with us. Bryan Cusack was in a small group behind with Werner Venter and Mike Viljoen in a larger bunch further back.
There were no 30+ riders in the break but Mr Price still had to chase for the overall. In the final lap the break started playing around which slowed them and the second group caught them with about 2km to go.
Just after the groups merged there was a lull and I put in an attack.
The group was keen to chase however. and I was caught with 1km to go.
A huge acceleration by Stander and Sauser up the final climb saw the bunch break up.
At the line Burry outsprinted Jean Spies for the win and Sean came in 3rd overall and 1st vet.
This means Sean leads the series comfortably now.
Andrew Reeves
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