We lined up for a 6h05 start in a very, very wet Pietmaritzburg on Sunday morning the 16th of October. Originally the race register showed that there were 123 entries for the VA category (Age 30-39), but on the day there were only about 75 on the start line. The rain probably indicated to the rest that they should stay in bed. Riding for the Mr Price KZN 30+ team on the day was Sean Merredew, Andrew Reeves, Werner Venter, Mike Viljoen and me. There were quite a couple of other well represented teams namely Fego, MTN Club 100, Brothers Sport and the Bring it On Puza Thursday team.
Everyone expects the bunch to split up going up Fox Hill, with a break going off in the sunrise (or rain storm in this case) and the remains trying to catch it until they reach the finish line. This year it was different, it seemed half of the bunch did bring their climbing legs and got over Fox Hill. The pace was high going up Fox, but not as high as last year when only about 15 guys went over the top. Maybe it was because of the fact that Jaco Ferreira or Jacques Fullard were not in the bunch driving it. Sean tried hard, but no one else showed interest.
Heading towards Umlaas road an attack would go off every now and then, but all of it got pulled back. After Camperdown Spar there was another attack from an MTN rider heading towards Cator ridge. I went to the front to chase but ended up opening a gap behind me. I was closing in on the MTN rider, and the bunch was closing in on me so it was pretty much mission accomplished. Once the bunch got back together another MTN rider, Jeremy Martins (Ex DCM Chrome) attacked with Werner on his wheel and that was the first real break of the day. On Harrisson Flats it was sad to see Bring it On rider, Darrell Seed sticking his hand in the air, indicating a puncture (He also mentioned something about Vark Steaks). The break was still away going up Inchanga and the commissaire told us that the VB bunch were right behind us with a 1 minute 30 seconds gap.
At the top of the climb we noticed that Jeremy had punctured and we caught Werner going up Alverstone. All was back together again and stayed like that until we reached the M13. The second break for the day happened just before we reached Hillcrest with Deno van Heerden (Fego), Andrew, a MTN rider and another two riders. We were happy with this break as we had confidence in Andrew to be able to finish it off. Unfortunately MTN did not have confidence in their rider and they chased the break down. The break was reigned in on 45th cutting from where Jeremy Martins sneaked away. Once we got onto the N3 Andrew asked me to try and help pace, even though I felt stuffed. I went to the front, rotating with Mat Goetsch (Fego), Werner, Mike and some other guys. Jeremy brought his time trialling legs though and stayed away to take the win in the VA-batch. For MTN that wasn’t enough and they also took 2nd and 3rd, with Deno in 4th and Sean wrapping up the final podium in 5th.
It was a wet miserable 2 hours and 37 minutes in the saddle, but a great race with the whole Mr Price team finishing in the main bunch.
Sunday morning October 2 saw the Mr Price Vets team line up outside Moses Mabhida stadium for the start of the 2nd running of the Engen Dynamic Cycle Challenge. Our team was represented by Andrew Reeves, Emile Fouche, Mike Viljoen, Gwyn Pine and myself. We finally got the opportunity to race in our own age category (VA 30-39) and not just hang on for dear life in the Cat 1 Elite bunch. The race organizers decided to group the VA’s with the VB’s (40-49).
We started at a very relaxed pace rolling along the beach road. As we turned onto the M4, Emile put in an effort and got away from the bunch (pretty much the same way he did so successfully last year!). No one in the bunch was interested in chasing him so his lead grew with the kilometers rolling by. The main breakup of the bunch happened as we started the climb of the M19. A select group of around 20 rides rode away leaving the rest of the bunch chasing back. Gwyn, Mike and I could always see the leading group and we put in huge efforts to close the now 40 second gap. Through Pinetown the gap kept coming down, with Martin Atterbury (Marty’s Cycles) now also contributing to the chase. We caught the leading bunch as we started the decent of the M7. From here the race was hard and fast, with various attacks being put in, but all quickly reeled back. Emile was caught by the bunch near the N2 intersection and he rolled to the back of the bunch to recover from his solo effort. The section through the Bluff was particularly hard and it was here that the break of the day got away. The break contained Andrew Reeves (Mr Price), Mark Davel and Brett Berriman (both Cyclelab), Deno van Heerden (Fego) and Stefano Madies( Dimension Data). As most of the teams in both the VA and VB categories were represented in the break, the bunch allowed the break to get away.
In the end Andrew Reeves marginally beat Brett Berriman on the line with Deno van Heerden in 3rd place in the VA race. Mark Davel won the VB race with Stefano in 2nd and Werner Moolman (Cycle Lab) in 3rd.
It was a fantastic race and thanks must go to the organizers and Cycling KZN for staging such a great event with full road closure. As a tweet read from one of the Elite riders “All classics in KZN have full road closure, we need more races like these”. I cannot agree more!
The Mr Price Vets team that lined up for the start of the Midmar Notts 80km race comprised of Bryan Cusack, Emile Fouchè, Gwyn Pine, Andrew Reeves, Werner Venter and Mike Viljoen. Team strongman Sean Merredew was away at a mountain bike race.
The start was a calm affair with a relaxed rollout. The weather was cool with a steady headwind on the way out. The first attack came after a couple of kilometres from Martin Atterbury, he was soon joined by Robert du Preez and Nic Smith. The 3 got a decent gap but the headwind was hurting them and Nic came back to the bunch at the bottom of Happy Hill.
Werner Moolman and Andrew Hill then turned up the pace on Happy Hill and the 2 Marty's riders were caught by the top.
The headwind was slowing the bunch and not many riders were prepared to commit to pacing on the front. A few individual attacks went off the front, 2 attempts from Emile, but nothing was staying away.
Just after Nottingham road we hit the 3 climbs and Bryan rode hard on the first climb to soften up the bunch. Some attacks went off the front on the second rise, and Mike was in one of them.
The bunch was not happy though and all moves were pulled back before the turn around.
As we took the turn around we saw the leading Tandem, having started 10mins ahead of us, was now only about a minute ahead. Gwyn started getting excited and, together with Werner Moolman, decided to hunt the Tandem down.
And so the speed went from 30km/h on the way out to 60km/h on the run back. The downhills and tailwind were making the speeds high and the carrot of the Tandem was keeping it fast. The tandem of Andrew and Leon held the charging bunch at bay until after Nottingham road but were then caught.
This now meant that attacks would start, after a few attempts, one from Werner Venter, a good move of 2 Cycle lab riders went clear. This meant Fego and Mr Price had to chase, although Fego only commited one rider to the chase. The one Cyclelab rider dropped from his teammate who now had a 30sec gap on the bunch.
The Mr Price team put in some strong pulls and brought back the Cyclelab rider Brett Berriman, but as he was caught with 3km to go Fego's Deno van Heerden countered hard and I hesitated to see who would chase.
The bunch was now tired however and that hesitation would cost us the race as we had a case of Deja Vú from the last Midmar race when Mike Adey rode away in a nearly identical way to win solo.
Deno had about 5 seconds on us at the line, I hit the corner first but Brett Berriman surged past me to take 2nd, giving team Mr Price a 3rd with a charging Mark Davel taking 4th.
All in all it was a good race and tactical lesson learned.
PS: If you want to sprint against Bryan, be ready for some elbows and knees...
