The New Fast One - 29 January 2012 - by Werner Venter

On Sunday morning, 29 January we lined up for the 2nd edition of the “New” Fast One outside the Midvaal Racetrack. The Mr Price vets team was represented by Emile Fouche, Mike Viljoen, Andrew Reeves, Dirk Barnard and I. With the top club structure falling away, the VA group was fairly large with most of the big teams represented and a few new teams and individuals also joining the extremely competitive 30-39 age group.


The racing started out at a fairly sedated pace of about 45km/h. One or two small attacks was made, but was reeled in easily and it became apparent that this race was probably going to end in a large bunch sprint. Our team was very active and put in a few attacks and covered all the important moves. At around the halfway point in this fast and furious race, our new found strong man, Mike Viljoen put in a big attack that resulted in the move of the day. In the break was Mike, Rowan Tyler (Fego), Craig Harvey (Cycle Nation), two MTN Club 100 riders and a rider from team without sponsor. With most of the big teams represented, most of us were happy to sit back and make the teams who missed the move chase down the break. Mountain biker, Nick Portius (Specialized) tried hard to bring the gap of over a minute down with the help of some of the other smaller teams. With around 25km to go we eventually caught the break and the racing was back on. Through Walkerville and Henley on Klip, the route makes a few twist and turns and we knew that we needed to be at the front of the bunch or risk being dropped from the group. We did just that and with around 10km to we could see MTN Club 100 organising their lead out train and it was then that Dirk Barnard (Mr Price) put in an attack to upset their rhythm. Dirk was soon reeled in and then Andrew Reeves (Mr Price) put in another attack. The finish was a 6.5km drag which was far from flat-but even the incline did not drop the speed below 50km/h! We tried to lead Andrew out for the sprint, but were outdone by a better organised MTN Club 100 team. The race was won by James Louter (MTN), with Andrew finishing in 5th place. All of us came in with the same time. After the race we learned that Emile punctured with around 3km to go-really bad luck after all the work he did for 99% of the race.


It was a very good race for our team, and even though we didn’t get the result we were looking for, we really enjoyed ourselves and proved to ourselves that we don’t need to stand back for the big teams.


Final results:


1. James Louter


2. Jacques Fullard


3. Julius Cobbett


4. Craig Harvey


5. Andrew Reeves

Photo by Mandie Herbst