Newcastle Waterside Wimpy Challenge, 17 January 2010

By Emile Fouche

It looked like we might be having a rainy ride when we lined up to start our first race of the season at the Waterside Wimpy in Newcastle on Sunday morning. It was only one big start bunch as all the different age groups raced as one big category. The teams present in numbers were House of Paint, Mr Price Junior Team (Aston Davies, Callum McHardy, Jonty Tivers, Myles Musschenbroek, Travis Meadows), Mr Price Vets Team (Werner Moolman, Iven Scharein, Emile Fouche, Gwyn Pine) and the newly formed Fego Café.

At 6h30 we were off heading towards Ladysmith. About 8 kilometers down the road we took a right hand turn and then had to cross a narrow bridge. The whole bunch was pretty much together at this point. The first hill came up which the locals call “Been Breukertjie” which translates to “Leg Breaker”. The bunch got a bit split up there. Not long after that Jason Bakke (House of Paint) attacked the group and Myles managed to get on his wheel. The bunch just watched them disappear in the distance. Werner was controlling the pace of the bunch to give the two break-away riders a bit of a gap. On about the 35 to 40 km mark we came to quite a big climb and Werner told me just to stay on Christopher Jennings wheel. Unfortunately for me it somehow felt like I was being boxed in by the group and could not stay there. On the big climb I got dropped from the front bunch with another couple of riders. Werner was with the front bunch and Gwyn, Aston and me were in the second group. At the turn around point it seemed that the two break-away riders were caught as we only saw one group of riders heading back to the finish line before we got to the turn-around mark. A third group of riders joined our group consisting of Iven, Callum , Martin Atterbury and a couple of the Fego riders. We were going at a steam roller pace and could just make out the backup vehicles in the distance. We picked up Jason and Myles who had dropped from the front bunch but unfortunately lost Gwyn and Iven due to punctures. Callum gave his wheel to Gwyn who attempted to catch up.

Our group caught the front bunch with about 15 km to go to the finish. Quite a couple of attacks happened from there but all stayed pretty much together. With about 5 km to go we got a bit separated into two groups again. One of the Fego riders, Clint Olsen from Burg Wheelers and me were sitting in front of this group trying to get back. When I got to the front I heard Werner shouting “GO! GO! GO!” and I did one last pull to get us back. My legs were screaming and cramping and I had no choice but to back down and watch the bunch go.

Werner finished the race off for our team by claiming 5th overall and a podium position for MR Price.

The results were as follows:
1.) Jason Bakke (House of Paint)
2.) Christopher Jennings (Zululand Cycles)
3.) Richard Baxter (House of Paint)
4.) AC Swanepoel (Newcastle local rider)
5.) Werner Moolman (Mr Price)