WATERSIDE WIMPY CYCLE CHALLENGE - 20 February 2011

Saturday evening saw the Mr Price vets team make the trip to the north west corner of KZN. Once used as a popular stop over for wagons in the 1800s, Newcastle was soon to be invaded by a breed of wheels and testosterone very different to that of the late 1800's. In this century – the wagons are carbon , the engines are legs and the drivers are well...... lets just say lycra wasn’t made in khaki.

After a seemingly long drive we (Andrew, Mike and Werner) arrived at the Newcastle Inn . Emile and Bryan had driven up earlier in the day and were already digesting dinner by the time we arrived . Somehow we managed (not sure how...) to convince Emile to join us for a late beer while we ate our dinner at the local Spur. During dinner team tactics were discussed and multiple plans were made for the 80km route the following day. The start : Waterside Wimpy. The Route : an undulating cruise through the countryside of Newcastle.

The best laid plans are always flawed..........

Newly attired in our new kit (better late than never), we hit the road at 5am the following morning on our warm up to the start. The weather was perfect for a days racing and what was to turn into a superbly organised and attended race. Like i said - all plans are always flawed. It started on a hill, we turned the corner up a hill and finished up a hill. Luckily we were in our own territory and not in Jhb participating in a Nascar type bike race with just as many bone braking crashes.

The first few kilometres were as per usual - the odd attack and nervous chase. This was soon destroyed by an almost vertical climb 20km into the race. We weren’t sure how hard the hill was, so we sent Werner up the road just before the climb to scare the bunch. It almost worked but ended up blasting the bunch into pieces courtesy of tempo chase from Werner Moolman of Cyclelab Durban. A few unsuccessful brakes went away shortly after but the brake of the day went at 30km when Emile countered a move from Werner Moolman and shot up the road. Rowan Tyler(Fego) and Mike Adey(Cyclelab PMB) gave chase and made it across to make it a 3 man battle at the head of the race. Now that the break was represented , the bunch settled into a reasonable pace until the next steep climb split it even further, leaving about 12 in the follow group. Making it into the second split, Mike and Andrew were locked into protecting the lead that Emile had created. Luckily we did not have to do too much as we had a man up the road.

The calm did not last long after the turn as the chasing 3rd bunch managed to bring us back as close as 13 seconds just before the turn back onto the main road - 15km from the finish. This information sent our bunch into a frenzy of attacks from Cyclelab and Fego. Luckily Emiles break had a maximum of 2m26 by the main road so the fight now was for 4th . The attacks also gave another minute to the third bunch which by this stage was starting to hurt.

As discovered in the morning, the finish was preceded by a rather long and hard climb. The final attack came from one of the Mr Price juniors that had made the split. This blew everything to pieces. Mike popped first followed closely by Andrew, leaving the final positions to be fought out by Cyclelab , Fego and the Mr Price juniors.

At the finish line we discovered that Emile had snatched a third after being away in the break for most of the day. Rowan Tyler put in a massive attack on the second to last bump and managed to hold off a charging Mike Adey for the win.

So for the third weekend in a row we were on the podium. Not bad for a bunch of thirties with day jobs.

Thanks to the team management and support for the well organised trip.

Mike Viljoen

Introducing the Mr Price KZN Vets 30+ team for 2011

This is a very, very late Introduction to the members of the Mr Price KZN Vets 30+ team for 2011.

The members from left to right in the picture above is: Andrew Reeves, Bryan Cusack, Emile Fouché, Werner Venter and Mike Viljoen. Absent from the picture above is: Sean Merredew (In the Picture Below)

Dischem Ride for Sight - 13 February 2011

The Mr Price vets team competed in the ride for sight race on 13th Febuary in Johannesburg. The riders were Emile Fouche, Sean Merredew, Andrew Reeves, Werner Venter and Michael Viljoen.

The conditions were good for racing with clear skies and little wind, and with a flat to rolling course, the race was fast. The Category 1 bunch started quickly and repeated attacks from most of the teams kept the pace high. A few small moves rode clear of the bunch but without the right mix of riders they all came back quickly. The bunch was large and twitchy and numerous crashes occurred, luckily none of our team crashed.

After 40kms a break of four riders got away and held a 30 second gap. They stayed away until the hills around the Suikerbossie area where the bunch reeled them in. More attacks ensued and a group of 5 riders rode clear, at speeds well over 50km/h. The group had three MTN Quebeka riders (Christoph Van Heerden, Daryl Impey, Reinhardt Janse Van Rensburg), one DCM rider (Ian Mcleod) and one Bonitas rider (Waylon Woolcock).

The MTN pair of Impey and Van Rensburg gave it their all for their teammate Van Heerden, knowing he packed the best sprint in the group. Their hard work paid off and Christoph Van Heerden defended his title from last year winning the small group sprint in a time of 2:29:37; 8 minutes faster than last years winning time.

The tricky and twisty bunch sprint was won 2 minutes later by Arran Brown, followed by Jacques Fullard and Herman Fouche.

The Vets category was won by Jacques Fullard with Robert Quinn second and Andrew Reeves of Mr Price third.

The vets team rode well and Emile, Sean, Andrew and Mike finished in the front bunch with the same time, Werner came in a few minutes later.


Our team manager Julian followed the race with spare wheels for us but luckily none of us needed them.

By Andrew Reeves

The New Fast One – 2011

Early on Sunday the 30th of January we arrived at the Midvaal Race Track in Meyerton to compete in The New Fast One, which would also be our first Cat 1 race for the year. The Mr Price Vets Top Club team was represented by Werner Venter, Mike Viljoen, Andrew Reeves and I. I was nervous for this race as I quite enjoyed my 2010 year in the very well behaved VA batch. The thought of coming back to a bunch where it seems that you are racing between a bunch of hundred or so taxi drivers scared the crap out of me.

At 6h00 the Cat 1 race started and we were on the road with 24 other Top Club teams ranging from the professional teams like Bonitas (Previously Medscheme) to junior teams. I found that when racing in a huge bunch like this you cannot afford not to concentrate at all times, as everyone fights to get as close to the front as they can and there is movement in the bunch all the time. Returning from a seven day break off the bike and only four days of riding after that, I could not help but take a back seat in the race, as I found my intensity levels were down the drain. The whole bunch pretty much stayed together until we reach the 50km mark on the R42 where a huge crash happened, which probably split the bunch in about half. Lucky for me I was just able to avoid it, unfortunately Werner was caught up behind it and he had his own race from there. From there we turned left on to the R551 and then right into the R557 (Karee Kloof road). We went through Daleside village, turned left into Henley Drive and then right into Blougras Street. In about 5km we were out of the Henley village. Mike and I were guarding the back going through this corners section and it cost us dearly. Mike popped off and then I popped off on the corner where we turned left onto the R551. I just could not manage to sit a wheel to get back to the main bunch. I was gutted to see the bunch ride away and did the last couple of kilometres on my own to the finish. If I had been five positions forward in the bunch, I would have been there!

Andrew had an amazing ride and was positioned nicely near the front of the bunch throughout the whole race. Heading to the sprint finish he got on Jacques Fullard’s (Blackrock) wheel, but Jacques’ kick was just too much. It was the right wheel to try and sit though and that tactic pulled Andrew into 10th place overall and 2nd in the VA (30-39) category, which Jacques won.

This race was extremely fast with an average of 45km/h for the Category 1 bunch. With bunches this big you have to make use of the right hand lane of the road and when there is no road closure, it is a dangerous problem because of all the traffic. I hope there will be at least rolling road closure for the Category 1 bunch next year.

All in all it was a good race and we started the season with some great results, thanks to Andrew.

By Emile Fouché