Engen Dynamic Cycle Challenge 22 August 2010

It was a brilliant day for cycling when we lined up at the start line in front of Moses Madiba Stadium. The Mr Price team was represented by Werner Moolman, Mark Davel, Gwyn Pine, Iven Scharein and me. The field was not too big with 26 cyclists lining up for the VA race. We knew a tough day in the saddle was ahead as we had quite a bit of climbing to do. When we discussed tactics the morning before the race I understood it that the plan was to get as much of the team as we can to the top of M19, trying to get a break and have a team time trial from there. As usually things did not go according to plan during the race but this time it was for the better.

It was 6h06 and off we went. Gwyn must have missed the race briefing because he was off the front of the bunch even before we turned right into Battery Beach Road, which is only like 100 metres or so from the start line. Werner, Iven and Mark were at the front of the bunch and I rolled to the front to join them. As we turned left into Snell Parade Martin Atterbury (Bring it On) went off the front of the bunch to cross over to Gwyn. I asked Werner if I should follow and he told me I should, so I got on Martin’s wheel and he pulled me to Gwyn.

Now usually in my reports I can write what was happening in the bunch, in this case I can’t.

As we reached Gwyn I rolled to the front and Gwyn and I started rotating with Martin sitting our wheel. We turned left into Athlone drive, right onto the M4 north and left into Riverside Road. Martin was at a disadvantage because it was him against two Mr Price riders, but he was not getting a free ride and he started working with us after Gwyn had a chat to him. Looking behind us there was no sight of the bunch, they weren’t chasing. We worked together to the bottom of the M19 where I went to the front and led the three of us up the climb. Martin could not maintain our pace and dropped off at about half way up, I kept going making sure Gwyn was in contact. Leon Grobler managed us better than Johan Bruyneel would have and he gave us time gaps, asking us if we were alright and telling us what was happening behind us.
At the top of M19 we had about a 2min30 sec gap on the bunch. Gwyn is a specialist when it comes to time trialling and the next part of the route was his kind of riding. We kept on rotating taking turns on the front. We went through Pinetown, down the M7 heading to the Bluff. It was nice seeing familiar faces, next to the road and riding, cheering us on. We turned left into Bluff Road, where the next session of climbing started, then right into Lighthouse Road which becomes Marine Drive and then right into Badulla Drive. I was still feeling strong and Gwyn was looking on form, although he said he was digging on the hills a bit. Gwyn asked me here how many races I have won this year. My answer was that I have not won a race ever. Then Gwyn said that I am going to today. I was in doubt if we were going to stay away but it motivated me to keep going and so we did.

We caught up with the leading tandems on Himalayas Road, apparently the driver of the winning tandem took them on a bit of a scenic route. The stoker on that specific tandem looked like he was scared to death!

From there we went on to the R102 South Coast road, turned left into Prospecton Road which becomes Andrew Zondo Road and where our last big climb (or rather kick) for the day was, did a loop through that area and then back down Andrew Zondo, right into South Coast Road and entered the M4 Northbound. Leon was motivating us all the way and was giving us heads up on what was ahead on the route and happening behind us. I was pulling on most of the hills and then Gwyn and I rotated on the other sections. On the M4 Leon told us that we had this race in the bag and that Werner and the team was controlling the bunch behind us.

With 15km to go both Gwyn and I were taking strain. The route led us left into Margaret Mncadi Ave and then left into Samora Machel Street (Aliwal) which becomes Masabalala Yengwa Ave. Gwyn assured me the race was mine calling me a Lion. Well, I was about to roar of pain! I never in my life would have thought I would be so glad to see Moses Madiba Stadium. We cruised over the finish line with me in first and Gwyn in second. How was that for a 100 km break!

In the bunch, attack after attack followed on the M4. Werner, Iven, Michael Adey (Mr Price club rider) and Andrew Reeves (Bring it on) got a lead on the bunch and contested the bunch sprint. Andrew finished in 3rd, with Michael in 4th and Iven in 5th which made up the podium for the day.

Thanks for the win Gwyn!

What a great route and race it was! I am looking forward to this one next year.

Emile Fouche

Mid-Vaal Vets Tour 7 to 9 August 2010.

The first time when I was introduced to the Mid-Vaal tour was in 2008, when I was an up and coming “fun-rider” (Which I probably still am). That year I was asked to help in the service vehicles and I was in awe of the Mr Price Vets team and how good they were racing, not expecting I would get my chance to be in the team to do this tour two years later.

I could not help to be a bit nervous when we left Hillcrest heading for Walkerville on Friday the 6th of August. After registering for the race at the Boswell Wilkie Circus (No, we didn’t see any clowns), we headed to Lapeng Hotel where we unpacked and then went for a warm up ride. The team that went was Werner Moolman, Mark Davel, Norvyn Pitout, Gwyn Pine and myself. Michael Adey entered the 30+ category as a club member. David Yapp entered the 40+ category.

It was freezing when we got on our bikes on the Saturday morning when we cycled the 30 odd kilometres towards the start of the 8km time trial. I had a discussion with Werner on Friday night where he said I did not have to concentrate on the time trial that much, as I was already was at a disadvantage without the proper equipment and should save my legs for the 70km stage the afternoon, so my plan was to give a good effort without exhausting myself too much. The time trial route was more or less at a descending gradient all the way and we were lucky enough to have a tail wind so good time results were expected. I was quite happy with my result in 12th position with a time of 00:10:26. Werner klapped Gwyn with 1 second to be in first place and at that stage our biggest threat was James Louter from MTN who finished in 3rd place, 6 seconds behind Werner.

The results for stage 1.

1. Werner Moolman - 00:09:20
2. Gwyn Pine 00:09:21
3. James Louter 00:09:26
4. Paul van den Heuvel 00:09:32
5. Russell Lund 00:09:39
6. Gary Rabie 00:09:46
7. David van Straaten 00:09:56
8. Gavin van Aswegen 00:09:59
9. Michael Adey 00:10:05
10. Adam Sargent 00:10:07
11. Norvyn Pitout 00:10:12
12. Emile Fouche 00:10:25
13. Martin van wyk 00:10:26
14. Mervin Scorgie 00:10:29
15. Deon Calder 00:10:35
16. Gavin Jacobs 00:10:41
17. Carel Bosman 00:10:44
18. Christo van der Merwe 00:10:45
19. Lyle Hanekom 00:10:47
20. Hannes Wessels 00:10:52
21. Mark Davel 00:11:02
22. Willem Bezuidenhout 00:11:02
23. Carl Lotter 00:11:11
24. Johan Joubert 00:11:28
25. Andy Robertson 00:11:31
26. Zuko Nonxuba 00:11:51
27. Tijl van den Winkel 00:12:01

At the start of the 70 km stage at 14h00 on Saturday afternoon we had both the yellow jersey (Werner) and green jersey (Gwyn) wearers in our team. The pace started off quite leisurely and I rolled to the front and just kept it quite easy waiting for some fireworks to happen as requested by Werner. It was nice to race with radios as the race bible said nothing about radios not being allowed. A couple of attacks started to happen and eventually I got in a break with Mark, Martin van Wyk (MTN) and another individual rider. We kept the pace going as we wanted to make sure none of the contenders got any bonus seconds at the hotspot that was coming up at the 18km mark. Martin van Wyk took the hotspot with Mark second and me in third. As we completed the task Mark and I sat up and we waited for the bunch to catch us. Not too long after that another break formed containing Mark and Gwyn with 6 other riders. We were happy that we had two riders in the break so we did not have to put on a chase and for a while the rest of the bunch seemed content with that as well. Mark contended the KOM and got a 3rd. From the 50km mark the pace went up quite a bit so that we can keep the gap close to a minute. Werner, me and Norvyn were doing hard pulls on the front with the other riders like James Louter. I got shelved at the 10km to go mark and a split happened in the chase group containing Werner, Michael Adey and 7 other riders. In the front bunch of the race Martin van Wyk got away with a 7 second lead to take the win with Russel Lund in second and Gavin van Aswegen in third. Gwyn took over the overall lead and was now in the yellow jersey.

The overall results were as below after stage 2.

1. Gwyn Pine 01:49:26
2. Russell Lund 01:49:36
3. Gavin van Aswegen 01:49:58
4. David van Straaten 01:49:59
5. Martin van wyk 01:50:16
6. Werner Moolman 01:50:21
7. James Louter 01:50:27
8. Paul van den Heuvel 01:50:33
9. Mervin Scorgie 01:50:34
10. Gary Rabie 01:50:47
11. Mark Davel 01:51:05
12. Willem Bezuidenhout 01:51:07
13. Michael Adey 01:51:30
14. Adam Sargent 01:51:35
15. Christo van der Merwe 01:51:51
16. Emile Fouche 01:51:52
17. Hannes Wessels 01:51:58
18. Deon Calder 01:52:00
19. Gavin Jacobs 01:52:09
20. Carl Lotter 01:52:12
21. Carel Bosman 01:52:12
22. Lyle Hanekom 01:52:15
23. Zuko Nonxuba 01:53:19
24. Tijl van den Winkel 01:53:29
25. Norvyn Pitout 01:56:42
26. Johan Joubert 01:57:41
27. Andy Robertson 02:11:50

A long day in the saddle was ahead on the second day’s 126km stage 3. The race plan was to keep it together and close any attacks, but James Louter (MTN) had other plans. Luckily Werner noticed at the start line James had something up his sleeve as he had his bike on the big chain ring already. From the word go James put in an attack! Werner followed with Michael Adey and Paul van den Heuvel on their wheel. Gwyn asked Werner if we had to chase and Werner told Kelvin to make the call, we decided to let the break go and so it did! No-one in the bunch was interested to chase. For kilometres and kilometres we just rolled through without putting in any real effort. Norvyn mentioned at some stage that we are rolling through at like 200 watts which was a cruise. When Kelvin asked if anyone wanted to return to the car to get bottles everyone in the team who were in the bunch were keen to drop back. When a commissaire came to tell us that the break of the 40s categorie was on their way, some of the individuals in the bunch decided it was time to increase the pace and about six guys went to the front to work a bit and it was our turn to suck wheel. Eventually we did get slowed down by the commissaire to let the break of the 40s category overtake us and long enough for them to get away. That opened the gap to our break even more up to about 10 minutes. In the last 40 kilometres of the stage there was an attack from a Bulk Pack Meat rider with another rider on his wheel. The wind was hectic so the second rider dropped back saying it is nuts to ride away in that conditions. We cruised along forgetting about the Bulk Pack rider until Gwyn mentioned to us that he is still up ahead, from there we decided to put on a bit of a chase as Gwyn was still on 5th position on the GC. After the lone rider was caught it was quite a hard ride home. The wind was having its share of the fun and we had to fight for a sweet spot in the bunch not to be guttered too much. This guttering caused a couple of riders to drop off. Meanwhile in the front there were some politics being played out and Paul van den Heuvel (Cyclelab) managed to get a gap on Werner and James towards the finish. Paul went over the finish line first with a lead of 1 minute and 16 seconds over Werner and James. Michael finished 4th about 22 seconds behind Werner and James. Gwyn was having a good go at the bunch sprint when we got to the finish but some intelligent taxi driver thought it was in his best interest to slow everyone down. Everyone in the bunch was given the same time, 10 minutes behind the stage 3 winner. Werner said afterwards the strongest guy in the break definitely won the stage.

The results after stage 3

1. Paul van den Heuvel 05:11:23
2. Werner Moolman 05:12:27
3. James Louter 05:12:33
4. Michael Adey 05:13:58
5. Gwyn Pine 05:20:29
6. Russell Lund 05:20:39
7. Gavin van Aswegen 05:21:01
8. David van Straaten 05:21:02
9. Martin van wyk 05:21:19
10. Mervin Scorgie 05:21:33
11. Gary Rabie 05:21:46
12. Mark Davel 05:22:04
13. Willem Bezuidenhout 05:22:06
14. Adam Sargent 05:22:34
15. Christo van der Merwe 05:22:50
16. Emile Fouche 05:22:51
17. Hannes Wessels 05:22:57
18. Carl Lotter 05:23:11
19. Carel Bosman 05:23:11
20. Lyle Hanekom 05:23:14
21. Tijl van den Winkel 05:24:28
22. Norvyn Pitout 05:27:41
23. Zuko Nonxuba 05:42:14
24. Deon Calder 05:44:23
25. Gavin Jacobs 05:44:26
26. Johan Joubert 05:47:20
27. Andy Robertson 12:11:50


It was freezing cold when we arrived at the Mid-Vaal race track for the 4th stage, which was a kermesse. We were in an interesting scenario. Paul van den Heuvel was now in the yellow jersey with Werner in second, 1 minute and 4 seconds behind Paul. How we were going to close a minute on the yellow jersey was nearly impossible, but as we discussed on the Sunday evening before the race, anything can happen.

The kermesse started at quite a pace and had quite a different feel to it than normal road racing. I was wondering how many of these 2.4km laps we were going to be able to fit into one hour before they sound the alarm for the last lap. There were quite a couple of attacks and eventually two riders got away on the front. On the following lap I got a small gap on the bunch and tried to cross over to the two riders, but couldn’t. Luckily I was caught by the bunch as I did not realise that Paul was sitting on my wheel (Werner told me later). Norvyn managed to cross the gap and so did James Louter, so the chase was on as Werner had only a 6 second lead on James. Werner, Gwyn and Mark were pulling hard on the front to close the gap down. Eventually I worked myself to the front on the S bends of the track to try and help Werner who was sitting on the front of the bunch. After receiving some verbal abuse from Werner to slack a bit down so that they can get on my wheel I did my share on the front and then got shelved back to the back of the bunch trying to recover. Disaster struck for Paul as his chain dropped, Werner tried to give him a helping hand but Paul was uncleated and committed to stop to fix his chain. On the next lap there was a split containing Werner, Michael, James and Gary Rabie, with Paul chasing trying to get back to the main bunch. The pace of the bunch slowed down as not we or any of the MTN riders was working anymore and Paul hooked back on, going straight to the front and started pulling the bunch trying to limit the damage to the time gap already done. Unfortunately for Paul and fortunately for us Paul had absolutely no one to help him chase the break and the time gap increased to just over a minute. Gary Rabie won the stage with James in 2nd and Werner in 3rd.

We were concerned that Paul might still be in yellow after stage 4 but was pleased to find out that Werner just managed to get yellow back. For the first time in the Mid-Vaal tour’s history the first two riders had exactly the same overall time and officials had to determine the overall yellow jersey winner by looking at the previous stage results. Paul had one stage win, Werner had one win and two third places.

The yellow jersey is back with MR PRICE Cycle Club KZN.
What a great first Mid-Vaal tour for me it was!
Thanks Werner for giving me the yellow jersey!


The Results after stage 4

1. Werner Moolman 06:15:41
2. Paul van den Heuvel 06:15:41
3. James Louter 06:15:47
4. Michael Adey 06:18:16
5. Gwyn Pine 06:24:47
6. Gary Rabie 06:24:58
7. Gavin van Aswegen 06:25:19
8. David van Straaten 06:25:20
9. Martin van wyk 06:25:37
10. Mark Davel 06:26:22
11. Willem Bezuidenhout 06:26:40
12. Adam Sargent 06:26:52
13. Christo van der Merwe 06:27:08
14. Emile Fouche 06:27:09
15. Hannes Wessels 06:27:15
16. Carl Lotter 06:27:29
17. Mervin Scorgie 06:29:06
18. Russell Lund 06:31:12
19. Norvyn Pitout 06:31:59
20. Carel Bosman 06:33:44
21. Lyle Hanekom 06:33:47
22. Tijl van den Winkel 06:35:01
23. Zuko Nonxuba 06:52:47
24. Johan Joubert 06:57:53
25. Deon Calder 15:44:23
26. Gavin Jacobs 15:44:26
27. Andy Robertson 22:11:50


Emile Fouché

Toti69er 2010 Vets Team Race Report

By Emile Fouche

As there has not been any local racing since the Tour Durban which was at the start of May, I think all local cyclists were looking forward to some racing when the Toti69er took place on the 11th of July.

The Mr Price Vets team was represented by Werner Moolman, Mark Davel, Gwyn Pine, Norvyn Pitout and myself. Some of the other teams and riders present at the start line of the 84km event were House of Paint, Fego Cafe, Burry Stander and Peter-Lee Jefferies.

The race started fast and aggressive from the word go. As the bunch climbed out of Amanzimtoti House of Paint attacked and a split happened containing Dean Edwards, Dusty Day, Jason Bakke, Richard Baxter, Burry Stander, Jonty Tivers (Mr Price Junior), Mat Goetsch, Peter Lee Jefferies, Kelvin Beneke, Werner and myself. Jonty had a hard time keeping up with his junior gears and dropped back to the bunch. Werner and I managed to stay with them up to the climb going past Scottburgh. Both Werner and I got dropped from the leading group there, I just didn’t have the legs and Werner was still recovering from the flu. Werner and I tried to chase them down for a while but their pace was just too fast for us. From there Werner and I just rolled through until the main bunch caught us at the turnaround mark.

The overall and elite podium positions were being fought out by the guys in the break, Mat was still with them so that sorted him out for 1st in the 30s category, but 2nd and 3rd was still undecided. From the turnaround mark the bunch more or less stayed together, with us taking a turn in the front every now and again. Nothing too exciting was happening except for a couple of accelerations here and there. In the last 10 km the pace went up drastically with Fego Cafee making it hard in the front of the bunch. I burnt my matches when I was in the break and just could not get myself to the front, but was happy that I could see Mark close to the front that definitely had a chance for a podium position when it comes to a sprint finish. Unfortunately Mark punctured in the final kilometres to the finish line. Not I or Norvyn were in a position to contest the sprint so our chances for a podium pretty much went out of the Window there.

The sprint was won by Deno van Heerden with Rowan Tyler right on his wheel. So it was an all Fego Cafe podium in the 30s category which was a great result for them.

Well done to Gwyn who got a 3rd in the 40s category.

Burry Stander outsprinted Dean Edwards to win the race overall.

Once again the Toti69er was a great event.

Tour Durban – 2 May 2010

The Mr Price vets team lined up at the 30-39 start group, eager to make an impression after riding in the previous week’s Panorama Tour. The main competition on the day was going to be the in form Fego Coffee team. It was rather unfortunate that the Black Rock team and the complete Bulk Pack Meat team was not present.

The race started briskly with several attacks going immediately after the gun. One of these attacks stuck and a group of 7 riders got away. Emile Fouche and Gwyn Pine represented Mr Price in this group along with Fego coffee’s Matt Goetsch. This meant that the rest of the Mr Price team sat in and simply covered any riders trying to bridge to the break group.

Gwyn drove the break hard up the M7 resulting in Martin Atterbury popping out of the back of the break group to join us in the chase group.

On the M7 Werner Moolman intelligently revved the pace of the chase group sky high so as to shake out all the hangers on. At the top of the M7 the chase group had been reduced to about 15 riders and it was here that Fego Coffee had another rider join the break group.

With Gwyn driving the break group the gap ultimately got up to around 1:20 on the chase group before Werner called us to increase our pace to bring the gap down a little. The idea was to get the gap to around 1 minute and hold it there in case any one of our team mates in the break got into trouble.

With the pace drifting up and being pushed by those individual riders who had missed the break, the break away group was caught about 3 km before the La Mercy turn around. Thereafter the attacks started coming again with each one being covered and no one letting anything go. As we approached Durban it was obvious that it would be a bunch gallop to the post and we would need to rely on Mark Davel to blitz over the line for a win.

The last 2 corners were quite messy and Mark needed to be well placed going into them. He was not lucky enough to be perfectly positioned and approaching the line he opened up, leading the pack to the line. Unfortunately he went a few meters too early and just as he started fading, Deno Van Heerden edged passed him on the line.

We were ecstatic with the 2nd place the Mark Davel got. Well done also to Gwyn and Emile for the long time you spend in the break.

MTN Panorama Tour 24 to 27 April 2010 – Sub Vets

By Emile Fouche

Werner asked me to write a report on our Panorama Tour this year and I decided to write the report from my perspective.

We couldn’t believe that the Panorama Tour was here already when we packed the vehicles to leave for White River on Friday morning. Saturday morning would be the start of the first stage and I was unsure of how prepared I was for what was laying ahead for us in the next four days, as I had just returned from a four week bout with the dreaded flu.

The Mr Price teams entered for the event were made up as follows: Sub Vets (30 +): Werner Moolman and me, Vets (40+): Iven Scharein and Gwyn Pine, Masters (50+): Derek Tivers and Flip Krugel, Mixed: Mark Davel and Isabel Moolman, Ladies: Sandra Haywood and Marina Smuts.

It was overcast when we left the house for Casterbridge to line up at the start line. It was a bit unfortunate that about all the Mr Price team riders were seeded in the lower batches even though we were all some of the higher seeded riders in our respective categories. That made things a bit difficult from the gun as we had to race past many teams in the neutral zone to catch up with the front teams that was having a jol and a cup of tea behind the neutral car. Just before the 25km mark some action started to happen as it was the MTN hotspot for the Mens, Ladies and mixed teams ahead on the Da Gama Dam climb. Werner and I managed to end up in a break with a couple of strong teams including riders like David Garret, Moolman Welgemoed, Gary Beneke, Calvin Beneke, Jacques Fullard and Jac-Louis van Wyk. We were off and on this front group a couple of times but we managed to stay there with Werner pushing and dragging me behind this group. I was taking a lot of strain. At the bottom of the Spitskop climb Werner told me that we should move to the front of this group and as I was about to try and move forward when one of the younger riders in the group decided to change direction and take my front wheel with him which caused me to crash. We lost quite some time here as my bike (and I) was stuffed and we tried to get it ride able again. Another bunch caught up with us. I realized my front brake calipers were completely loose, so I had to remove them and hook them around my handle bars which created some interesting riding conditions on the descends as I only had rear brakes now. With Werner pushing and dragging me along we managed to stay with this bunch and finished with a time of 3 hours and 28 minutes. We were in fourth place for the Sub Vets after stage one, about twelve minutes behind the category leaders. Stage two on Sunday morning was overcast yet again. At least we were seeded in the A batch now and did not have to race through the neutral zone to be in front with the race leaders. I was feeling a lot better than on day one and managed to give Werner a bit of a break from pushing and dragging me up the hills for the first 60 km. This is a fast stage but from the 50 km mark the front bunch was rolling quite slowly and another bunch caught us from behind. Mark, Isabel, Derek and Flip were in this bunch. The real racing only started with about 20 km left to go as this was where teams could hurt one another on the hills before the finish. We were six minutes behind third place and the plan was to make up some time. Werner went to the front with me sitting his wheel and drove the pace hard. Unfortunately I was not on form and the stronger riders in the bunch got away from us (This included the team SAfindit which was in 3rd place). Werner, Iven, Gwyn and I were riding together now. The three of them working hard and I were just trying to hang on for dear life. We finished this stage in 2 hours 12 minutes, about four minutes behind the stage winners and category leaders. We moved into 5th position for the Sub Vets now and 3rd place was getting out of reach.

Stage three started in some light drizzling rain. On about the 20km mark Werner shouted at me to follow him and we had a bit of a break away to try and take the Hot Spot on the 35km mark. The other teams weren’t letting us get away though and riders like David Garret, Moolman Welgemoed and Nico Bell followed us up to the top of Spitskop. When they went to the front they were too strong for me and rode away from us. After a couple of kilometers a chase group caught up with us. Yet again I could not stay with them but managed to stay on the wheel of a tandem and the the SAfindit team. We stuck together for quite some time but on the downhill to Sabie bad luck struck yet again and my cassette on my rear wheel came loose. There we lost the tandem and SAfindit and watched them ride away as we rode into Sabie. We started the climb up Long Tom pass and I was not having a good time at all. A bunch caught us from behind containing the 40+ category leaders. Gwyn and Iven was in this bunch as well. I tried staying with this bunch as long as I could but even with Werner dragging and pushing me along I could not. I was spent. We started the long descent from Long Tom Pass all on our ace when Werner spotted one of the official backup vehicles. We switched bikes and Werner told me to ride so long on his bike while he changed my rear wheel. Werner caught up with me again in a bunch a couple of kilometers down the road. At least I managed to stay with them. Later Mark and Isabel’s bunch caught us and now we were quite a big bunch rolling on to the finish. On 105km we hit another climb and this bunch got stretched out quite a bit. We finished this stage in 3 hours 32 minutes, still 5th in the Sub Vets and 21st overall.

At last the final day was here and we were ready for the time trial with at least one podium in mind. It was on a tough 24 kilometer with the same grueling finish as on stage two. I could not do any work but I sat on Werner’s wheel for all I was worth. We caught a couple of teams that started in front of us. With 9 kilometers left to go disaster struck once again, Werner’s rear wheel punctured. Werner told me we are still going on and he carried on with a flat rear wheel. We finished the Time Trial in 41 minutes and 38 seconds, missing 3rd place on the podium with 34 seconds.

We finished the tour in 9 hours, 54 minutes and 38 seconds. Our final result was 22nd overall and 5th place in the Sub Vet category. This tour is a must do and I can’t wait to take revenge on these killer hills of White River and surrounds next year!

Well done to Gwyn, Iven, Isabel, Mark, Flip and Derek with all their podium positions. Thanks Werner for your patience during this tour. It was an honor having you as my partner.

Panorama Tour 2010 – Veteran’s category report

Team “One Click” represented Mr Price Cycling Club at the 2010 Panorama Tour in the veteran’s category. It was Gwyn Pine’s and my first time at this event and we unfortunately were seeded into start batch “D” on the first day. This meant that we had to go all out to get to the front of the race at the start of the first stage.

Stage 1 (115km, 2213m ascent). The racing started out fairly briskly in cool, misty conditions. Despite our initial hard effort, Gwyn and I managed to hang on to the front of the race until the first hot spot at 25km where I blew up. Gwyn, the strong man, helped and encouraged me but we still lost contact with the leaders of the Vets category and we grovelled for another 90km over many energy sapping climbs and down some fast descents (max speed just on 90km/h). With Gwyn’s tenacity and strength we finally made it home as 5th Vets (23rd overall) 4 minutes down on the other 4 Vets teams.
Stage 2 (80km, 1192m ascent). I had heard about the neutral zone and that it was very easy to get dropped in it because of the high speed that the peleton rode at. However, nothing could prepare me for the actual experience. It seemed as if the speed was the same going up the hills as going down. Fortunately after the neutral zone the pace became a little more manageable. The peleton rode a fairly comfortable pace for the first 50 km but with 30 km to go the road suddenly kicked up all the way home and the pace hotted up. All the leading Vets teams stayed together in the second group with the front group being made up of the top overall GC contenders. Somewhere along the line a Vet team got away and ended up wining the stage despite being some 10 minutes down on the GC. Gwyn and I had a far better ride and ended the stage 4th in the Vets (24th overall). Our GC position remained unchanged at 5th even though we had made up a few seconds on the stage. We gained confidence in this stage because we started seeing cracks appearing in some of our opponents.

Stage 3 (113km, 2055m ascent). Again the neutral zone was far from being a normal neutral zone but at least Gwyn and I knew what to expect. The racing was again fairly brisk with Gwyn attacking the peleton in the first 6km of the stage which forced me to try and bridge to him. We were quickly brought back on the first real uphill and the peleton split up as we began the climb up Spitskop (5.5km at 5.3% gradient) to the hot spot. Gwyn and I both gained a small gap on the leading Vets teams on the early parts of the climb but at the hot spot we had been caught. The pace however caused a split and with some teams puncturing, 3 Vets teams got away. On the decent into Sabie we reached speeds of up to 85km/h and covered the next 11km in just over 10 minutes. Unfortunately Long Tom Pass loomed and put an end to our speedy run. The next 8.1km were all uphill with an average gradient of 5.2%. Once over Long Tom the remaining Vets teams worked together to maintain the gap that we had over the chasing teams which also meant that Gwyn and I could potentially move into 3rd on the GC. Fortunately we were able to maintain the hard effort and were rewarded by gaining 7 minutes over the next Vet team to put us comfortably into 3rd for the stage and on the GC. We were still around 4 minutes down on the 2nd Vet team on GC, we knew that the time trial would require our best effort. The first place GC was beyond our reach over a 24km time trial.

Stage 4 (24km time trial, 454m ascent). We started 19th last (being 19th overall on GC) just behind Graeme Cronje and Cherise Taylor with the 4th placed Vets team 1 minute ahead of us. Gwyn, being the time trial specialist, set a cracking pace which had me on the rivet from the gun. He powered us through the time trial both up the drags and down the descents enabling us to catch the 4th placed Vets team within the first 10km of the time trial. Now we knew that we had gained another minute on the 4th place but still pushed on hard unfortunately not being able to catch Graeme and Cherise! We ended the tour with a rewarding 22nd best TT overall (42:23) and 2nd Vet for the stage. Despite gaining more than 30 seconds on the 2nd placed Vets team on GC, we remained 3rd on GC at the end of the tour and 17th overall in a time of 9:58:38.

Many thanks to Gwyn Pine who is not only awesomely strong but also always so positive.

Congratulations to Isabel Moolman and Mark Davel for a fine, consistent performance to take 2nd overall in the Mixed category.

Iven Scharein

MTN Panorama Tour 2010 - Mixed

Day 1:

The Panorama Tour 2010 for the Mr Price Team started with an early wake up on Friday (just after 3am) to meet at Werner's place for the long drive to White River. Leaving just after 5am we finally arrived at our accommodation at about 2:23pm and then straight off to register and grocery shopping.

In all the training we jokingly referred to raining for the neutral zone as this is always one of the hardest sections. While there is some sort of seeding system in place, the lead car typically heads of at such a pace that only the strongest teams survive the neutral zone in the lead group and this year it was to prove true to form on day 1. The seeding system was supposed to put all riders in the same category together in the start pens, but some teams managed to get themselves re-seeded so while Blom and I started with the majority of the groups in "C" batch, the favorites in the Mixed section (Greame Crionje and Cherise Taylor) managed to move up to "A" batch. Although the race is supposed to be a mass start with the seeding just determining how close you are to the front, by the time we moved out of the start pens onto the main road, the leaders must have been almost 500m ahead and despite sprinting as fast as possible, we never managed to catch up to the lead group before the end of the neutral zone and as a result were only ever going to be racing for second.

The first stage is about 115km and there is almost no flat road. With well over 2000m of climbing it was really tough. The first half of the stage has a number of small but nasty climbs as you head towards Hazyview and then left towards Sabie where the fun really starts with a 12km climb to the top of Spitzkop. Although we did not know it at the time, heading towards Sabie we were in the group with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Mixed teams and I jokingly told Blom that we would attack the group (about 30 riders) as we reached Sabie and started the climb. I was feeling really strong on the day so true to my word,as we reached the left turn I grabbed hold of Blom and we attacked - quickly opening up a gap of about 100m before one of the stronger male teams rode across to us. Just as they reached us and I thought we would work together, they pulled off to the side of the road to fill their water bottles at the water point. We were not going to hang around and wait so we pressed on - all the time conscious that were were pulling out a bit more distance on the chasing group.

Finally we had some good fortune as we started catching some of the teams who had dropped off the lead group and just near the top of the climb the team who had stopped for water also joined us. Now with a really strong group of about 10 riders we rode really hard for the last 30 or so km back to White River, and despite dropping off this group on the final kick up to the finish we still managed to finish almost 5 minutes ahead of the next Mixed Team who had been with us at the start of the Climb out of Sabie. Our time for the stage was about 3hrs 45mins, well behind the leaders (Greame and Cherise) but they did have the advantage of being able to ride comfortably with the leading group without having to put in the effort themselves.

The other Riders from Mr Price also put in strong performances with Werner and Emile 4th in the 30-39's despite Emile crashing, Gwyn and Iven 5th in the 40-49 ad Derek and Flip 4th in the 50+. Sandra and Marina finished in the top 10 in the Ladies section.

Day 2 is a bit easier and with a bit of a buffer over the 3rd place team and no chance of catching the leaders (unless they have a serious problem) we looked forward to recovering a bit before the challeng of Stage 3 with 2 major climbs over another 115km or so with again more than 2000m of climbing.....


Day 2:

Probably the easiest stage of the Tour but still over 1100m of climbing in 80km and most of this climbing is in the final 30km.

Fortunately Blom and I were in the top 50 overall after day 1 so we were "seeded" and able to start at the front of the field for day 2. After a short "neutral zone" there was a nasty couple of km at full pace which split the bunch and unfortunately we were the last team dropped from the lead group as the pace was incredibly hard. We were however fortunate to end up riding with quite a big bunch which also included the 3rd placed mixed team so we were not too concerned.

After a tricky first 20km we hit the fast flat section down to Nelspruit, and were fortunate to have a strong tandem in the group as we really flew with little or no effort. From Nelspruit we took the left turn taking us towards the airport road After another few km we were really surprised to see the lead group just ahead and they seemed to be riding really easy. as it turned out there were a few riders away but it was nice to have actually caught the lead group.

This situation was sure to change and did as we took the left turn back towards White River past the airport. What goes down must come back up.... Blom and I rode relatively hard at the start of the hill and managed to get in a group ahead of the 3rd placed team. We worked hard to stay in this group and at the end of the day were rewarded with another 2nd place, gaining another 4 mins on the team in 3rd, but Graeme Cronje and Cherise Taylor were just in a different class finishing a few minutes ahead of us to extend their overall lead.


Day 3:

Another really tough day including 2 major climbs each about 8-10km long. The weather at the start did not look promising - light rain and heavy skies overhead. The start followed the same route as day 2 and once again the group split just after the neutral zone but we worked hard to get us back to the leading bunch. As the climbing began in earnest once again we were dropped off this group and riding with the 3rd placed mixed team. Riding up the first big climb of the day we made a point of sticking near the front of the group, and this paid off as we were fortunate enough to be caught by a strong tandem (I think they had punctured earlier) in the last few meters of the climb giving us an opportunity for a fast descent into Sabie. Looking around we were pleased to see that we were now the only mixed team in the group.

From Sabie we turned l,eft and began the grueling climb up Long Tom pass. In a way it was a blessing that we rode into the mist as it made it impossible to see how much further we still had to climb. Near the Turn back towards Nelspruit we had another bit of good luck as we caught another Tandem. With almost 30km of downhill from this point it was the best news ever. At stages we were going so fast the group nearly split up on the downhill. At this pace we were constantly catching teams who had fallen off the pace of the leading group. To our absolute surprise one of the last groups contained Graeme and Cherise as well as Werner. An even bigger surprise was that Werner was riding Emile's bike!!! (Emile had a problem with his wheel so they had swapped bikes with Emile riding on ahead on Werner's bike while Werner waited for a spare wheel).

The final 10km proved just too tough for us to be able to stay with Graeme and Cherise and contend for the Stage win, but all the good fortune (and tactics) of staying with the Tandems paid off as we were now almost 30 mins ahead of 3rd (and a long 19mins off 1st) going into the final day's 24km time trial.

Day 4:

Nice to have a bit of extra sleep as the TT start list was reverse order on overall classification and we were now 33rd overall. With the time gaps between us and our closest competition the TT was merely academic in terms of the overall position. With sore legs from 3 days of hard racing and little motivation for being able to improve on our overall position we decided that we would push hard but not as Iven might put it "Super-Hard".
The 24km route for the TT was not flat and at the end of the day our 47:21 time was only good enough for 3rd on the day, but there were no changes in the overall positions. Having been on the podium every day and finishing off 2nd overall meant a really successful tour and a lot of trophies for Blom and myself.

A couple of special thanks.

Firstly to my partner - Blom, you were amazing. Sorry for abusing your body like that! Secondly to all the other Mr Price teammates for making this such an enjoyable weekend. Well done to Iven and Gwyn for your 3rd Place overall in the 40-49 category - an excellent result. Finally thanks to Taryn for all your support and giving up your long weekend to be babysitter for the mini-Moolmans.

Mark