Kitzalp Bike Marathon, Austria

2nd at Kitzalp this weekend confirmed that I have good form and have timed the training well for the Marathon World Championships next weekend. As has Mannie who finished just behind me, really showing his expeirence in these mountains. I had good legs the whole race and was climbing well considering all my travelling this week and adaptions that I had to make. 88km with nearly 4000m of climbing proved too brutal for most, but not Paez who won the race with a record time. So all in all an awesome result for the "Africans".

Graskop Hill Climb Champs

So my first Grass head hill climb champs went well and the form looks to be on track for the Worlds in two weeks. I managed to put in a well timed attack on lap three of six around the Gods Window circuit, and with Dave and Waylon just siiting on in the small group that was left, I pushed hard on my own to ride the remaining laps and take the road race. Dave rode away on the last climb to come in second by himself, and Waylon winning from the remaining bunch. So another 1,2,3 for the team.
This little episode was followed by the "Hill Climb", a TT up Koowyns Pass. I only realised the effort from the mornings race once I got stuck into the first kilometer of the climb. The legs were like bricks! I still managed to come away with the second fastest time however, just 20sec behind Dave who won in 21:58, and Waylon in third with a time of 22:48. The rest of the weekend was spent training with the Club100 guys and gals, everyone having a fantastic weekend in Sabie.
Well as I write this I'm in Europe- Austria, heading off to race Kitzalp Marathon, starting tomorrow with another "hill Climb". The marathon is on Saturday and will be my final preperation for World Champs the following weekend. Will keep you posted, hasta la pasta.

Training at atitude continues

So we onto our second week at nearly 2000m now and the bodies are starting to adapt nicely. Most of our training we've ridden down to about a thousand meters or less so we can still have the benefits of traing wth bigger power outputs. Here is a small pic of us doing some rollers on the balcony today on our recovery day, looks like DG about to smash the railings at 40km/hr!
Training hard for World Marathon champs in Italy in three weeks, with the climbs there going upto 2000m, the altitude adjustment taking place should be right on the money!

Induna Drifter #3, Hazyview

Returning to Hazyview for the Induna Drifter, was the second time for me at this event, and the first time I've been able to descend to Hazyview after staying up altitude for the previous week. With our big boss there, and his bigger boss from MTN, it was time to give them a show. And that we did by total domination. Melt was looking in awesome shape, only a week before his XC world champs in Italy. Dave and I simply followed and contributed to the fast tempo being set, leaving only J.Kritzinger able to hang on until we started the second loop with the big climbs. From there the three of us rode away and on the final downhill to the finish Dave backed off due to Olympic prep, with Melt going over the line first, and myself right behind him. So I'm three Drifters down, and second place in all of them! Enough to keep me as the leader of the series, however with the next one in Stellenbosch also doubling as the SA Marathon champs, I'll be extremely motivated to keep my SA title! So now back to altitude till Graskop Hillclimb champs next week, till then, hasta la pasta.
P.S, pics to follow soon.

Official Sub-Vet now

Well it's official, I now qualify to race the sub-vet catagory as I turned 30 on Friday. I managed to get a small cake on our "coffee" ride with DG and then spent the rest of the day in the car heading home to celebrate with my family. This next week will feature some big prep for the World Marathon Champs, with the team being confirmed earlier in the week. I have big goals for the event which should suit my endurance. Induna Drifter #3 will be next weekend too,I really enjoyed the event last year, should be some hard racing! till then, hasta la pasta.

Rooibergeco challenge

Garmin, you'll be lost without it, were the sponsors of this new event held out in Limpopo province. And what an awesome event they put on. Amazing riding through the bushveld, great scenery, fantastic food, and another two day team race offering fantastic prize money for us professionals. So after a bad luck first day, DG and I had 4 puncture's and two crashes but still managed a third on the day. On the positive side our team mates had a hassle free ride and won the stage by two minutes over team USN. On day 2 we just made sure we kept Mannie and Melt up there in the lead, whilst after we had one more puncture, riding ourselves into second place overall. So we managed another 1 2 for the team. Good job boys! Now i'm doing some basics with Dave in cape town before hitting the lowveld for some heavy worlds training. Till then, ciao.