Kevin Evans: Tip Trans Cederberg Challenge

Cruising the Cederberg.

Photo Swen Lauer. Kevin Evans

Tip Trans Cederberg Challenge, 115km, 1600m

The Tip Trans Cederberg Challenge was held in the small town of Citrusdal, about two hours from Cape Town. Dave and I decided to take part in the race, one for training, and two to ‘scout’ out the area for possible future racing. Makadasadventures and Mtizi Knipe organized the race and her crew were more than accommodating towards us.

It was a cold start, but the sun was out and a beautiful route of mainly district roads lay ahead. The route left Citrusdal in the direction of Clanwilliam, went over the Nieuwoudts Pass towards Algeria (the campsite, not Country) and looped around back to Citrusdal.

Dave and I set a fairly hard tempo from the start, and soon we had only Louise Knipe (Contego) and Craig Boyes (Cyclefunatic) with us.

We started the big obstacle of the day, the Nieuwoudts Pass and we yet again turned up the tempo, Dave then attacking with about 4km remaining of the climb. The other two riders followed me, and once Dave had a big enough gap to secure the King of the Mountain competition, I tried to break away to join him. However Louise was able to follow all my efforts and I decided not to drag him across to Dave, so eased up. This left Dave with around 75km on his own to ride to the finish. Nice.

Race profile.

I rode with Louise and Craig for the rest of the day, with no one really trying to pull Dave back. As the climbs were over for the day, I settled down and waited for a sprint finish with the boys. The run in around the dam was a little too hectic for me as Louise outsprinted Craig and myself to take second place. Dave had done a proper effort to ride alone all the way to the finish to win the race.

Thanks again to Makadasadventure for having Team360life there, and we hope to return the floating trophy next year to try and defend it.

Next race I will do this weekend in Port Elizabeth, a road event, followed by an intense two-week block of racing and training in KZN as final preparation for World Championships.

Till then,

Cheers,

Kevin Evans