So life goes on and the training continues. I'm busy preparing for the two tours the MTN road team will compete in at the end of the month. The team will race in the Tour of Ireland followed by the Tour of Britain. The events are UCI 2.1's and will feature some of the top Protour teams. So I will have to work on my speed and endurance and try and carry my form over to these two events. It's an awesome chance for me to get some valuable "Tour" expeirence as I try further my road career. If the team can do well at these, it may open the doors for some more invitations next year.
All the while my wife is into her last 10days of the pregnancy and looking swell, I mean well! Ruby will be a new challenge in our lives that we are really looking forward to! Anyway, got to go train again, till later, Hasta la pasta!
Monday, August 11, 2008
Sunday, August 3, 2008
SA Marathon champs, Stellenbosch
Defending a title is always going to be tough, and especially on your third attempt, the pressure seems to add up as do the expectations. However with a strong mind,good team and good preparation, one can overcome this to produce the result you want.
As it had not stopped raining in the Cape almost the whole winter, the course was always going to be really wet, muddy and slippery. Most of my preparation went into the equipment for the bike, as Tyronne replaced basically my whole drivetrain before the race. I stuck to my trusted Conti Mountain King’s though and they handled the mud really well.
So the race saw two and a half thousand riders starting and I was quick to start setting the tempo on the first climb. As the first 11km went straight up, I tried to force the split early on and put everyone else on the back foot. Just before the king of the mountain, I saw Mannie was on his own riding across to me. I eased up slightly for him and once he joined me, the race was almost done and dusted bar any mishaps or mechanicals. Mannie and I drove it really hard, he was pacing the flats and downs, myself pacing the climbs. Mannie putting in some final Olympic prep was looking great and a big help on the day. There were some very interesting twists and turns to the course, with some fun singletrack and various “road” crossings. Even though the distance was short for a “true’ marathon, the route still had over 1500metres of climbing in it, tough by anyone’s standards.
On the final climb with about 8km to go, I rode a very hard tempo, and with Mannie nursing a slight flu, he dropped off and I was free to ride solo to the finish.
Melt at this stage had caught and past Mannie taking second place, third then going to Mannie. Another 1,2,3 for our team, and the SA title stays in the team camp for another year, job well done.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Illovo Eston
After 2 days of travelling what felt like around the country, Mannie, Melt and I arrived at the Illovo Eston Mountain bike race. The event in the past was a drifter race, this year however it was not but this did nothing to detract from the three thousand riders that lined up on Sunday for the various distances. Our MTN team dominated with a first,second,third, riding a big gap into the rest of the field. Now I'm home, doing some last preperations to try and defend my marathon title this coming Saturday. I've prepared harder than ever and the raw data from Activeworx with the SRM powermeters is looking more than on track. The legs are feeling good and based on this weekends race, should be enough. Just need a small bit of luck too!
Monday, July 21, 2008
MTN Team training camp
Herewith just a short update on my last 10 days or so: basically flew home last week Wednesday after my short European trip and was great to spend some time at home with the family. Training at home was a bit of a shock hitting winter weather after being used to super summer days in Austria. Presently I'm in Nelspruit on a team camp with the road team. We raced the Jock cycle tour on Saturday, was my first time and I battled a bit with the adaption back to the road bike after spending all my time in Europe on the MTB. DG and I smashed Boulders and rode about 4min into the bunch in the next 40km, however with 25km to go I formed a "mushroom cloud" explosion as I blew badly. Just managed to peice myself together to the finish but at least Dave was able to stay away to win. Neil finished 3rd in the bunch kick to the line. The rest of the week will be spent doing some specific training with Activeworx and will be final prep for Marathon SA's. All said and done though I should be on track for that one. At least we have summer weather here, great for training! Keep you posted, hasta la pasta.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Race Report Worlds
Marathon World Championships, Villabassa ,Italy
Well my fifth Marathon World Championships is in the bag and although it was by far my best ever result, I have some mixed feelings about the race.
To begin with, I was only seeded in 88th place, and with the first climb of the day starting immediately, it would mean I would have to go flat out from the start, maybe using up too much energy for nothing.
So we began with the first climb of about 1000m vertical, and I had fought my way into the front pack of about 20 riders, containing all the favorites. After the long descent the group simply sat up. This allowed for more riders to join from behind and ultimately meant I probably could have saved a little energy up the first climb. I found this frustrating but none the less, you never know and always have to be near the front of the race to be in contention.
The second climb of the day, although not so long but steeper than the first, the race exploded and soon I found myself with only about seven riders, still all the big names left giving me extra motivation to ride myself into the ground. As we started the third climb, the remaining group began to splinter and soon I was on my own. I was starting to feel the first two hours of hard racing and needed to eat and drink more which is difficult to do when you on the limit.
At this stage in the race, I had left Karl Platt and Thomas Frischneckt and was riding in “no mans land” to try and get on to the wheels of a Swiss trio including Buchli and Naef. I think this was my big mistake as if I had just slowed down as paced myself with Thomas and Karl, my top ten place was almost secured. Instead I went with a “go until I blow” attitude, and it was a pity but a valuable learning experience as Thomas and Karl came flying past me just before the start of the final climb. Thomas would go onto catch some more riders and finish in seventh. I would suffer on riding with Frenchman Thomas Dietch, loosing three more places to finish in 14th spot. The final 30km was a real suffer fest and most of the riders were taking strain at this point, however with some reserved energy here, you could have made up a few valuable places. My finishing time was 5hrs5min for the course of 120km with 4000m of climbing, about 20minutes off Sauser and Paulissen who were simply in a league of their own. It was great to see Gilberto Simoni and Mirko Celestino finish only 2minutes ahead of me.
Anyway, another lesson learned and I have a good idea of what I need to do next year to ride into the top ten. As far as my preparation and training went for the event, with Activeworx and the support from the team, I could not have done more or been better prepared. I have a perfect blue print for next year, and hopefully a better seeding with a little more international racing to ensure this, I’ll achieve my goals.
Well my fifth Marathon World Championships is in the bag and although it was by far my best ever result, I have some mixed feelings about the race.
To begin with, I was only seeded in 88th place, and with the first climb of the day starting immediately, it would mean I would have to go flat out from the start, maybe using up too much energy for nothing.
So we began with the first climb of about 1000m vertical, and I had fought my way into the front pack of about 20 riders, containing all the favorites. After the long descent the group simply sat up. This allowed for more riders to join from behind and ultimately meant I probably could have saved a little energy up the first climb. I found this frustrating but none the less, you never know and always have to be near the front of the race to be in contention.
The second climb of the day, although not so long but steeper than the first, the race exploded and soon I found myself with only about seven riders, still all the big names left giving me extra motivation to ride myself into the ground. As we started the third climb, the remaining group began to splinter and soon I was on my own. I was starting to feel the first two hours of hard racing and needed to eat and drink more which is difficult to do when you on the limit.
At this stage in the race, I had left Karl Platt and Thomas Frischneckt and was riding in “no mans land” to try and get on to the wheels of a Swiss trio including Buchli and Naef. I think this was my big mistake as if I had just slowed down as paced myself with Thomas and Karl, my top ten place was almost secured. Instead I went with a “go until I blow” attitude, and it was a pity but a valuable learning experience as Thomas and Karl came flying past me just before the start of the final climb. Thomas would go onto catch some more riders and finish in seventh. I would suffer on riding with Frenchman Thomas Dietch, loosing three more places to finish in 14th spot. The final 30km was a real suffer fest and most of the riders were taking strain at this point, however with some reserved energy here, you could have made up a few valuable places. My finishing time was 5hrs5min for the course of 120km with 4000m of climbing, about 20minutes off Sauser and Paulissen who were simply in a league of their own. It was great to see Gilberto Simoni and Mirko Celestino finish only 2minutes ahead of me.
Anyway, another lesson learned and I have a good idea of what I need to do next year to ride into the top ten. As far as my preparation and training went for the event, with Activeworx and the support from the team, I could not have done more or been better prepared. I have a perfect blue print for next year, and hopefully a better seeding with a little more international racing to ensure this, I’ll achieve my goals.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
14th Marathon World Champs, Italy
Quick note- finished 14th today in the World Champs, my PB and the best todate by an SA rider in Marathon. Was so hard, I'm still battling to see straight. Was a pity as on the final climb I lost the wheels of Kessiakof and Spaeth and they managed to catch Platt and one other rider to just make the top 10. So close yet so far, perhaps if I had my skinsuit on I might have been that five minutes quicker!
Better report to follow later, awseome race for mannie coming in 18th position, well done Ou man! Till ,later.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Training Austrian Altitude
When an Austrian tells you we go make an easy ride, don't follow them, unless you don't mind 2000m vertical climbing in an easy 60km loop! The training has been good and the altitude adaption is fine, whats been hard is adapting to the after 12 in the afternoon schedule. As we only race at midday on Saturday, I've been doing all my training the past ten days in the afternoon, by this time my normal body routine is sleeping! Anyway, the Hotel Wiltschnig has been really good to me, best home preperation for the big day! Will let you know how it goes..
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