MTN Ultra Marathon #7, Hilton College

Pics by Zoon Cronje

MTN Ultra Marathon #7, Hilton College, 105km, 3000m

The MTN Ultra Marathon series moved to Hilton for the seventh leg, and the race would be hugely important in deciding the overall winner for the 2011 series. At the start of the race, the series could go possibly four or five ways, but after a very tough race, by my calculations, it looks set to be a two-man race for the overall title in two weeks time at the final.

This was the first time I was taking part in this event, and the Hilton/KZN courses are always incredible. Loads of fun flowing singletrack, hard climbs, and a real sting in the tail was the order of the day for this particular race. Local legend Brandon Stewart (Itec Connect) was the early instigator and set a really hard and fast tempo. The race quickly split into pieces, and there was a fairly select group of all the top contenders out in front. Unfortunately for him, he broke his seat clamp, so had to do some repairs costing him a possible great result.

The rest of us continued with various riders setting the tempo, and I guess everyone was waiting for the first ‘major’ climb of the day up to the 70km mark. This climb would be decisive in the overall outcome of the race. The climb was not actually that bad, however the speed the guys raced up it was incredible. Over the top, three riders had a small gap, Burry Stander (Specialized), Adrien Nyionshuti (MTN/Qhubeka) and Dave George (Nedbank 360life). A couple seconds back alone, Darren Lill (Bonitas), followed closely by Max Knox (Ghost/Doitnow), Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (MTN/Qhubeka) and myself. It was this section though, from around the 70km to the 80km feed zone that I really had a horrible encounter with ‘the man with hammer’ and I was paying large dividends for some heroic early efforts. I was soon on my own, but fortunately a handful of gels, USN spike shots and an energy bar, and I was able to pick myself up and pull myself together, although too little too late.

The race then headed down a very technical hiking trail and finished with an eight kilometer climb to the finish. At the front, Burry had opened a gap on Adrien, and was able to ride alone to another win. Adrien took second, whilst Max got the better of Dave toward the end of the climb, taking third and fourth respectively. Darren Lill came in alone in fifth place, whilst I had to settle for sixth position on the day.

All was not lost though, as Dave will become the new overall series leader with one race remaining. But its going to be a close race come the final, so expect some super exciting stuff and the closest finish in the series in the past couple of years!

Provisional Results:

1^st Burry Stander (Specialized) 4hrs18

2^nd Adrien Niyonshuti (MTN/Qhubeka) 4hrs20

3^rd Max Knox (Ghost/Doitnow) 4hrs22

4^th Dave George (Nedbank 360life) 4hrs24

5^th Darren Lill (Bonitas) 4hrs24

Next race, Team Nedbank 360life will be heading up to Klerksdorp to take part in a new mountain bike race, and should be good final preparation before we head to Crater Cruise.

Till then, cheers.

Kevin Evans

Hill2Hill

Sunday Tribune Hill2Hill, 105km

After a five-year break from doing the inaugural Hill2Hill race, Dave and I were back to have a crack at trying to win this super tough race. In 2006 I finished 2^nd, and last year, Dave managed 2^nd. Seems we would have to come back next year and have another dig though!

The race starts up at Worlds View in Pietermaritzburg, and it’s always a sprint start to try and get into the technical singletrack in the lead as it winds its way down and through the city center. The wind was blowing hard for the early 6am start, but the heat was going to play a big role later in the day.

Same as the first year I raced here, the group comes back together after the technical start, and the climbs start coming thick and fast from around 30km onwards. The temperature also started to rise rapidly, and with a strong tailwind, the body had to adapt from the colder weather we’ve had down in the Cape recently.

The main group after the climbs consisted of Marc Bass, Mannie Heymans, Phil Buys (all Garmin/Adidas), Brandon Stewart (Itec Connect), Burry Stander (Specialized) and Dave George and myself (Team Nedbank 360life).

I guess with around 30km left to race, we had a steep climb before a long piece of rocky singletrack. Just before the climb I had a slow puncture on the front wheel, which I stopped to inflate. I then rode hard to get back to the leaders, which was now down to only Brandon, Burry and Dave. I just got onto the lead trio when Burry put the hammer down through this technical section. I have to say though that our new Spark 29ers were really impressive, not only through this section, but for the whole day, however we simply couldn’t match the speed of our top cross country rider, and soon it was three of us chasing Burry.

I had to stop again to pump my wheel, and that managed to get me to the final tech zone where I was able to change it. I had to ride my own tempo from there on, and in the last 10km Mannie and Phillip caught me. Mannie was having a really good ride, as he pulled us the last 5km into a strong headwind, and on a day where I didn’t have the best legs, I had to settle for 5^th as Mannie outsprinted me to take 4^th.

Meanwhile at the front, Burry had stayed away to win his 4^th Hill2Hill challenge, Dave taking 2^nd and Brandon 3^rd.

It was a super tough day, and I quickly remembered how hard this event was. The organizers do a fantastic job of piecing together some great trails on land that must be very hard to get access into. And being a point to point race, it definitely requires more effort and there is no lack of that from their side. I’m sure Team Nedbank 360life will be on the start line next year again! Thanks to all involved.

Provisional Results:

1^st Burry Stander (Specialized)

2^nd Davie George (Team Nedbank 360life)

3^rd Brandon Stewart (Itec Connect)

4^th Mannie Heymans (Garmin/Adidas)

5^th Kevin Evans (Team Nedbank 360Life)

Next race, the MTN Ultra Marathon 50Miler in Hilton. It will be an important race in the hunt for the series. Dave and I will be staying the next week up there in preparation for the race.

Till then, cheers.

Kevin Evans

Photo by Yolande Pretorius: Kevin Evans

MTN Ultra Marathon, Gravel Travel, Diemersfontein, 105km, 2800m

The sixth leg of the National MTN Marathon series was held at the beautiful wine estate in Wellington, Diemersfontein. I only realized as we were driving into the venue that this was where the Epic started last year, and as Dave rightly pointed out, that particular day worked out well for me, and was hoping for some of the same luck today.

Conditions were perfect on the morning, fresh, but clear skies, and a full field of the countries top riders were there to tackle the course that lay ahead. In fact, I’d have to say that the course set out, was no short of ‘world standard’ and possibly one of the best courses we’ve raced the whole season. So congrats to all involved in setting out this well marked, fantastic route that tested riders on every level in all aspects of true mountain biking.

The race was somewhat different though in the way that the first 70km played out. It says a lot about the standard of racing in the country at the moment, as after 70km, we were still ten riders in the lead group! Up until this stage, the group had only briefly split on a few occasions, most notably on the climb early on up to the ‘king of the mountain’, and then through one or two of the awesome singletrack sections that came thick and fast.

It was only once we had gone through the final feed zone at around 70km, did the first big split come, started off by Neil Macdonald (RE:CM) and Brandon Stewart (Itec Connect). They got a gap heading through the feed and onto the biggest climb of the day. There was a small group of around 6 riders chasing, including other favourites, Adrien Niyonshuti, Max Knox, Jacques Rossouw, Jacques Janse Van Rensburg, Dave George and myself. First to jump the gap across to the leading two riders was Rossouw. I was riding at the back, and just taking note of the body language of the remaining riders. It soon became evident that the remaining riders were not looking to fresh, and I took a chance and decided to ride across the gap to the leaders. Neil had dropped off at this stage and I went past him and closed in on the front guys. Looking back, Van Rensburg was following me, and a little further back, Dave was coming too, and alone. This was perfect for our team tactics, as the only other two riders who were a threat to him on the overall could not follow. I eased up and waited for Dave, and once he had latched on, I dragged us up to the front two guys. From there on, all the way to the top, I set the tempo, riding hard enough to ensure we increased our lead over the rest of the riders, and discouraged any further attacks.

Once over the top, with around 20km to go, the attacks started again, and I wasn’t feeling so good at this stage, but I dug deep to hang in there, and within 5km, all my eating and drinking throughout the marathon paid off, as other riders stated to fatigue in the crucial moments. It was right then that Van Rensburg attacked, and I immediately followed him, but only for a short distance, until I countered his move and was soon alone in the front, holding onto a small gap.

The remaining 14km was very long, and seemed to drag on for a long time, my only saving grace was that we were all in the same boat. Dave was happy to sit on and let Rossouw do all the work to try chase down second position, but for me it was head down and give all I had, and hope the finish came soon enough.

Eventually the finish did come, and I was able to enjoy every second of my first win the MTN Series for 2011. Dave managed 4^th, behind the two Jacques, despite a bad crash in the final 3km which even saw him break his handle bar.

Thanks again to all involved, from Advendurance to our incredible sponsors at Nedbank 360life, here’s to a good end of the 2011 season!

Provisional Results:

1^st Kevin Evans (Nedbank 360Life) 4hrs32

2^nd Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (MTN/Qhubeka)

3^rd Jacques Rossouw (Cadence/Full Dynamix)

4^th Dave George (Nedbank 360life)

5^th Brandon Stewart (Itec Connect)

Next race, Kwazuzlu-Natal, Hill2Hill, first time back since 2006. I’m really looking forward to this race as I have great memories of it when I raced it last.

Till then, cheers.

Kevin Evans

Die Burger Mountain Bike Challenge

Die Burger mountain bike challenge, Stellenbosch, 75km

So after a two week break from the bike, Dave and I decided to take part in Die Burger mountain bike race, held in Stellenbosch over the weekend. With the course being set out by Meurant Botha and Dirtopia trails, you knew at least if the legs were not good, that the trails would be great! In fact, 3600 riders arrived for the event, which had numerous distances to challenge all levels of riders.

The 75km course began with the same climbs as when I rode the race in 2008, basically climbing all the way up Helshoogte before descending down the old pass, and then heading in the direction of all the wine farms and the great trails. It was up the first climb, breathing early morning cold air that the group had split. Phil Buys (Garmin/Adidas), Renay Goustra (Mr Price/GT), Jaqcues Rossouw (Full Dynamix) and myself were the four riders left out front. Near the steep section at the top of the climb, Phil attacked taking Rossouw with him, whilst I was just happy to have survived, and rode over the top with Renay.

The front two gradually increased their lead over us, and I was already ahead of myself in terms of where my physical state was. Through the singletrack sections, I decided to just ride at my own speed, as with all the climbing that was still coming, I was worried I may not make it! So for most of the ride I was alone and always had a visual time gap on Renay, who later in the race, without knowing it, had moved into second place, as Rossouw had made a mistake and gone onto complete the 60km route.

I really enjoyed the trails that Meurant had found for us, and was more than enough fun to make up for the heavy, lactic acid legs I had to pedal around with! In the final climb, weaving my way through all the fun riders, I managed to catch up to Renay, and I was feeling better as the race got longer. In the end, I just managed to get ahead of him in the last 500m and finished 2^nd in the end of a tough, challenging route.

Dave snuck in a few minutes later in 5^th place.

It was good to get back into the swing of things, all though our next challenge will be somewhat different to what we used too!

Provisional Results:

1^st Phillip Buys (Garmin/Adidas) 3hrs21min

2^nd Kevin Evans (Team Nedbank/360life)

3^rd Renay Goustra (Mr Price/GT)

Next race, Tour de Tuli, in Botswana with Nedbank. I’m sure that this will be a highlight for us in the year, and is completely different to what we used too, with just bikes, bushveld, camping, good food and wine, its going to be great fun!

Till then, cheers.

Kevin Evans

Tour De Plett Mountain Bike Challenge

Photo by Sean Steyn: Kevin Evans

Tour De Plett Mountain Bike Challenge, 75km, 1700m

The inaugural Tour De Plett kicked off this weekend with a mountain bike challenge, comprising of three distances and was held in the small town of Wittedrift just a few kilometers outside of Plettenberg Bay. Again I would have my hands full to try and win another “home town” event as the MTN/Qhubeka team had stayed the week after Knysna to take part in this inaugural event. Besides the stiff competition, I also had post Xterra legs to deal with, and that was definitely going to make it even harder.

With all the rain we had the week leading up to the event, the course was completely water logged and would take its toll on the riders and equipment. The course was fairly similar to the Knysna Oyster route, although starting in Wittedrift, we would head up the ‘Stofpad’ and onto Petrus se Brand but in reverse. The 75km route would have 1700m of climbing in it, and combined with the conditions, made the route one of the hardest in the area. But the Club100 had done their homework, and everything ran smoothly on the day, amble marshals, enough water points, and most importantly, some proper mountain biking which is what its all about!

The group was thinned down to only five riders after the first big wet climb up the ‘Stofpad’, three from MTN/Qhubeka, Charles Keey, Jacques Janse Van Rensburg and Adrien Nyionshuti, youngster James Reid (Mr Price/BMC) and myself. (Teammate Dave had opted to take his break and so left me to ‘hold the fort’ on my own.)

The guys were riding a fairly steady pace, and I thought that Adrien would be the instigator of making the racing really tough, but it was Jacques and Charles who started turning in the screws after around 40km. And when they started attacking, they did so with gusto. James was riding really well and managed to help me chase down one or two attacks, but the boys in yellow were clearly on a mission.

I was starting to wonder if they would ever slow down, and didn’t favor my chances riding against three of them to the finish. Just then Adrien put in a massive effort, and it took literally everything I had left in my legs to follow him and stay on his wheel. Fortunately for me we were distancing the other riders, but I still had to keep up with him. The last 15km were a bit easier and I knew I just needed to hang with him to the end to have a chance. I also knew the last couple kilometers really well as its one of my training routes. Once through the trickiest section, the descend down Buffalo Hills Reserve, it was straight forward to the end, but I had to ride on the front as I saw a MTN rider coming across not far behind.

In the end it was a sprint and again I was lucky to take it from the front, as it was who ever went around the final corner first would take the win, and I just managed to do this, narrowly edging out Adrien to win the race.

After that effort, the road race the following day would merely be for the sake of taking part in my hometown event. After that I look forward to taking a few days off the bike to build for the last half of the season.

Provisional Results:

1^st Kevin Evans (360life)

2^nd Adrien Nyionshuti (MTN/Qhubeka)

3^rd Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (MTN/Qhubeka)

Next race, Tour de Tuli, in August, although I hear from our sponsors that its not a race. I will certainly train my red wine and beer threshold for that one!

Till then, cheers.

Kevin Evans

Due South Knysna Xterra

Photo by www.oakpics.com: Kevin Evans

Due South Knysna Xterra, 3km run, 23km bike, 7km run

After having won the Due South Xterra the previous year, the organizers insisted I return to try and defend my title. However, this year round, they had gathered some of the countries best Xterra and multi discipline athletes, including a four time world champion, just to make sure that last year was no fluke!

Having confirmed I would be taking part again this year, I really started to get nervous just before the event as unlike last year, this year I had no time to train my running side of things. Whilst in Europe for the last month preparing for World Marathon Champs, I had only enough time to run twice. I was however not nervous with the quality of the competition, but more the fact at how much damage I knew I would inflict on myself in the following few days after the event.

So after some useless preparation in the transition area, the best field assembled for an Xterra event took to the start line to begin the first 3km trail run. Same as last year, I was immediately blown away with the pace that the top guys run at. My legs could simply not go fast enough and I quickly realized I had no other option than to run at my own pace and limit the time I would loose on this first leg. I could see the likes of Conrad Stolts, Liuewe Boonstra, Dan Hugo, Tyrone White, Raoul De Johng to name a few, just disappear and put nearly a minute and half into me in the first run. I entered the transition in 19^th place, had a quick change over to the bike, and basically went into time trial mode.

The fact that the course for the mountain bike leg was quite hilly, and extremely muddy, definitely played into my favor, and after around 5km, I had caught everyone except for Conrad. I was riding as hard as I could, and knew that I needed to put as much time into the rest of the field as possible to stand a remote chance of finishing in the top ten. By the time we turned back onto the grass climb up the field of dreams, I had caught Conrad, but I knew I had no chance against him in the next 7km trail run.

Again I had fairly smooth transition, and managed to keep up with Conrad up the first steep climb, but soon after the top, again I had to settle into my own pace and just try surviving to the finish. Conrad opened a massive gap on me, and my legs were starting to really ache as I kept up as hard a tempo as possible. It helped that I remembered the course from last year, and I was just suffering on until the final kilometer. It was only once I could see the field of dreams did I realize that I would actually have done enough to hold onto second place.

This was an exceptionally big effort and I had tremendous support on the field from all the spectators, which really helped me so much. Despite finishing and not being able to walk, it was probably one of my best results considering the quality of athletes there.

I guess I will be back again next year, and no, I won’t do any other Xterra’s as the rest of them have a swimming component, and I swim like a brick. The only thing I will change is perhaps next year I will run a little more in preparation!

Provisional Results:

1^st Conrad Stoltz (Specialized)

2^nd Kevin Evans (Nedbank 360life)

3^rd Leiuwe Boonstra (Momentum/Red Bull)

Next race will be the Tour de Plett, in two days time. With no time to recover, I should be in for a tough weekend of racing… again.

Till then, cheers.

Kevin Evans

Knysna Oyster Festival

Knysna Oyster Festival Mountain Bike Race, 80km, 1650m

So after a month in Europe, it was straight back home and in time for my favorite race of the year, my ‘home’ town Oyster festival race. I’ve raced this event probably ten times or more in my career, and only won it once, despite having finished 2^nd on five occasions! Being at home, I have some incredible support around this event, and all the pressure to do well here, comes from myself. Despite only winning it in 2007, I’ve always been really close and the support to win it only gets better!

So as per normal, the start was cold and the weather this year was looking even more grim than ever as the rain was coming and would start to drizzle soon after we started. The race started fairly controlled as everyone awaited the climb up Simola and Gouna as the ‘decider’ for the select riders that would battle for the win. This year however, with some really good competition, we had five riders crest the second climb in the lead group, Adrien Nyionshuti (MTN/Qhubeka), Jacques Janse Van Rensburg(MTN/Qhubeka), Darren Lill (Bonitas), Dave and Myself (360Life). With two from 360life and two from MTN, Darren was definitely in the better position, as he had no reason to contribute to the pace that the four of us were setting to ensure that the lead group remained only five. I had a dig at the king of the Mountain, as usual, which I just managed to win ahead of Adrien, and soon realized that I had good legs on the day.

I decided from there on to be conservative with my efforts, ride my own tempo through the forest sections of Petrus se Brand on the front of the group, as I knew the trails so well. This would help me in conserving my energy, as I also knew exactly where I would have to spend it all in order to have a chance to win the race. It was going to have to be similar to the other years when I came close, as the final 20km of the route this year was back to the original course and is tough.

Soon after the flowing singletrack of Petrus se Brand, Dave and I had a small gap, but Darren quickly closed this with Adrien on his wheel, and once he had closed it, he noticed Dave taking a little bit of strain. This gave him and Adrien the motivation to hot up the tempo, and also allowed me the opportunity to sit on the back and watch the two guy’s work hard to make sure Dave would not come back. So then we were down to just three, and I knew what was coming. I made sure in the wet and cold weather that I was eating and drinking all the time so that my energy levels would be at maximum when I needed it.

We crossed the national road, and only 15km remained. I waited very patiently until finally we hit the climb up the side of the Pezula Estate, and right from the botton, I put in a big attack. Darren initially responded, but soon started to drift off my wheel. I continued with a very hard tempo, and I looked back and saw Adrien riding across to me. I had another attack, but again, he hung on. I had my final dig, literally on the last 100m of the climb before we dropped down the final tricky descend to Hunters Home, and only just managed to get a small gap. I had a gap of around 10seconds, and as I knew the technical roots at the bottom, I figured this gap would be all I needed.

I came out onto the tar, put my head down and gave the last of my effort to make sure I held my gap. At this stage it was around 20seconds, but with the final 3km all on tar, the win was in the bag, and I could really enjoy the victory onto the field.

Only when I got onto the field did I realize how bad the weather was as most of the spectators were huddled up together under the small stadium. However, it didn’t matter to me as I had finally achieved my second win in Knysna, and nothing would spoil that for me!

Provisional Results:

1^st Kevin Evans (Team360life) 3hrs00min

2^nd Adrien Nyionshuti (MTN/Qhubeka)

3^rd Darren Lill (Bonitas)

4^th Neil Macdonald (RE;CM)

5^th Charles Keey (MTN/Qhubeka)

Next race, that small problem of one times Xterra…

Till then, cheers.

Kevin Evans