Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Wartburg round up

Oh my! Heat and speed are not the greatest combination! I did Wartburg for the 1st time on Saturday and it was super hot! Fantastic turnout with 1061 entrants across the spread of events! The race started at pace with Matt Goetsch of Jeep attacking from the start! The pace quickly thinned the lead bunch out and I cracked on the 1st big climb - resolved to keep it consistent from then on. There was a fair variety on offer with dirt road, cane field, single track and jeep track riding and it was actually a hard course! At around 26kms there was a mother of a climb that switchbacked itself up the side of the earth and just when you thought it was levelling out, it kicked up again (twice). A nice touch was dual-line singletrack in the last 8 kms so you didn't get caught up with slower riders or riders doing the 20kms. Craig Paul of Team Jeep won overall and our very own racing snake Carl Calverley (Subaru/Wsquared) finished 3rd overall less than a minute down! Well done Carlos! Our ladies also cleaned up with Julia Colvin (Suabru/Wsquared) winning ladies overall and Melanie Palframan (Fox/Wsquared) coming in second.

There were two bad crashes that I know of and our thoughts are with Murray Starr and Marcus Kaumpek who both ate dirt and broke bones - we wish you guys a speedy recovery!

Its the 2nd round of the Momentum Health KZN Short Course Series this weekend out at Bishopstowe. Should be fast and the forecast is 30 degrees for Sunday so its going to be a painfest! If you've never tried short course XC racing there is a sports class where you can do 2 laps and see what its like! Come check it out....you'll be addicted!

Thats all folks....
Ciao
Gordon

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Flow like a pro...

http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/article/flow-like-a-pro-hone-your-skills-with-billy-whenman-24909

Pain in the heat at Stainbank

Photo courtesy of Grant Dekker

01 2010

Oh wow! Been super busy and kinda slack I suppose when it comes to regualr updates on the blog.

2010 is well and truly under way and it is scary that its already February! The race season kicked off with a bang with the first round of the Momentum Health KZN Short Course Series which was held at Stainbank Nature Reserve on the 24th of January! It was hotter than the devils's kitchen in the reserve and the racing action was hard and fast! Great start to the season and it showed a lot of the riders where they need to do some work!

Im heading off to Wartburg on Saturday to race the Wartburg Classic. Never done it before as it's always on a Saturday but I've heard it's a brilliant race so I'm looking forward to it!

The shop is nice and busy! Workshop is pumping with race season being in full swing and for those of you who haven't heard, we are moving across the road! As of the 1st of May we will be where Rhino's admin offices currently are. This is going to be MTB meccah, a much bigger retail space and bigger workshop so watch this space!

I'm on a mission to get my Ellsworth Truth down to sub 10kgs - just to show people that an Ellsworth Truth is a race bike. Will post pics and descriptions over the next few days as we work through it.

Ciao
Gordon