African Continental Championships - 10/02/11 --->13/02/11

African Continental Champs was held at Jonkershoek in Stellenbosch this past weekend, the venue was picturesque with mountains, pine forests and beautiful women. We arrived in Stellenbosch on Thursday morning, I was really amped to take the Kalula out for a ride but the course was closed until Friday at 10 o'clock.

Early Friday morning myself, Tiaan Odendaal and Steven Jackson walked the DH course and found it to be almost exactly the same as what it was two years ago for the national that was held in Jonkershoek. I really enjoyed that track and couldn't wait to ride. We suited up and were the first riders down the track, I found the track to be fast and flowing, and after my first run down I immediately said to myself that this course after a few runs from everybody was going to be very tricky. 

And so it was, on Saturday the course was getting totally ripped up as almost every rider competing in the event was doing their practice. I had a few close calls during practice, one too many as i found myself tasting Jonkershoek dust and dirt on the first corner of my first practice run on Saturday. All in all, I felt that I had sorted out my lines for the race the next day, and whats a better way to end off the day than to have your brother win the junior mens xco race.

The next morning we all woke up rather early, there was still mist covering the mountains around us and it was a little chilly. Myself and Alasdair Fey came down the track and both of us made mistakes so we did another practice run before qualifying. On the last run down the track, I made sure of all my lines and didn't pedal at all to make sure of myself conserving energy.

Qualifying Run : In my qualifying run I was unsure of what we actually had to do, so I went down the track as if it was almost like another practice run but still tried to go fast and this seeded me as the 4th Junior with a time of 2min20sec. I was pretty excited with my result and headed up the mountain for mt race run, this run had to be faultless if I wanted to succeed in getting my goal of a podium.

Race Run : My race started of with a surge out of the gate, I got the top section good enough I thought and kept giving it my all, there were some close calls where I almost hit a few trees, I managed to keep it all together until I got to the second road gap where I took my foot out and really struggled to put it back in. I managed to get my foot in and raced down the final flat open section, pedaling like a man possessed and came racing through the finish line. At the top of the track i said to myself that I really wanted a 2min15sec and what did I get? I got a 2min15.69sec good enough to put me in 4th overall so far, but there were still many riders to come down, I got knocked down to 13th overall and my end result was a 4th in the Junior men category.

A big thank you to the people who made this event possible, Chris Nixon, Morne Odendaal and many others.

PHOTOS BY  EWALD SADIE - uberbecks   

Greg Minnaar/Mongoose DH Series #1-Cascades 30 January 2011

The first downhill race of the 2011 season was kicked off for the KZN riders at Cascades in Pietermaritzburg. With it being right on my doorstep I had put in enough practice before the race, much practice with friends had also made the nerves for this race seem rather distant. I had been looking forward to this event as it would be the first one that I'd be doing on my brand new Morewood Kalula.

Race day dawned with much excitement. Grant from Team Adrenaline Cycles had rounded up the XCO team mates and had brought the noise! We had a sweet gazebo set up and with the help of Andre from Rush Sports everything was looking really professional. I was really excited and looking forward to what the track would be like and with that I completed two practice runs, both of them being clean runs and so I settled down, tucked into my water melon and waited for my first race run.

The first race run was intense. On the top part of the track everything was going smoothly until I miss judged a corner that had been rutted up and the burm that had formed during practice had been demolished by someone, I lost my front wheel and fell to the ground but got up quicker than I had gone down. I battled to find my rhythm for the rest of the track and was not too pleased with my run of 1min43.43 seconds, I was a little bit off the pace but if I could have a perfect second run I could at least have a top 5 result.

Second race run I had to make it faultless. I got my lines dialed and was feeling really good on the Morewood. I pedaled in places which I hadn't in my first race run and it seemed as if it had payed off at the end. Out of breath and eager to hear my final time, the commentator announced it. My final time of the day was 1min:38.94secs narrowly missing second place by only 3 split seconds but I was happy with my result.

All in all it was an awesome event and a big thanks given to Morne and the rest of the people who made this event possible, but more than anything I'd like to thank Grant and Matt from Adrenaline Cycles for making sure the bike had no problems, and another big thanks must go to Andre from Rush Sports for putting my awesome bike together!

Photos: Stephanie Davies- Radiate Sports Photography