Cederberg Results

As promised I said i would get back to you about the Cederberg Escape and how it went.

Well firstly let me tell you the Cederberg is awesome, I will definitely be experiencing more of it in the years to come. Get there, dont bother asking why, just get there.

More about the race, as I said before it was a three day stage race based at Sanddrif Campsite. Day 1 was pretty much the back breaker, I started with the intention of going along fairly gently and was intending to assess things at half way. But as we all know I have a small problem called the competitive edge. I know I'm not alone here. So after about 12km's of gentle riding on rolling hills. A beast reared it's ugly head and up we went, something tripped inside me and away I went too. From here the ride was awesome, technical jeep track with some climbs and some of the toughest rocky descending I've done in ages. Sore hands later we reached the bottom and made our way towards water point 1. Feeling on top of things I filled up and flew up the biggest climb of the day. Climbing is a state of mind and with the temp rising it became a real battle. It was after the climb with about 50 odd km's under the belt on the lonely flat upper plateau that I had the worst part of my race. Battling along on a bumpy and sandy jeep with lactic acid all over my legs I just pt my head down and battled through. I honestly felt like I was crawling along. But salvation was round the next corner in the form of a long descent and a recall of the road home. I was just beginning to fire the engines for the burst home when my chain broke and all feelings of elation went with it. It's at moments like this where you want to cry. But salvation in the form of another rider named Bobby ( thanks again ! ) who helped repair the problem and I was back on it and heading home.

I was pretty shattered riding into camp after what proved to be a hard 90km's in 4hrs 32 mins.

Day 2 was more to my liking with far more technical riding including bombing descents and some scary turns in sandy ground. I saw a few guys fly over the handle bars after the sand caught their front wheels. I really tried to make up for Day 1's problems with a smarter ride but again felt the pinch like we all do somewhere along the line. I came out of it much quicker this time and made up some good time on the way home. I ended the day by out sprinting two other guys for the line after I thought my legs had gone. A highlight of the day was climbing over Sugarloaf which is a peak there. The descent on the other side being a very steep drop which had most guys bailing out.

Day 3 proved to be my best, with the most single track it was easy to figure out why. I really seem to thrive in these conditions and my only problem is guys struggle to move over. Oh the male ego. But I really raced hard and continued to push myself thoughout the 47 km's. One lesson I learned is if you can settle into a fast group early on you will reap the rewards later in the ride when you settle into a pace. Although it never felt like we settled, it was just go go go.

Once again the finish proved to have the usual Epic tricks to it and getting the legs to go for another 3 km's proved a massive mental effort but knowing it was the last they would be doing they duely obliged.

I left feeling refreshed and pretty stoked about the results. I know Day 1's technical dogged me the rest of the race but it's the Cederberg and you can consider yourself lucky to get out with just one technical problem. For anyone thinking about doing it next year, I guess I'll see you there. The place is insane and chilling out after a hard ride along a real mountain stream with a white sand beach is pretty hard to beat.

RESULTS :

313-Sub Veteran Stuart Mc Connachie

DAY.1-4hrs32.30 Position Overall 36

DAY2-3hrs08.33 Position 28 Overall 32
DAY.3-2hrs17.22 Position 21 Overall 30

Total Time 9hrs58.25

Now for the Epic 2009...