Clarens National marathon series

The Clarens leg of the MTN national series was a beautiful ride. The ride went through the golden gate national park, where there a couple of mountains to climb...

The ladies race started with the 100km men, apparently there has been a few issues with drafting and we where separated from the men. After the 2km neutral zone, everyone blasted off. Jolandie du Toit and Samantha Oosthuisen got away in front. I was planning a conservative first half and felt strong to put in a solid second half. My only dilemna came when I was directed on the wrong route at a water point in the mountains! I did a repeat of the worst possible part of the course- the part where you could not ride your bike.. This extra part took its toll physically and mentally. When you are tired and seeing the same thing twice, it kind of haunts you. Like am I having visions? Don't look at the light...

I still managed a 3rd position on the podium, after Jolandie won and Samantha came second. Well done ladies!

Bestmed Campus to Campus 2009

The race is won or lost on the mountain- very simple Ertjies?

The Bestmed Campus to Campus race is named after Ertjies Bezhuidenhout. He became a legend after he would make such a huge gap on the notorius Groot Ertjies, that he would proceed to win this race every time with his solo break away attempt on the hill.

The ladies elite started with the vet men, which ups the speed quite a bit. One gentleman joked on the start line, these guys are here discussing their pensions on the line while we are getting ready to race. Well, pension or no pension they make great pace!

The first 50km was a nice consistent pace. Klein Ertjies was the first hill that changed the profile a bit. The second climb, groot Ertjies was the determining hill though. Wait in the pack too long and you have missed it. By the time you look up from the wheel in front of you, the gap is too wide. *Note to self* Get in the front.

After the hill I could see the ladies take off with the men, there was no one coming for quite some time, so I made the chase on my own. With the men pulling in front it was a bit of a long shot to chase down, but I was joined later by 3 other ladies and a few men. We put in a solid effort to chase down and had a fast pace all the way home. We finished the 106km with a little sprint which got me into 8th position in the ladies category.

Lost city cycle races

Race organisers are optimising the infrastructure of races with back to back road and mountain bike races. This suits an inbetweener like me just fine, but it was an interesting weekend after a two week break... The road race was the Saturday and the road race on the Sunday. The road race was defined at about halfway with a small breakaway and a chasing peleton of about 10 others. A few individual attempts of chasing came from the peleton, but with the big team riders in the breakaway, chasing was certainly not objective of the chasing peleton.

The mountain bike race was huge fun. The course consisted of two 35km laps and it was fast and not too technical. “It was certainly very fast and I enjoyed it tremendously,” said Swanepoel. “There was loads of traffic on the second lap but slower riders were very courteous and kept to the left, so it wasn’t a problem.”

I realised that I cycled the day before shortly into the second lap, and just managed a consistent pace for the remainder of the race. Yolandi du Toit was the first lady home, her scorching time of 1hr28min no less impressive than that of the men. Overall runner up was Theresa Ralph and me, Karien van Jaarsveld on the third step of the podium.

Alchemy of gold

Alchemy of Gold magics judges in London
	Tuesday, August 12, 2008 by De Kock Communications
	Alchemy of Gold has wowed another panel of international judges, evaluating South African brandies alongside the best of speciality brandies from France, Spain, Italy, California and elsewhere.
	The newest cache of medals - two gold and four silver - on the 2008 International Spirits Challenge in London, follows on the portfolio's multiple medal success on this year's International Spirit Competition. The golds were awarded to vintage brandy, Van Ryn's 10 Year Old, and potstill, Van Ryn's 12 Year Old Distiller's Reserve, while the silvers went to Van Ryn's 15 Year Old Fine Cask Reserve, Klipdrift Gold, Oude Meester 12 Year Old Reserve and the recently released Oude Meester Demant, all potstills. Commenting on the results, marketing manager for Alchemy of Gold, Karien van Jaarsveld, said: "This is excellent news for local aficionados and enthusiasts. It affirms the standing of our brandies amongst leading authorities who have considerable depth of exposure to the finest produced anywhere in the world. To be ranked with long-established globally renowned brands is high praise indeed. It is also very encouraging to note that the medals have been awarded across a broad stylistic range from the complex, long-aged to the younger, more accessible brandies." She added that the latest achievements were likely to further motivate South Africans to make exclusive brandies a part of their drinking repertoire. "The top end of the brandy market continues to flourish, in part because of the international acknowledgement of world-class quality. However, another very attractive feature is domestically produced connoisseur brandies offer an affordable taste of luxury to South Africans besieged by a volatile currency and rising prices." All brandies in the Alchemy of Gold portfolio are offered through specialty stockists and style bars and fine dining establishments. About Alchemy of Gold Alchemy of Gold is a portfolio of internationally awarded South African connoisseur brandies sold mostly through specialty shops, fine dining restaurants and style bars. These brandies are made in the traditional way perfected in Cognac, using copper potstills and aged in French oak. The collection takes its name from the alchemists of the middle ages. Although best remembered for trying to turn base metals into gold, it was an alchemist who brought the art of distillation to Europe from the Middle East, setting the scene for the tradition for fine brandymaking. There is also a part of brandymaking that is like alchemy, if taken to mean the making of gold. Grapes, nurtured by the elements, are made into wine, distilled, aged slowly in wood and then blended by master distillers to create gold in a glass. The Alchemy of Gold line-up includes: Van Ryn's Collection Reserve - 10, 12, 15 and 20 Year Old Oude Meester - 12 Year Old Reserve, Demant Klipdrift - Klipdrift Gold and Klipdrift Premium Nederburg Solera Potstill Flight of the Fish Eagle

Rooiberg- 4 June 2009

Rooiberg is a small town in the Waterberg area near Bela Bela (Warmbaths as we know it). All around a great experience being out of the city and having 2 days on the bike in the real bush veld. Day 1 was 75km and day 2 85km. The ride was interesting, testing and so much fun!

Interesting. These days you choose your equipment based on the ride- very rocky, your dual-suspension, and tires with more or less grip depending on whether it is rocky or muddy or sandy, etcetera. Well, the Rooiberg had something of everything! Quite challenging to make decisions on equipment… There were steep climbs, and even steeper descends- steep and rocky. Then in between the climbs was lots of loose sand. Another interesting part is that the veld caught fire about midway though day 1. Now rumor has it, that a cyclist paddle scraped a rock, which made a spark and set the entire veld alight. I arrived at the scene quite early and managed to pass through the catastrophe fire. Shortly after that, most cyclists were re-routed and got some form of distance discount.

Testing. Day 1 was shorter than day 2, which could be a psychological disadvantage if you think the worst is still to come, but to be honest day 1 had all the possible curve balls. There was 1450km of vertical climb on day 1, other to that 53km of purpose built single track. This tested mental and physical ability. I got a puncture on day 1, plugged bombed and took off but had to wait for some time on single track which had very little passing opportunity. Day 2 was slightly more relaxed with 1292m of vertical climb and way more jeep track. The first climb, with 7 switch backs came as soon as in 5km of start, now with tired legs from yesterday, it was testing…

Then fun. As mentioned, day 1 had 53km of single-track. Yes, as much as it takes a lot of concentration, you eventually get into a rhythm and it almost starts to feel like snow boarding (without snow). Day 2 gave you the opportunity to look up and admire the beautiful surrounds of the Waterberg mountains and the bush veld. Apparently there are hippos, crocodiles and rhino but fortunately I did not come across any of them.

All together, a great weekend race and I came 4^th in my category. Learnings from this race, you want to push hard to get a good position in the beginning, especially where there is single track involved where you can only ride in single file!

Jock classic- 18 July 2009

This 150km race was a real challenge and one of the harder races in my books. It started off in the blistering cold, but with the first notorious hill with its six hairpins, did not only the body temperature change but also the field. The strongest climbers won the day. Having started with the men, the first to ascend could only make bigger caps. We managed to pull a group of girls together to face the second hill, which was even longer.. However, what goes up must come down, and down was much more fun. In fact, the best ever! The latter half of the race was quite misleading, perceiving that most of the work has been done at the hills, However, we had quite strong head winds on the last 70km. Finished 10th overall ladies.
WOMEN
1 Ashleigh Moolman – Toyota Supercycling 04hrs26min22sec
2 Anriette Schoeman – Nashua Telecoms same time
3 Jennie Stenerhag ¬– Alpha Pharm 4:31:39
4 Yolandi du Toit – Konica Minolta 4:34:10
5 An-Li Pretorius – Nashua Telecoms
6 Joanna van der Winkel – Toyota Supercycling all same time
7 Lizanne Naude – Toyota Supercycling
8 Robyn de Groot – Nashua Telecoms 4:36:57
9 Lylanie Lauwrens – MTN Energade 4:44:35
10 Karien van Jaarseveld