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If I multiply the number of times I have been on my mountain bike this year by three, I will still be able to count it on my fingers and toes.
This fact did not stop me from entering the Cederberg-Escape, a three day Stage race and my second mountain bike race ever.
Training for this event was non existent, although the Wednesday before the race I went riding with my good friend, Johnny Kritzinger and after he had to wait at least 5min for me
at the bottom of an easy peasy single track, he gave me a concerned look, saying"I hope you weren't planing on winning a stage this weekend".
Of course not, I just wanted to have fun, try to stay on my bike and not be beaten be my dad.
Stage 1 - 89km , Friday 24 October
Day 1 arrived. We stayed in the beautiful Mount Ceder resort, but the luxury of staying in a nice cottage with a jacuzzi instead of the race tent accommodation, came at a price...
a 35min drive and a 10min walk to race start each morning. I did not exactly wake up at 5am full of excitement for the day ahead, but after a cup of coffee and a good old rusk I was ready, or already as I could be. At 7am I was on the start line, with a camelback full of toys and gadgets my sister gave me, including an extra seat post clamp, isolation tape,chain links, chain lube,extra brake pads, etc etc etc. Not that I knew how to use any of it, but apparently men are more willing to stop and help if you are crying with the right tools in your hands that what they would be if you were just crying.
The first 10km of the race was a daze. We started ridiculously fast up the first hill, my cold legs burning in protest.
I was in the second bunch, which soon became my most terrifying experience on a bike...we reached a winding 4km descend, with very sandy,slippery corners, the sun was rising, blinding me, not that
there was much too see apart from the wheel in front of you in a massive cloud of dust.
After having survived that I settled in nicely, riding really relaxed apart from having some trouble with riding through sand and braving one very treacherous rocky descend.
At the half way mark I was feeling pretty good and there was a massive climb, so I started pushing a bit harder and made up a lot of time, passing quite a few
other lady riders.
With 10km to go I was still feeling pretty fresh and pushed it a bit more until the finishing shoot. I thougt that I would be about the 10th female, but to my surprise I crossed the
line in 3rd only 35sec behind the 2nd place lady, Michelle Lombardi.
Stage 2 - 58km, Saturday 25 October
Another 7am start and rumour had it that Day 2 would be technical galore. I started out really well, riding along at the back of the front pack. I thought:"Today is going
to be a good day", that lasted for about another 15 seconds and then my chain broke. Great. I considered my options:
1) Try to fix it - I had all the tools, but no idea how to use them.
2) Crying, but that would just be silly
3) Rolling the 4km back to the start and chilling next to the river, but I really wanted to ride.
Luckily my Dad, who was a bit behind me stopped and we turned the broken chain into a father&daughter bonding session, while the rest of the
field sped past us like a herd of Serengeti Buffalo.
18minutes later and with no-one in sight and the sweeping vehicle hovering behind us, waiting for us, "the back markers",we hopped back onto our bikes.
Dad and I worked together quite well for the next 20km, I would ride the climbs as hard as I could;somewhere on the downhills he would come flying past
and I would hang on for dear life as we served through all the back markers. I lost him for good on a 4km climb.
I was feeling well impressed with myself for making up so much time, or at least until I reached the last 30km. A mixture of thick sand, rocky cliffs, ridiculously steep hills that you have to scramble over on all fours
and somehow still get your bike over, fast downhills on loose rocks with dongas all over and two compulsory portages made me feel that I was doing a survival
trail run and not a bike race. Welcome to mountain biking Mari!
I finished day 2 absolutely knackered and nowhere near the leaders.
Stage 3 - 48km, Sunday 26 October
Day 3, was single track day, with 6 stretches of single track all together. I am absolutely a rubbish single track rider, if I may say so myself.
I always stick my tongue out in concentration, a very embarrassing habit. I started Day 3 with the mission not the get beaten by my Dad, nothing
as good as some family rivalryand he is quite a good rider. I thought it would be nice if I could stay on my bike too!
I started out ok and after the first singe track I had ONLY lost 100 seconds on the leaders.Oepsy!
After the second single track my saddle bag broke, tubes, tyre leavers and bombs went flying all over the place.
I couldn't be bothered to stop, as I badly wanted to catch the two women in front of me.
On the stretch of jeep track I put my head down and rode from bunch to bunch, catching and passing both women, but more than half the distance and single tracks were yet to come.
Michelle Lombardi passed me again with about 7km to go, but I managed to pull her back in on the climbs and could keep my lead until the end, winning Stage 3 of my first
ever mountain bike stage race.
My Dad had an awesome ride too, finishing about 2min30sec behind me and securing a 3rd place in the Masters(or Fossils as I like to call them).
Christoff Sauser, Swiss World Cross Country Champion won the men's race.
The Cederberg-Escape was a refreshing experience and it was a bonus to win the Elite Female Category.
I will definitely do it again, go check out the website at www.cederberg-escape.com.
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