Mari Rabie

Only one week after my first Mountain bike Stage Race I find myself heading
to yet another mountain bike race. The Buffet Olives Classic was held on the picturesque olive growing estate, nestled against the foothills of the Drakensberg Mountain range, just outside Paarl.

Johnny, Erik Kleinhans(2nd Cederberg Escape) and Janine Smolders all joined in for a fun morning on the bikes.  The boys raced the Bonnivale Bonanza the previous day, Erik finishing first just ahead of Johnny and Janine and I both did long training rides with our respective Double Century Teams, resulting in all of us being a bit on the tired side.

.It was a lap race and the course was designed by Gedon Raddock and really hilly. Johnny, Erik and I
braved the long route while Janine did the medium route. Have a mentioned that it was really hilly?
We started off dashing though olive trees and then climbed, climbed some more and then finally hit
the down hill, but yes you guessed it there was another little killer of a climb, that I saw most
poeple run up, before we finaly hit the descend and finishing through a wicked little single track
dodging olive trees...and that was only lap one.

The day ended pretty well for all of us. JOhnny and I repectively won the men's and women's long route
with Erik in second and Janine second in the Women's medium route.