The time had arrived! All the nerves and anticipation were finally over. I was wondering how my vision of joining the hashtag Enduro guys with the Downhill guys would work out. I would SOON FIND THAT OUT.
Arriving super early on Saturday morning at 139 hill, I realised this may just be quite a big event! I did my thing and got all the bunting done with the help of some young guns eager to get on their bikes, which made the bunting go pretty fast.
At this point I had no idea of how many people would be arriving and I could only just hope for a good turnout. After finishing up the bunting I started walking back and as I came up and over a blind rise I just saw people and vehicles! It was a sight of disbelief, but for sure real!
I immediately felt this energy kick in and got so stoked to get on my bike and go talk a bunch of nonsense as I do to fellow riders, it was an awesome vibe! The track was pretty dry and with all the rubber running over it, it became super loose and Dusty. Practice was from 9.30am till 3.00pm, which allocated more than enough time to get some good practice in. There were 5 shuttles cruising up and down the hill which made shuttling super easy, it took literally three minutes to get to the top again. I don't remember getting to the bottom of the hill and having to wait for a shuttle, they were just waiting for riders, it was awesome!
Towards the end of the day we had a bit of carnage as David Messem took quite a big dirt sample just before the hip jump next to the road! I’m sure some footage will pop up soon. It was quite a solid knock; David suffered a dislocated shoulder, broken collar bone and a head full of concussion! Sending you some healing vibes David! I am sure you will be back. Not too long after that I ended up buying a piece of land myself! It was over the jump next to the road, damn showing off again I guess! Luckily I dodged the major injuries and just got some proper grazes. That wrapped up the practice day and I could see how eager everyone was for RACE DAY!
Race day arrived finally!! With a couple more entries on the day we were in for a cracker!! Practice started at 8.30am and ended at 10.30am. The wind was kicking up a few knots which made hitting the big jumps a bit difficult. Pedalling was definitely not as easy as it was on the Saturday.
My idea for the race was to have two separate lines branching off the main track and joining up again, I called it track A and track B, so race 1 would be track A and race 2 would be track B. The times added together would be your result at the end of the day. Unfortunately we had some errors with timing and had a couple of delays so we decided to just use the Race 2 times and that would be the decider. Racing began and the atmosphere was super chilled but at the same time focused, everybody wants to win you know! I on the other hand had some bad luck and punctured half way down the course so I ended up giving the odd cheer to the remaining riders, it was awesome. With all riders safely down the course it was now time to get the times up and crown the winners! There were a total of 54 riders who competed in the actual race; there were a total of 89 riders that had entered for the race. 75 pre entries of which 57 pitched, the numbers were outstanding!
While prizes were being sorted out we had another little event going on, we had the whip off happen, what’s a race without a whip off!
Sideways action was going strong with Kelvin Purchase, David Hogan and Chris Pearton battling it out for top 3; Hogan won the crowd at the end of the day. Good job china! A huge shout-out must go out to each and every rider for coming out and joining in on the fun! It was a jol! Be ready for the next one!
An event like this would not be possible without the sponsors coming on board and giving us the necessary backing and prizes. So here is to naming a few, RAPID STUDIO,G-FORM, DIRT MERCHANT, ADVENTURE LIFE, KITTED, SHREDD-TECH, FIVE TEN, SDG, ALPINESTARS, ONE INDUSTRIES AND FRATELLIS. You guys are awesome! Thanks for being a part of this and I hope we can team up for the future again!
Race results per category are as follows:
Ladies 1. ELJA VAN URK 2.19 2. SONJA ENGELBRECHT 2.35 3. MICHELLE REYNOLDS 2.36 4. PHIA VAN DE MEULEN 3.09 5. LINDSEY GETHING 5.54
Juniors JAMIE ELLIS 2.25 DUNKEN SPENCE 3.08
Enduro 1. ALEX BRAMLEY 1.48 2. DEMETRI VAINDIRLIS 1.56 3. DES ELLIS 2.00 4. BRADLEY STREAK 2.02 5. FRANCOIS DE WIT 2.04
Downhill 1. DAVID HOGAN 1.43 2. FRANK MEYER 1.47 3. KELVIN PURCHASE 1.49 4. EVES VERMEULEN 1.52 5. CHRIS PEARTON 1.53
