This past weekend we took part in the first of the Nissan Trailseeker Series at Hazeldean - and it really was the coldest race i have ever done! 70km of freezing wind is something else! The Previous record was held at Babba’s Lodge where the temperature at the start was 5 degrees - this time however the mercury hovered just above zero as we pushed off!! It was a huge event as there were 2000 entrants (although judging by the list of DNF’s I imagine a few people opted out on the day!) Really well organized, and quite refreshing to see the organizers choosing a venue that could actually handle the number of people. The seeded starts worked really well, as we were the last batch to leave and there were no real bottlenecks anywhere along the course, which included quite a bit of singletrack.
I reasoned the weather HAD to warm up sometime so i opted for the minimalist approach to winter clothing (my reasoning being that i would be frozen after an hour any way) - and i was right! So without legwarmers or a windbreaker i literally WAS frozen from start to finish - especially after the nice watercrossings which had pretty much deteriorated into un-rideable-ness after 600 wheels came through! Icy Feet always a hit! The other half of our team opted for more ample winter protection and she never complained! (from now on she is the manager!)
Our strategy was to ride within ourselves and test our fitness, which held up amazingly well - Klapperkop is a good spinning class after all!(we do three sessions a week if anyone is interested?) Testing our nutrition (muffins and bananas) as well as Hammer Perpetuem/PVM Octane XTR went awesome-ly well, no issues with cramp, bonking at all. must say the waterpoints were nicely stocked, if a bit overcrowded - especially one section where the 40km joined our route. I also tested a packet iof 32GI gums right at the start and it did last me a good hour into the race, very impressive and good tasting stuff! will definitely add that to my future stash.
All in all some pretty standard farm roads for the first half, with all the fun in the second half, singletrack, tree lined canopy - twisty stuff, riverside dropoffs and one little tough hill right on 65km - also a good test of the legs and we passed! Great day for us in our first 70km race for the year, aiming for the Hill2Hill in September.
We are also in the middle of the Gauteng Winter Trail series, with the last race taking place this Sunday. Tarrin is leading the Series and she has a good chance of winning the Short course Championship! Holding all thumbs and toes!
Till next time
Just keep spinning
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