The trilogy is coming!

21-28 March 2010

Its about time we sent a update out…atleast a short one will do for now. Some of you might think we have dropped of the face of the planet. We have not sent an update out since the Cape Epic, and we apologise for this. Life after the Epic has been quite eventful. Nico and Lisa got married to name but one. Congratulations to them both! What a party we had and I even got to karaoke Roxette! GREAT SUCCESS! WHOOP!

How did we do in the Epic? We came 95th overall and are quite chuffed with this as a top 100 position is always something special to achieve in this race. In my opinion the race this year was more enjoyable and dare I say it…easier. Easier but certainly not easy! The race organisers did a great job in putting this route together and I think it will only make the race more popular with riders.

Just so you know, Cranks of Glory is still spinning. We have managed to put in a few hours in the saddle this year following the Epic. I am doing a 100mile ride with the Paarl MTB club this Saturday and Nico has also managed to do the “Sani2C non-stop” early in May. So fitness levels aren’t looking to bad and I look forward to riding in Knysna next month.

Id like to thank our sponsors again. Adidas, Bemer and Supersport Cycles, thank you very much for your contributions, excellent products and amazing support. To all the friends we made again, we hope to see you more than often out there and perhaps again next year at the Epic. Thank you to our support team, our families, Lisa and Anika… we love you and owe you allot.

Jaco

Hot Stuff!

I expected the international super starts to set the prologue course alight but this is insane!

Last night a massive fire broke out on Table Mountain. It looks like it's under control now but a lot of damages has been done. So far very little information is available.

Here's what the Epic had to say  (http://www.cape-epic.com/news.php?news_id=106&title=/Fires_on_Table_Mountain_-_Latest/)

Read more on news24 (http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2487231,00.html)

We will keep you posted.

Later

Nico

Its GO time!

I cant quite put it in words what you feel when you line up to start a race like the Cape Epic. You are filled with emotion…excitement, anxiousness, fear and a strange hunger to demolish everything and anything it can throw at you. Rest assure the Epic will bombard you with hundreds of kilometres of loose rock, sand, mud, mountains, river crossings etc… But that is all ok; after all you knew this when you signed up.

Saturday we, team ADIDAS BEMER (race number 102), start our second ABSA CAPE EPIC on the slopes of Table Mountain. We will start the prologue (time trial) at 9:26am. This time round we are stronger and more experienced. It has yet again been 7months of hard training for this event. I will not lie, if you want to do something like this it will take LOADS of commitment and sacrifice from oneself. We have stuck to our guns, gritted our teeth and now we are definitely ready!

On a lighter note…. I keep wondering about a few things. Like what music will they be playing on route this year? Hmmm…maybe Nico will get to hear his beloved Jonas Brothers. : ) What food will we be on the menu? I’m quite fond of those low fat yoghurts. What will the colour of our tents be and will this clash with our teamshirts? Haha…I try to occupy my head with these thoughts so that I don’t have to focus all my energy on the race itself. I remember last year on Day3 I started singing to myself just to keep my thoughts from dragging me down. My singing ended up dragging everybody down around us…great race tactic! : )

The last few weeks we really have been spoiled so much. Not only are we now officially sponsored by Adidas and Bemer, but Supersport Cycles have also come on board supplying us with top of the range MET helmets. Thank you to Natasja Halley for sorting us out in record time. I asked Nico last week…is there anything we must take with for the Epic, his answer to me was “only your bike, your toothbrush and a couple of undies”. We really do look like the professional outfit now and cant thank our sponsors enough for their contributions. Photos of our team gear have been posted so feel free to have a look.

I want to urge people out there to go see the race for yourself this year. It starts in Cape Town on Saturday and will be going through Gordonsbay, Villiersdorp, Greyton, Grabouw and lastly Somerset West. It is CLOSE to Cape Town this year…so try to make it for atleast one day and soak up the atmosphere of this world class sporting event. There is special spectator viewpoints set out on route and you can find more information by following this link: http://www.cape-epic.com/content.php?page_id=41&title=/Spectators/

Thank you again for all the support we have been getting…locally and internationally. It helps to keep the tank fuelled! We really hope to see you on route. Best of luck to all our fellow Epic riders. James and Simon, Noel and Louise, Nico P and Alison Sydor…enjoy and have fun. To Burry and Christopher…GIVE THEM HELL! To Hein my cousin, YOU CAN and WILL DO IT!

Lastly, to Nico… thanks for sticking by me. I will give this my all and hope to do you proud!

Later… : )

Jaco

Christmas in March!

We have been very quiet the last few weeks but we have been out there packing in the miles. Since our last post allot has happened. We both are rolling around on new steeds. I’m the proud owner of a Santa Cruz Superlight. The bike is incredible, it just rips down singletrack. I’m now finally converted! The days of hammering away on a hardtail are gone forever. Jaco’s cruising around on a new Trek Top Fuel, although it was not exactly a planned purchased! Jaco’s bike was stolen out of his car!

 

February saw us doing some big miles and my body is definitely screaming for it all to stop. Luckily this week is our last big week before we begin our taper towards the start on the 21^st, just 18 days away!

 

We have been doing allot of riding in Jaco’s home town, Paarl. I must say the Paarl mountain biking community is very well organised, go check out www.paarlmtb.co.za.

 

Yesterday we tackled the Boschendal MTB Challenge, a tough 55km race. It was a hot, dusty day in the saddle and my legs definitely felt the last months of training. I started of conservatively but managed to finish strong. Jaco put in a solid performance but the tough ride on Saturday and the big miles put in during the month left him a bit flat on the day.

 

Yesterday we went to pick up our kit that adidas had sent over from Europe. WOW! I felt like a kid at Christmas rummaging through the piles of kit and casual wear that they sent us. The riding gear is awesome, super tech fabrics, awesome bib shorts, amazingly stiff carbon soles shoes, Gore Tex ski jackets, the list just goes on and on! So if, in the next few weeks, you spot a couple of guys kitted from head to toe in adidas gear with goofy smiles, riding their bikes, it’s probably us! Thanks so much to everybody at Bemer and adidas for making it happen!

 

I will try and post some pics of us in our new gear!

 

Later

 

Nico

Give me Ace of Bace...

This past week I managed to take my stupidity to another level. Some might say I do that on a weekly basis…I wont argue with those some. However it became quite clear to me that I really should try to think things through more often before acting OR even opening my mouth.

I received an email from a certain Christa Koekemoer, a student doing her Masters in Biogenetics at the University of Stellenbosch. She was looking for volunteer cyclists to take part in a study she is doing regarding recovery after intense endurance rides.

To cut this story short I volunteered and ended up doing THREE 100km time trials, a 40km time trial, a VO2max test and TWO windgate tests in the space of a week. All this is done inside a room on a stationary bicycle with a complimentary fan in front of you to cool you down. Come to think of it, if that fan blew from behind I might have finished in faster times. In between all that Nico and Hein dragged my deflated body out for a long ride.

During these tests you are not allowed to eat or drink anything BUT water. During each time trial I lost more than 1kg in weight. It was quite tiring and yup…. VERY boring. However, Christa did a great job at motivating me with ACE OF BACE blaring through the lab! Anika also came through to support me on day 2. I have to admit that the results of all these tests will definitely help in preparation for the Epic. I am definitely in better shape than last year and I think it is safe to say that Nico is too.

Those who have seen the photos posted by Nico lately would have noticed that he is parading around on a flash new ride. It is called the Santa Cruz Superlight… it is also called “Jaco’s Dream Bike”. As far as Mountain bikes go this bike is a true classic. News just in is that my cousin Hein will now ALSO be getting his Superlight next week. Oh… I am just so ecstatic for these two boys to be riding these superdooper bikes. I am not…I repeat…NOT jealous at all. Who am I kidding; I can’t say that with a straight face!?!?!

On a side note, this morning I went for a ride with a number of guys from Paarl. This group of riders included Andrew Patterson and Fritz van Heerden, both ex Western Province and Springbok rugby players. To me, a sports fan, I find it incredible that I get the opportunity to meet people like this who share a common love for mountain biking.

Lastly, our group is growing at a steady rate and I find it… to be quite honest astonishing! What I mean by this is that us Cranks are by no means professional cyclists. (Sure we are now big time Adidas sponsored athletes but…. Nah, I’m just joking!!! I’ve just been waiting to use that line!) We are really just two best friends who enjoy riding their bikes! So to all out there following our posts on our blog and on Facebook we thank you. We cannot do it enough… it is fantastic to get support from all over the world.

48days…17hours to go to EPIC 2009!

Jaco

Missy Elliot, The Royal Tenenbaums & David Beckham

This weekend saw the Cranks making light work of one off the toughest one day races in the country when we traveled to Outhshoorn to do the Attakwas Extreme Mountainbike Marathon! We both managed to smash about 30min off our times from last year, making light work of the 126km and 2600m of climbing! 

We are both extremely happy considering that this years route was allot tougher and technical than last year. I also managed to cut open my back tyre and had to stop three times to plug the damn thing before it sealed properly! Jaco clocked a 7:32 and I rolled in in 6:54 and collected my silver medal (sub 7 hours) which I am extremely chuffed with. 

Congratulation to Nico Pfitzenmaier who again had an awesome race. He finished 3rd overall in 5:48 only minutes behind 2nd place Kevin Evans. Francois Theron managed to pull off a surprise win after an early breakaway with David George in a blistering 5:36. Our new traing buddy, Hein, also had a very impressive ride, finishing in 7:47. 

So the big news……………… 

What does Missy Elliot, The Royal Tenenbaums, David Beckham and now Cranks of Glory have in common? 

Easy…..we all roll in super fly adidas tracksuits! Yes the rumour is true! Bemer, our main sponsor, have given as the awesome news that adidas will be providing us with riding kit for the 2009 Epic! We are extremely exited and can not wait to get our asses into some silky smooth adidias spandex! Thank you Werner for all the effort you put in and congratulations buddy! Werner dropped the bom on all of us last week when he got enaged to his long time girlfriend Ute! 

I’m not sure how to end the update so I’ll do it in the words of Missy…………… 

“Is it worth it, let me work it
I put my thing down, flip it and reverse it” 

Later 

Nico