Attakwas 2010

Our next big event is the 2010 Attakwas Extreme Mountain Bike Challenge on the 16th of January.

The guys at Dryland uploaded the route details and profiles a few days ago and it looks like they have tweeked the route a bit. In 2010 it will now be 135km long with 2950m of climbing! I have now officialy renamed the race to Atta"eina my"kwas! Considering that we have set ourselves a goal to do a 6:30 hour ride, it's going to hurt allot!

Training is going very well for myself and very bad for poor Jaco. He has been struggling with his sinuses for three weeks and has skipped some longer rides. I have had a really good month clocking over 1000 kms on the mtb, nearly twice as much as I did last year.

Here is the route map and profiles. Read more about the race at www.dryland.co.za

Later

Nico

Belgium Summer

The 2010 route has been announced and again the Epic has not disappointed with their continued quest to re-invent themselves year after year. Here is a short run down of the stages:

Stage 1: Diemersfontein (Wellington) to Ceres, 117km / 2190m

Stage 2: Ceres to Ceres, 90km / 1625m

Stage 3: Ceres to Ceres, 115km / 2280m

Stage 4: Ceres to Worcester, 86km / 1640m

Stage 5: Worcester (TTT), 27km / 860m

Stage 6: Worcester to Oak Valley (Grabouw), 123km / 2230m

Stage 7: Oak Valley to Oak Valley, 99km / 2160m

Stage 8: Oak Valley to Lourensford (Somerset West), 65km / 1640m

Total: 722km / 14625m

Get the full route detail here:

(http://www.cape-epic.com/content.php?page_id=164&title=/The_Route/)

At first glance the route does again look a bit easier. It’s definitely shorter, there is less climbing and its one day shorter than last year! I again do not think it will be as tough as the 2008 race but it is definitely not going to be easy!

The team time trail on day 5 looks like a lung buster, 860m in 27km is no mean feat, but we will have some extra precious hours to recover that day. We are definitely going to be in a warmer environment for the first few days. Ceres is well known for its high temperatures and rocky technical riding.

Training is again in full swing. Getting back in to the early morning training routine is not going to bad. We came through our winter hibernation in much better shape that last year. We both started this years training leaner and stronger than last year. I’m now just desperately waiting for summer to start! We have had a mixture of gale force winds and rain for the last couple of weeks!

The strong winds caused havoc in Eden forest, one of our favourite riding spots. An insane amount of pine trees were blown over and is now littered across the trails. The trails are pretty much unrideable at the moment.

For the moment it looks like we are going to be missing the Desert Dash in Namibia. This is an awesome 340km non-stop race from Windhoek to Swakopmund (http://www.desertdashnamibia.com/). We did it as a four-man team in 2007 and were looking forward to trying it solo this year!

Our next major race is the Attakwas Extreme MTB challenge on the 16^th of January (http://www.dryland.co.za/). It’s a gruelling 126km / 1220m race from Outshoorn to Klein Brak. It always a great way to see how your preparations for the Epic is going. This year we have set ourselves the ambitious goal of doing a 6:30 ride!

So happy training to all our Epic comrades!

If you are looking for a truly unique, awesome African mountain bike experience go and check out houseMARTIN Mountain Bike Adventures (http://www.ridehousemartin.com/). Anka and Sven are putting together an unforgettable trip through South Africa and Botswana in March 2010.

Oh and one more thing! Lisa had been given the opportunity to re-open the restaurant on Eikendal Wine Estate (on the R44 between Somerset West) over the December holidays (http://www.eikendal.com/website1/main2.htm). Please come out and support her! They have an awesome breakfast and lunch menu and they do pre-packed picnics! It’s a great coffee stop whilst training or bring the misses for a picnic on a Sunday afternoon to make up for all the time spent away on the bike!

Later

Nico

Reality check in October

The Lourensford mtb race came and went over the weekend. Like I said last week it is a special race for Cranks of Glory, as it happens to be in Somerset West, our hometown. There were the usual faces, some seriously fast and some simply they’re to conquer this mighty beast of a race. It really is a privilege to ride in Lourensford wine estate. There is so much history within the borders of that farm.

Earlier this year rampaging fires caused havoc on the farm. The farm still carries the scares and it will do so for quite some time. Even so, with the backdrop of the Helderberg mountains, seemingly unending vineyards on rolling hills and water streams its beauty is very striking indeed. It is a very fitting finish for the ABSA Cape Epic!

Coming back to the race, what a dynamic sport don’t we have!?! One moment you may feel as strong as Mr. Armstrong himself cycling like a demon and then later, maybe not even 5minutes later, feel as if all the power has been drained from your body. It humbles you. In this sport you reap what you sow. That is the beauty of cycling…and it seems I need to sow a little more.

Nico had a fantastic race. His time 3h33min, and from what I heard on the day 16th overall. Truly a very good result! Hein, my cousin, also had a very impressive outing finishing only 7minutes behind Nico. Myself though, managed to NOT finish the race. A first for me. Maybe I needed my coffee last week after all OR make it an espresso next time? : ) At 38km’s I was struggling and fighting to stay positive. Soon after I got a flat on a downhill. I tried fixing it…but I couldn’t manage.

I then walked for little over 20minutes before Jane Seggie and Henning (from Merida) came to my rescue. He got his hands “dirty” on my Trek and sure enough, I was mobile again. “MAGIC” I thought, only to remember that I needed to take my parents to the airport at 13:00pm. By now it was 11:25am and we had about 700m’s of climbing left. To tell you the truth…I was “gatvol”. I slowly cycled to the next water point and from there I got directions on the shortest possible route to the finish. Disappointing all in all for me…but still a great day out! Thank you to Jane and Henning for helping out, I owe you!

Even though I didn’t finish the race I now have a clear idea of what to work on over the next few months. I need to do LOTS and LOTS of base. NO, not the Mitchell’s Plain Taxi type of base… I’m talking long slow miles in the saddle. So YAY for me…. Ha! It’s officially October and now we start training specifically for the Epic. This will be our third and I can’t believe it’s that time again.

For those embarking on their Epic adventure for the first time I want to say ENJOY it. The Epic itself is the tip of the iceberg…its your “holiday” and “reward” after months of gruelling training and sacrificing. See these next few months as EPIC. You will meet many interesting people on your journey to the Epic…one always do. When you lose a bit of heart along the way, remind yourself how fortunate you are to be able to do this race. Many dream of doing it but never gets the opportunity or cant be it physical reasons, financial etc. So give it your all!
Cranks of Glory will be stepping it up in training now. Bring on the mountains!

Jaco

Coffee drought...

It has now officially been 30hours since my last cup of coffee. I’m hurting.

You see I love my coffee. There was a time when I loved all five my cups of coffee per day. However, after reading that going without caffeine for a set period can boost your cycling performance up to 6%, I was all ears. Who knows, maybe it improves performance all round? ; ) Anyhoo, apparently its been proven that going without caffeine for seven days and then having that one cup race day morning can achieve such results. I’m going to go without for three days… so I’m hoping for a improvement of 3%! : )

This coming Saturday we are doing the Lourensford Classic MTB race in Somerset West. Its our “home race” for the year and one we always look forward to. Normally its a tough 58km’s but also a rare opportunity to experience the beauty of what Lourensford Farm has got to offer. I do hope the wind dies before then. This week it has been rather tough training and I literally got sandblasted yesterday in the mountains.

It has been quite a while since we last updated our blog with a proper entry. However, those following our “new” twitter account will know that we, particularly Nico, have been very active in updates ranging from us to cycling in general. I you haven’t visited our Twitter page you can find us at: http://twitter.com/CranksofGlory

I hear and see that guys are in full training for the Epic 2010. We clearly are still very relaxed about it all… but the upside is that we are enjoying our riding at the moment. It can become very mundane putting in all the hours and luckily for us we know what is required.

All the best for you guys out there training, and if you see us on the trails say hi! Epic 2010 promises to be another special race…and the excitement is growing!

Jaco

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