| 29 September 2009
Isuzu 3 Towers Stage Race – Mankele
Last weekend was the much anticipated inaugural stage race held at the Mankele bike park just outside of Nelspruit. The event’s primary sponsor is Isuzu and the Westvaal Group and is also supported by numerous local supporters and sponsors who all contributed to making this a fantastic weekend of racing. The race was a two man format covering all normal categories and from what I heard they had a full entry compliment adding to the success of the first year’s achievement.
Yolande and I under our loyal IMC Reaction banner headed down on Wednesday lunch time armed with our GT Marathon dual-suspension rigs affixed to an all new Thule roof rack, box and Pro-ride set up atop of our Team Golf and showed up (very organised) for race briefing and the first of some great meals organised by the local NG church.
Day 1 was a 7:00am start in fairly cool and overcast conditions that would later be very appreciated amongst the riders. This day’s stage consisted of a substantial amount of climbing right from the gun so we just tried to get into an early rhythm, lost a few positions but knew we would make up time later in the stage when things started pointing down-hill! The Marathon dual-suspension bikes responded brilliantly to all the bumpy roads the course took us over which we knew would be adding to a lot of other teams fatigue levels in the last 20km! We lost a handful of minutes when Yolande took an unfortunate (or fortunate depending on how you look at it) tumble on a very gnarly rock section and then to add insult to injury had a trailing rider ride over her legs but luckily not too badly injured! While she relaxed and regained composure I quickly attended to a flat before we were off again. The course throughout the event was very well marked and I don’t think anyone could have taken a wrong turn. In the last few km of the day we rode in the first of many “bush tunnels” we were going to experience throughout the event which was a great way to finish a day of racing.
The rest of the day was spent in and around the camping facilities that Mankele has to offer including a little nap next to the pool and after another good meal, a nice prize giving including a photo collage and short video of the day’s happenings from the organisers we were off to bed.
Day 2 was also a 7:00am start (thank goodness) and after a little rain throughout the night the dust had settled and it looked like it was going to be a good day of racing! We had a quicker start up another serious climb (there were several throughout this stage). Yolande had recovered well from the previous day and I was feeling allot racier so we were determined to give some of the men’s teams a run for their money! Unlike the previous day when the first ladies team dominated QOM (they actually had a great weekend all in all humbling many open teams!) we managed to grab QOM and kept the momentum going from there. We made use of our duals on all the rough stuff as well as our super grippy Geax Barro Mountain tires and slowly clawed back some of the front runners until we got ourselves into 5th place overall. Then disaster struck again when Yolande bottomed out her fork on a drop-out in a bush tunnel which pushed her into a rock fracturing a rib and setting us up for an afternoon in the local medi-clinic getting in some stitches! However being the die-hard she is she got up after the fall, I pulled her bar straight while she took a breather (we have this routine dialled (-; ) and we still went on to finish 5th on the day and 1st again in our cat.
It was great for the event to have a sponsor like Isuzu coming onboard because they helped give the event such a good vibe as well as contribute to giving the riders a fantastic value-for-money feel which is what is often found lacking in stage racing of late!! I tried to coax Brett Coates to give us some of his legendary jokes but then later found out that he was on good behaviour for the sake of the children and caterers! However he was on hand to give us a live performance with the guitar which was a great way to end the evening!
Day 3 was an interesting one with only 50km to race. The two top elite men teams were within a second of each other so I knew the pace was going to be wretched from the gun. Yolande was riding strong considering what she went through the previous day and I had some good legs again so we were out for a top five finish. We climbed up to the mast passing some stunning view points as well as a few fun single track sections. We were gaining on a few teams up ahead so we knew today we were going to give them a tough time as you could sense some tired legs out on the trail! This stage was very undulating with a good mixture of technical downhill sections which is what we like! We passed a few teams which put us into third for the day with about 10km to go! Making our way carefully down a tough single track downhill which required full concentration but the type of riding we relish and expect from a race around Mankele we knew the finish was close. However with a few km to go the GT duo caught us and piped us to the line recovering well from an earlier puncture. We were however very pleased with our 4th place position on the day, our 5th place overall and 1st in the mixed category!
The event had a fantastic bike wash in place not giving me an excuse to use our new Mobi-Washer. We packed up then headed to the marquee to enjoy some vanilla milk drinks and fantastic chicken burgers sponsored by Galito’s and Happy Cow. Prize giving was timeous and allowed for plenty of travel time back to Pretoria.
A big hat off to all the organisers and sponsors for putting on an excellent first event (I know it cannot be easy). I think everyone had a good time and got to ride on some fantastic local trails as well as indulge in some great South African Scenery!
Hope to see you all next year!
Paul Cordes
IMC Reaction Racing Team |
