June & July Race Update

Hey everyone, it's been a while since I've posted a blog, so here is a recap of my June to July adventures!

June was a really good month of racing for me. I did a Provincial and had good form and was actually leading the race, but I had withdrawn because of a sliced tire and no spare wheels. Oh well, I guess it was a blessing in disguise to have a mechanical or a mistake happen in a race that isn't that important rather than a big race. Another Marathon came around for the MTN National Series, it was #6 Rooiburg. It wasn't too hilly of a course, but there was lots of sand and rocks, which made it a lot more difficult to keep my speed up. I held onto 4th place overall and 1st U23. This meant I had a greater chance of holding onto the U23 Series Leaders Jersey for the Marathon! There would only be two more marathons on the Calendar and if I win the next one, I will have the jersey in the bag!


July, my focus was all about securing the Leaders Jersey of the MTN National Series at the end of the month. Then the XCO National in Mankele came around, and I actually pulled off a great result and finished 2nd only 45 seconds behind, Olympian, Candice Neethling. Not bad for a roadie!



After Mankele, the next weekend was SA National MTB XCO Championships. I wasn't allowed to race, so I just went along to help out where I could for my teammates. I ended up feeding only Brendon in the feed zone on race day, but cheered on Travis and Patrick as well. Brendon unfortunately had to withdraw due to dislocating his shoulder. Travis and Patty finished 6th and 8th respectively. They all raced really hard and that's the most important thing.

Hilton DirtFest, the race I needed to win to secure my overall U23 lead and the jersey. It took 72 kms and just over 3hrs and a half to take the win! I cramped for the last hour of my race, but it was worth it! I'm so happy to have taken the U23 leaders jersey for the MTN National Series!





Big thanks to team Jeep and all their support, Felt Bicycles for giving me a great bicycle that I enjoy every minute on, and the MTN Series for putting on so many awesome races this year! You guys are awesome!

Next up is the Eston Marathon!

Thanks for reading!

KR

XCO National #3, Thaba Trails

On Saturday I signed up for a race that gave me a little change of pace. After doing lots of  Marathons this year and just finishing a mountain bike stage race I had no idea what to expect at an explosive, short, punchy cross country race. The course is about 5 kilometers long, all single track except for the start/finish. It was a super rocky course, making it technical up and down the hills. I was called up to second row start. Not ideal, since the single track started 200 meters from the start.

The whistle blew and I made it into the single track in 6th. It was a fast start and as we flew into the single track there is an immediate sharp left that turns back on itself and goes uphill. The girl in front of me made mistakes forcing me to jump off and get around her. I remounted and carried on, determined to make up time lost. I was lying 5th as we started the stair stepping climb. I was so excited, I was already doing way better in a cross country race than I ever have before. But I was hungry to do even better. I closed the gap onto 4th place by the top of the climb and passed her on the flat section at the top. I could see 3rd place just ahead as she took a left turn towards the descent. I couldn't stop saying to myself, "oh my gosh I'm chasing down a single speed world champion!". That's right none other than Amy McDougall, 2012 single speed world champ, riding for the ASG MTB Academy. This chick can descend better than most guys! I kept the gap pretty much the same, but she did make a few seconds on me on the descent. But that time I lost I made up for on the climb. I caught up to Amy and took a breather for a few seconds. We approached a steep kicker on the climb and Amy's bike was giving her a fit. She was having some trouble with her gears. She couldn't quite make it over the hump and had to get off her bike. I was too close when this happened and I fell to the right. Pinning myself under my bike. Rookie. I got up and had to close the gap, again. By this time we had gotten closer to 2nd place. As we got the the top of the climb we were right behind 2nd place. Amy being clever attacked on the flat section before the descent. We all went down the descent together Amy almost immediately pulled away. As soon as the track widened I passed, moving into 3rd. I chased Amy for the remainder of the laps. On the final lap I caught Amy on the climb. I started thinking of places to attack her. But as we reached the same steep kicker that I fell over on, Amy's chain snapped! What a bummer for her. I made my way around her and carried on to the finish.

Coming 2nd overall Pro-Elite and first U23 woman, I was beyond happy! I made a complete 360 since the last cross country race I did. I just want to say, since I was given my Felt 29er full suspension with full SRAM XO and top of the range Reynolds carbon wheels, it has completely changed the way I perform and race on the mountain bike. I know it's corny, but this is the first time I have been really comfortable on a mountain bike. I nice bike really does make a difference. I would just like to say thank you to all the people involved in making it happen. You guys have no idea how many times I have said I love my bike lately haha.

Also, amazing job to my three teammates, Patrick Belton, Dylan Rebello, and Julian Jessop, who all won their respective categories on Saturday as well! Winner winner, chicken dinner!

Well that's it for now!

Thanks for reading!

KR

Photos by LePops Photography and Cindy Rebello

Sani2C

Sani2C is the second biggest mountain bike stage race in South Africa, next to the Cape Epic. In these long mountain bike stage races, everyone races with a partner. I raced with teammate Patrick Belton of Team Jeep Felt.

With 5000 riders starting each race in a new location, as we made our way closer to the sea every day, there were 2500 tents pitched up. The organization of this race was amazing! Breakfast, lunch and dinner was prepared for a massive amount of people. At dinner would be awards for stage wins, a sequence of pictures over the course of the day, and a video of everyone racing. Such a great experience, I would love to do this race again!

The tents we camped out in after every stage.

My amazing full suspension Felt that helped cushion the bumpy terrain and flew down single track!

Stage 1- As the first stage of Sani2C it was not surprising that it was a fast start. Everyone has fresh legs and eager to race hard. The stage was 86 kilometers long and was dry, fast rolling open roads, little single track, but had some short hard climbs. Patrick and I had a rough stage 1. The start was extremely fast. It was so dry and dusty we could barely breathe or see. Both of us went into the race a little too fresh. Our heart rates were high and our legs weren't very snappy. We ended up coming in 4th. We knew we could do a lot better.

Stage 2- This stage was completely different from stage 1. The distance was longer, at 99 kilometers, and it had rained the whole night and was still drizzling when we woke up. Everyone was shivering on the start line with the freezing cold rain. It was a fast start onto a wide dirt road that was already getting muddy. The course profile for the day was basically downhill for 30k on single track, flat to rolling for 30k along the bottom of the Umkomaas Valley, and climbing for 30k to the finish. Because of the rain all night to the morning of the race, you can imagine what the single track descent was like. It was absolutely comedic the whole way down, watching people slip and fall and slide down the banks of the steep switchbacks. The whole way down Patty and I were laughing. We were sliding all over the place as well, but kept up right. As we hit the valley floor, the mud just stuck to my bike and it got to the point where I could no longer pedal because it was so clogged up! Thank god there was a river crossing just ahead. Patty jumped into the river with my bike and tried to get most of the mud off. Apparently we started a trend, everyone ended up washing their bikes as well! We continued on, feeling a lot better than the day before, and flew across the valley floor. I made sure to take lots of Roctane GU's along the valley floor, because it was a long way up to the top of the climb. Once we made our way to the base of the climb, it was very difficult to ride in some places because of the mud. But we ran all the places we couldn't ride, not wasting any time! Patty told me to hang onto his jersey pocket so he could help me up the long drags. We were able to keep our pace up that way, and it would give me a little time to recover. Patty and I ran out of our GU Roctane drink mix and decided to stop at the last water point to fill up. I gave him my empty bottles and carried on. He eventually caught up to me and we picked up the pace. We caught one of the womens teams, Bizhub, with about 20k to go. Still feeling great, pushing ourselves to keep up the pace. We were about 5k to the end and had to cheer each other on, because we were so exhausted! It was 3k to the finish and we could see a mixed team in front of us! Suddenly we both had a huge surge of energy. I grabbed onto Patty's jersey pocket once more and we charged passed them just before the finish line. Finishing 10 seconds ahead of them, we placed 2nd mixed team. Very happy with this performance we went on to clean our bikes, take showers, and prepare for the next day. The final stage.

Patty and I after coming second in stage 2.

Stage 3- Final day of racing! A very cool idea the Sani2c organization had for the final day was to let all the slower heats of riders start first in the morning, then 2 hours gap, and then the A batch riders start at 11am. The idea was to make the finish that much sweeter, with more people watching as we come into the finish. So we had a very relaxed morning. Slept in till 8, had breakfast, and waited to head for the start. Alright here we go, the last hoorahh!! 85 kilometers of fast single track all the way down to the coast! Patty and I had a great start. Went right onto the wheels of the Kleinhans, RE-CM, who were 1st in the overall mixed teams. We were about a quarter of the way into the race, when the helicopter that was filming our race came a little too low. As we were passing through sugar cane fields, it blew some dried up sugar cane into the Kleinhans bikes. They had to stop for a while and dig out the sugar cane from their drive trains. Patty and I sat up to wait for them, showing good sportsmanship. It was just the right thing to do. They eventually caught up and we continued on with our race. A little ways down the road Patty got a stick or something caught in his rear rotor, and it was bent so badly, his rear brake was now useless. He had no torque tool with him, so he had to rip off his rotor and continue on with only a front brake. All the other mixed teams were in a group together and had passed us at this point. We caught onto the back of their group and took a breather. Patty and I decided it was time to go, we wanted to catch back to the Kleinhans. We attacked hard on the next hill and we could see the Kleinhans just up the road. We eventually caught back onto the wheels of the Kleinhans and successfully dropped all the other teams. Patty and I sat their wheels to recover from the exertion. We could see the other mixed teams getting closer and closer. They were chasing hard. We decided to sit and wait till they caught us and then attack into the next single track. The Kleinhans had the same idea. Both our teams flew into the single track and held a pace the other teams couldn't match. My word, we were moving!! We kept a sizable gap the whole rest of the race. As we were getting closer and closer to the finish we planned to attack right before the last challenge of the race, the floating bridge. We attacked and the Kleinhans gave no response, but sat behind us. We entered the floating bridge ahead of them. If you ever do Sani2c, the greatest feature of this race is the floating bridge at the end of the race. A lot of people fall off! The whole time you are riding it, it's moving in different directions like a big snake. It was the weirdest sensation I have ever experienced, but a very cool ending of a days racing. We crossed the line in 1st, taking the stage win! What a huge surprise to everyone, especially ourselves! We were so happy! Patty and I were all smiles! What a great way to end on a high note!

Riding the floating bridge to take the win on the last stage of Sani2c.

Overall Podium

Patrick, Farmer Glen, and I after the last stage of Sani2c. This guy  is a  legend!

Patrick Belton and I, happy after winning the last stage of Sani2c and keeping our 2nd overall.

The awesome trophy Patrick and I were awarded.

Big thanks to Team Jeep and Felt Bicycles SA for getting us to this race! We had a blast on our bikes!

Also huge thanks to Farmer Glen and the Nedbank crew for putting on a phenomenal race! 

Europe and Life throwing a curve ball my way

In the beginning of March, I was invited to Europe by the United States Cycling Federation for several road races on the European race calendar. On the schedule were two World Cups, a 5-day stage race, and a couple one day races. I was beyond excited for this opportunity. My coach, Roy Knickman, and I worked out a nice training plan so that I would be prepped and ready for a hard 3 weeks of racing. Team Jeep was also super excited for me and was very supportive in allowing me to leave for a couple weeks for some international experience.

As I flew up from South Africa to Belgium I had a massive head ache. I didn't think much of it. I thought, I must be stressed out from all the travel and tired from my training, I'll just sleep it off. I had a long 10 and a half hour flight and slept for about 9 hours of it, but my headache was still hanging around. I tried to ignore it, but it just seemed to get worse and worse as time went on. Towards the end of my flight I started to feel these tingling sensations on the top left side of my head. I thought there was a spider crawling in my hair or a bug.... but it was nothing. WEIRD! I arrived in the Brussels airport and noticed bumps on the left top of my head and a red rash starting to creep down my forehead towards my eye. This was starting to freak me out! I put on my beanie so no one could see and waited for the soigner to pick me up in the luggage area. When I arrived at the hotel I started to feel really ill. I had no energy, my head was throbbing so bad it felt like someone was hitting me in the head with a baseball bat at the rate of my pulse. I went for a bike ride with the rest of the USA girls, because Flanders, a World Cup, was in two days. I felt even worse after the ride. It was freezing when we rode, a whole whopping 2 degrees Celsius(35 F). So when we got back to the hotel rooms, I took a really hot bath and all I could do was lay there and place my head on the side of the tub. My roomie noticed I wasn't doing so good and told the Director I was not feeling well at all. He organized a hospital trip for me for the next day.

I ate little to no dinner that night, having no appetite or drive to eat any food. I felt super out of it, like I was in my own little bubble, not paying any attention or engaging in conversation at dinner. Just sitting there miserable with a throbbing head, chills down my back, and a very insecure feeling of my health. Something was seriously wrong.

I tried to sleep, but when I closed my eyes it felt like I couldn't get my brain to shut off, it was just throbbing away with a piercing blow at every thump of my heart beat. I woke up the next morning feeling like death. I walked to the bathroom to brush my teeth, I looked in the mirror and saw my left eye swollen shut. The red rash had spread all over the left side of my forehead and on the top of my head. I tried to cry, but I couldn't. I couldn't believe this was happening to me. The soigner took me to the hospital and we had to wait for about an hour. I was in so much pain I went into one of the empty rooms just so I could lay down on a bed. I found myself curling up into the fetal position. The nurses took that as an indication that I was definitely not OK to wait any longer. The nurses knew exactly what I had. They told me that what I had was a virus. It took them a while to get an english translation of what it was. They kept saying it's Zona, well in America we call it the Shingles Virus. The Shingles Virus is more common in people who are 50 or older, but it's not uncommon for someone my age or younger to get this virus. If you've had the chicken pox, the Shingles Virus is already inside you. It is dormant or asleep and it just waits for a time to strike. No one can explain why it happens, it could be stress related, or if your immune system is down. All I know, is it is very painful! They immediately started an IV drip with pain meds. They drew blood to test. I wasn't really familiar with the virus, I didn't know anything about it. All I knew is I was hurting like hell. I was finally able to let out a few tears. In the realization of knowing I have a virus, was definitely not the news I wanted to hear. I was really hoping it was an intense spider bite at that point. Having this virus meant I had to rest. Which also meant I wasn't doing Flanders the next day, or the races after that. The doctors recommended I don't do any physical activity for 10 days, then after that I can only ride indoors for a couple days before I can go ride outside. Hearing all of this at once made me break out in a sobbing cry. I had worked so hard to prepare for this trip. All the hours of intervals, 2-a-day work outs, core sessions, focusing on recovery and getting to bed early. Now it's all gone to waste. The thought that made me feel the worst was that someone else could have had this opportunity to do these races, and that I was just waisting time, money and space.

Thankfully, the coaches at USA Cycling have big hearts. They allowed me to stay in Europe and recover. After taking anti-virals and pain meds 5-times a day, putting ointment and drops in my left eye 5-times a day, and waiting for a week and a half, the doctor gave me the OK to start training again.

When I got back on my bike and rode outside for the first time in a week and a half, I was so relieved. I went for a ride with some of the Bontrager Trek U23 boys, it was still super cold, but I wasn't complaining. I was still able to do my favorite thing in the whole world.

The USA ladies team returned to Sittard, Holland and we prepped for the last 3 races on the schedule. Gelderland, Fleche Wallone(World Cup), and Borsele were the last races I had to look forward to.

Gelderland, had 6 climbs in the first 40 kilometers of a 140 kilometer course, and the last 100 kilometers were completely flat. I made it over the 6th climb just off the back of the lead group, but managed to catch back on after battling in the crosswinds with a small group. I sat at the back of the lead group for a while to recover from the effort of catching back on. I then spotted my teammate Kristin McGrath and decided to make my way up to her. I rolled up on her left side and said, "hey" and also with the intention of asking what the game plan is for the finish, but I didn't get a chance to ask. Within 2 seconds of saying, "hey" a rider on my left hooked my bars and crashed me out. I also took out Kristin in my fall and other riders went down as well. It happened so fast I didn't even get to see who did it. I was lucky I didn't break any bones, just had some deep road rash and a bruised ego. DNF.

Fleche Wallone came around just 3 days later. I was still very sore and stiff from my crash, but I wanted to make the most out of getting to race a World Cup. I tried so hard to stay at the front of this race, but I had absolutely no legs. Granted I was still on anti-viral meds, I missed out on a week and a half of training/racing, and I crashed a couple days ago, but I'm not the kind of person to make excuses for myself. I wanted to race my bike, but all I could do was hang at the back of the bunch and watch the race going on at the front. There I was again, just taking up space. Dropped on the second to last climb. DNF.

Borsele, the last hoorah! Our team sat on the line for over 30 mins before the start. But it was so worth it! We had a front row start, and it was crucial for this race too. It's a race to the first corner! We were going flat out for 5 kilometers to the first corner. It's a sharp left hand turn, almost a u-turn, and it funnels down from a 2-lane road with bike paths, to a 1 lane road. It felt like a bike path with the 140 girls that were trying to squeeze into the tiniest places. I managed to get into a really good position at the start. We had to complete 6 laps resulting in 120 kilometers of hard, flat, and windy racing. The cross-winds made the racing incredibly hard. But working with my teammates to create our own rotating pace line in the cross winds kept us up there. The whole race I was fighting for position, fighting to stay in the race. I ended up staying with the lead group, there was a break away up the road, but I was proud of myself for gritting my teeth and racing as hard as I could. Leading up to the sprint, my teammates and I formed a lead out train, though it wasn't perfect, we still tried our hardest and Lauren Hall finished 3rd in the bunch sprint. I was so happy, I finished a really brutal day of racing and gave my all at the end for my teammate. What a great way to end the trip, on a high note!

I really want to thank Jack Seehafer, USA Cycling Womens National Team Director, and the rest of the USA Cycling Staff for being so helpful while I was sick, letting me stay in Europe to recover and giving me the chance to race my bike where the racing is one of a kind. Though the start of the trip was rough, I am really glad it all turned around in the end.

Lesson learned: If you don't have your health, you don't have anything.

Thanks for reading!

-KR

The Argus - Cape Town

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to get an opportunity to race The Argus Cycle Tour in Cape Town, as a guest rider for Team Bestmed/ASG. I thought it was just another Road Race, but in a gorgeous city, boy I was way off. It wasn't just a road race in one of the prettiest places on earth. It was the biggest timed event in the world. There were 37,000 people who rode this 108 kilometer(68 miles) course, not including all the people who organized the race, or people who volunteered, or people who were just out cheering on the side of the road. Cape Town was CROWDED! The event was all on live television on Super Sport. And commentating the race was none other than, Phil Liggett! That doesn't happen very often!



The day before the race, myself, An-Li Kachelhoffer, Linda Van de Biggelaar, and Lee-Zaan Hinrichsen went for a fun ride with a bunch of people from Bestmed/ASG. Every single coffee shop we had passed along the way was filled with cyclists! It was pointless to try and drive a car anywhere, because of the endless train of cyclists that were out riding on the road. It was one of the coolest things I had ever experienced, cyclists just taking over a whole city.

When we were on the way back to our hotel, we rode the last 15 kilometers of the race. I always like to see the end of the race, so I can mentally prepare for it by doing some visualization before the race. The last 15 kilometers was flat and fast, but difficult because the wind was always changing direction. The finish was wide open and the last turn was a right hand-er that lead to the 1 kilometer banner from the finish line. Straight forward and a wide open course.

After the ride we went back to the hotel and laid around all day. Normal pre-race rituals, put the feet up, drink lots of fluids, relax, and carbo-load during meals. Prepped my Felt and laid out all my kit and GU product I needed for race day. It was an early night, since we needed to wake up at 3:30am. Our start time was at 6:24am, so we had to eat breakfast, get dressed in our outfits and roll to the start.

When we arrived to the course we had to go through this long process to get to the actual start line. First we had to stand in a long line so these people could check that we had the numbers in the right places, and make sure we had our "start card" with us, which had our name and race number on it. Once through that we had to make our way to the starting pens. My number was %282, so I had to look for the "%" symbol, which signified Pro Women. As you could imagine this took a while since there were several thousand people trying to do the same thing I was. Once we got to our starting pen, we signed in and lined up behind the Pro Men, who started 10 minutes before we did.

When I sat on the start line I started to get super nervous and my legs were shaking all on their own. The girls that are well known in South Africa on the road, and who also did The Argus last year were being interviewed. I just put my game face on and waited for that whistle to blow. The Vet Men A's started with us, so we had a sizable group. I don't know if there were any pre-race instructions, but I don't remember hearing any, I was that "in the zone". All I heard was the whistle blow and I pushed off the line and clipped in fast. I had to make sure I had a good start, there was no way I was going anywhere near the back with the massive group we had. That is where I stayed the whole race, towards the front. Effectively missing many crashes behind me. Looks like I wasn't the only rider who had that same idea. All the top women stayed at the front. I found myself sitting on the wheel of Cherise Stander or Ashleigh Pasio many times. Both of them came to chat to me during the race, which was very cool!

During the race I tried to conserve as much energy as possible for the last climb called Suikerbossie, at 2.5 kilometers long. I would float from the front of the pack to the middle, so I could go a little easier on the climbs in the middle of the race. I focused on my nutrition as well. Rebecca Laird from GU, gave me some really good tips how to use GU Roctane more effectively in the race. Taking a Roctane GU every 30 mins and making sure I drank often, definitely helped out loads!

Approaching Suikerbossie, Ashleigh Pasio attacked and 5 others went with the move, along with a couple of Vet A Men. This move shattered the pack into many small groups. The break rolled over the top of Suikerbossie and down the other side. They opened up a gap of about 30 seconds once we were on the flats. I was in the group behind the break. We worked together well, until it was about 5k to go. Then no one wanted to pull through and we lost the time we made up to the break. It was now a sprint between myself, Marissa Stander, Lynette Burger, and Ashley Blackwell. By this time I was spent from working in the group and as we approached the 1K banner before the finish, we all looked around at each other for a moment. We were about 500 meters from the line and we started sprinting. My legs were burning and I felt like all the energy was being drained out of me. As I hit the line I stopped pedaling and my legs felt like they turned into jello. Finishing in the time of 2:54, I placed 9th. Not bad for my first Road Race of the year! I was very happy with my performance and stoked for An-Li, who placed 6th after getting caught behind a crash in the breakaway.



I want to thank BestMed/ASG for giving me the opportunity to race with them as a guest rider. I also want to thank Everyone at Team Jeep, especially Max, Bronwen, Brendon, Travis, Patty and for the amazing support, you guys rock! Also big thanks to Felt Bicycles SA and Greg Minaar Cycles for the cheers on twitter!

Thanks for reading.

Kendall

Sabie- MTN National MTB Series #2

Sabie Course Profile

Saturday morning wake up call at 5:30. I'm pretty much a zombie at this time in the morning. Get out of bed, brush my teeth, use the bathroom before the boys peal the paint off the walls, toast 4 pieces of bread slap on some Nutella and BAM, high calorie breakfast. Next thing I know there's a guy at the door from Super Sport with a camera wanting to film our morning routines. Oh boy he was in for a treat. Brendon Davids, Patrick Belton, Travis Walker, and I enlightened this guy and the rest of South Africa how we get things done in the morning. Basically we talked about the boys blowing up the bathroom, figuratively speaking of course. Had the camera man laughing so hard he couldn't hold the camera up. We like to keep things fun and entertaining.

So we kitted up, packed our bags and bikes into the Jeep and headed to the race. As soon as I rolled to the start line I was handed the white leaders jersey for U23 Women. Sweet! Lined up next to the pink polka dot climbers jersey, I started getting the pre-race nervous jitters on the line. 74 kilometers of pain awaits. The whistle blows. Stomped down into my Bebop pedals and follow the lead motor bike out the first corner. I was sitting on the front going easy, but my heart rate was so high, I guess I was excited!

Start line

Candice Neethling, South African 2012 Olympian, in the Pink overall women leaders jersey to my left and Ariane Kleinhans, Swiss MTB superstar, to my right and sitting on the wheel of Cherise Stander, roadie superstar. It's gonna be a fast day. We took off down a dirt road that went for about a kilometer before leading us out onto a tar road. It was false flat all the way to the first short climb. The race immediately blew up as we turned onto the Jeep track of the first climb. Candice and Ariane were already attacking each other. It was a long way to the finish, so I decided to ride a little more conservatively staying with the group. As we rolled down the other side of the mountain the "Mamba Switchback" climb was coming up. From driving the climb the day before, I knew ALL about Mamba Strike 1,2, and 3. Steep, Steep, Steep! The whole climb I tried to keep Cherise in my view, keeping her there as a nice carrot was a good call. After making it over the climb I just focused on drinking enough fluids and taking a GU Roctane every 30 mins. Cherise and I pretty much rode the whole race together. See-sawing back and forth from 9th and 10th. I put in one last hard push a couple kilometers from the finish. Pulling away from Cherise.

Brendon giving me a big hug

Finishing with a time of 03:58:45. I rolled in with a solid ride, 2nd U23 and 9th overall Women. Received a big hug from Brendon Davids, who won his race in the 75k overall and U23. Travis was 2nd in the U23 men and holds onto his U23 leaders jersey for the next Marathon. Patrick finished strong and was 3rd U23. What a great weekend for team Jeep. We pulled through with some good results.

Bronwen and I

I want to give a big shout out to Naeem of Valencia, thank you for your amazing hospitality. Your tent with food and drinks was a god send after a hard race on such a hot day. Also big thanks to the MTN National Series and ADVENDURANCE for putting together such an enjoyable event. The course was really well marked and so much fun to race on. Looking forward to the next one!

Thanks for reading.

Kendall Ryan

The Team Jeep Gang

Cape Town- XC National #1

Woke up early on a Wednesday morning last week and flew with the Team Jeep boys, Patrick Belton and Travis Walker, from Durban to Cape Town, South Africa for my first cross country race of the season. I slept the whole flight, like a boss! Brendon Davids was already there to pick us up at the airport, due to some VO2 testing with his coach, Jeroen Swart, earlier in the week. He arrived  in this SWEET Chrysler van Jeep hooked us up with to get around. Man that thing was nice!  Our race didn't start till Saturday, but we wanted to get there a couple days early to check out the course and get familiar with it. We unpacked our bikes and built them back up. Got a bite to eat, filled up our bottles with some GU Brew and were on our way to the course. When we got there I was pretty skeptical about the rock gardens, the drop offs, and the steep descents into tight corners. Coming from pretty much solely a roadie background, I found myself not 100% confident I can ride these things. But with the help and guidance of my teammates, I managed to overcome my fears and doubts. They had me ride behind them finding the good lines and even stood at the rock gardens in-case I fell. Thanks guys, I learned a lot.


Thursday was an awesome day! Woke up to some horses right outside our front porch. Fed them some carrots and apples. There were animals everywhere! We were set up with some really nice accommodation at Clara Anna Fontein. Gorgeous place! Had a good ride on the course and the weather was hot and sunny. Couldn't have asked for a nicer day. That night, GU South Africa took Team Jeep athletes out to dinner. Had a great time chatting with Rebecca Laird and getting to know everyone personally. Thanks again!



Friday was the hardest day for me to get through because I was getting antsy to race! Went to the race track again and did some opening efforts and road all the difficult parts of the course to get it in my head that I can ride them. Leaving the track with my legs and head feeling good I went to registration and got my number 61. Time to chill and put the legs up.... and wait.

My alarm goes off at 6am and I wake up with that feeling of: "where am I? Oh right I'm racing at 8:45, I should get going." I hate it when that happens. I walk out the door and it's really cold and raining. What happened to the sun? All I could think about was how different the course is going to be because of the rain. I got a pretty descent warm-up in and headed to the start line, where I started to scope out other riders. There were 13 Elite/U23 women on the start line. A few I picked out were a international riders, riders from BMC, Contego and Cherise Stander, who I knew from the road. It's gonna be a hard day. The whistle blew, clip in, and put the power down. My word was it a fast start. I didn't get myself in a great position at the start, but I just focused on pulling riders back one by one. We had 6 laps of a 4k course to complete. With Rebbeca Laird and the rest of the GU clan in the feed zone cheering me on every time I went by I was really happy with how the race was going. The first 4 laps went really smoothly for me. I made no mistakes, I found a nice rhythm and worked my way past other riders in different categories; all the womens categories started together. Going into lap 5 I was sitting in 8th overall and 4th U23. It started to rain harder and the course was getting a lot more slippery. I crashed in one of the rock gardens and hit my hip really hard on a rock on lap 5. I got up quick and tried to get back in my rhythm and block out the pain. Pretty much lost all my steam after that and was running a minute slower on laps 5 and 6. I ended up placing 10th overall and 5th U23. Not exactly the result I was hoping for, but not a bad race for my first experience at cross country racing.

Doing some hard training for the next race on February 23rd, Sabie! Should be an awesome race. Heard it's really tough, so it probably is. I'll be racing the Marathon 74 km.

Thanks for reading!! Ride on!

Kendall Ryan