Francois rides Rhodes

Over this past long weekend, Francois travelled down to the Eastern Cape to ride the Rhodes Mountain Bike Challenge. "The Rhodes MTB Challenge could arguably be considered the ARGUS of mountain bike racing. It is also perhaps the grandfather of mountain biking races, being one of the very first MTB races and now 15 years later still going strong," says an article on CycleLab's wesbsite.

The race, now known as Rhodes Extreme, has evolved over the years to become a multiday event. The new 2009 format makes Rhodes the highest MTB stage race in South Africa and it includes:


• ‘Thin Air’ - 40km, mainly single track
• ‘Night-light’ night ride - 15km, festival ride around the village
• ‘The Grandfather’ (previously the Rhodes Cycle Challenge) - 85km, extreme alpine ascent

2010 will see the introduction of a 75km single track stage...


The race format requires paired-team entries.

"The first stage of 40km I really struggled," says Francois. "I couldn’t get going; but luckily my team mate had a great day and we came second, only losing about three minutes after he pulled me up all the mountains."


The second stage, of 15km, is held at night. "I had a bad tumble, broke all my lights and damaged my bike a bit. We struggled to get in," Francois explains. "I think we lost just more than 15 minutes and finished third."

After two disappointing stages [I think their results are excellent; they wanted to win!], Francois and his teammate gave it everything on the final 85km stage. "This last stage was the hardest race I’ve ever done," says Francois. "We finished in just over 5 hours, which is extremely slow for this distance. I think we climbed more than 4000m at an altitude of 9000ft. We had to make up nearly 20 minutes on the first placed team and eight minutes on second."

Francois and his teammate overtook the leaders on the last climb, winning this final stage. "We gave it our all to have a chance to win the overall title but the time we lost on my fall the previous night was too much and we finished third overall, only one minute behind second and four minutes behind first. It was a close race. I’ll definitely go again next year."

"I think winning the last stage was one of my proudest achievements ever," Francois adds. "We buried ourselves over the last 35km, even riding through cramps, justto finish first. I had goosebumps when we crossed the line."

Well done Francois.

SA Orienteering Champs

SA Orienteering Champs was held over this long weekend in Sabie's forests. Alex was there...

"We had a great weekend in Sabie. It's a really scenic area and we had a nice bit of forest to run in. The forest was very physical and there were plenty of linear features, so it didn't suit me. But I managed 5th on the Middle Distance course, about three minutes behind Nic. I was also 5th on the Long Course, about nine minutes behind. Both results weren't as good as last year, but I'm happy considering that my shin was niggling a few weeks back. It was good to run hard and not have any shin pain.

Wits had a good relay team and I had a good run in a tricky bit of forest. We finished 3rd, just behind Garry. AR Club skipped a control, so we were promoted to second.

It was a good showcase for South African Orienteering. We had a few overseas runners and lots of locals. RACO did a great job in putting this event together."

Christo races The Otter

This past Sunday, Christo ran 'The Otter', a new trail run - the brainchild of the Collins brothers Mark & John from Magnetic South.  At 42km of technical trail running, The Otter takes in the length of the well-known multiday Otter Trail hiking route. This is the first time that people have been allowed to do the entire length of the trail in one dose.

The Otter Run description from event website:
"The Otter Run involves no fewer than 11 “significant” (steep climbs of more than 50 meters of elevation gain) with three climbs exceeding 100 meters and a total elevation gain of over 2100 meters. Some of these climbs are steep enough to force even the strongest runners to walk and in many places it is stepped."

In Christo's words...

Only 7km's left!" These  words, from a female marshall at the last 'checkpoint' of The Otter, will be remembered by every runner who took on this inaugural trail running challenge, which is hosted by Magnetic South and presented by Hi-Tec.

"The Otter includes some of the most technical terrain you will ever find on a trail event," says Christo. "It has the most steps you will ever climb in your life during a single event and you will certainly experience the most painful cramps! The reward, however, is running along the most breathtaking section of coastline, to be found on this planet, in a single day. The event and organising was World-class and I enjoyed every moment, even the last seven kilometres that felt like they would never end."

Christo finished 18th overall in the open male category with a time of 6:18.

* Photo of Christo from the Southern Storm website

Gettin' on the water

With Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge little over two months away, we're all on the water in preparation for those two long paddling stages that hit on days two and three.

Alex and I have been paddling here in Joburg - two or three times a week. Germiston Lake is nearby, so we've been there quite a bit, including this morning. We've also had a session at Emmies and another at Homestead.

Morning paddle at Germiston Lake (Lisa & Alex)

Francois had been paddling in Pretoria, at the LC de Villiers dam and this past weekend he put in a long session at the pretty Rust de Winter dam, which is an hour or two North of Pretoria. Christo is in Bloem, so he has been playing down there.

We'll all paddle together next month when Christo is up here for the Crater Cruise MTB event - this includes coaching sessions with Russell Willis.

Meet the team: Alex Pope

Alex is the one team member that Lisa knows the best; from years of orienteering. Alex (21) is a 4th year electrical engineering student at Wits: "I picked the right degree somehow and I'm really enjoying it," he says of his studies.

Although Alex enjoys biking (road and mtb) and running, his favourite discipline is orienteering. "I have been orienteering since I can remember. I started cycling at about 15 and I've done every 94.7 Cycle Challenge since." It is in orienteering that Alex has really excelled, winning the SA junior title for many years. He has competed at big orienteering events in Lithuania and Sweden.

Three years ago Alex started doing sprint adventure races. "I gradually became faster and gained experience with each race. But I always felt that I couldn't really call myself an adventure racer until I had done a long race. That finally changed in January when I did the Uge Classic." For Alex his race presented a steep learning curve on this introduction to longer races because his team was really fast with more experience.
Alex is competitive, but he's happy to participate in any event just for the experience. "I think experience is better if you go fast, but I'm happy to have fun by being outside, with interesting people in challenging situations," he says.

Over the next few years Alex has his sights on a number of challening events, including Wartrail, Swazi Xtreme and Cape Epic. He may goes on to do a Masters degree in 2010; an attractive option not only professionally, but because of the time and freedom that being a student allows for lots of training, sports events and travel.

Meet the team: Francois Jooste

At 20, Francois is the youngest member of Team http://www.ar.co.za/. He did his first road race at the age of six and the mountain biking bug then bit, winning Provincial and National titles in his age group.

Six years ago Francois did his first adventure race, a 65km at Hadeda Creek in Parys. He was hooked. "Since that day I have been blessed to do many one-day races, from sprint races to 120km; and we've won a few!". Francois took part in the International Schools races (nine-days, 500km) in 2006 and 2007.

One of his long term goals is to qualify for the Olympics in track cycling.

Francois is currently studying mechanical engineering at Tuks and he recently started his own business - http://www.brainsonsite.co.za/ - a company that provides tutors to high school students.

Francois is driven and self motivated. "Although Lisa had not yet met me, in her email introduction of each team member to each other she said, 'Francois is organised with good attention to detail (dots his i's and crosses his t's) and he has consideration and appreciation for his team-mates and others involved in supporting his team'. It’s probably one of the most truthful sentences I have ever read, but it is one that I could never formulate."

Francois says that his best traits are his ability to maintain attention to detail whilst looking at the bigger picture and the stubbornness to never give up.

Francois is a fast and competent runner and his paddling experience is diverse (his family has a place in Parys so he's paddled a lot on the Vaal river and dam in different boats). But, it is his biking dominance that will really add to the team's strength.

Together for the first time

Team www.AR.co.za got together for the first time this past Sunday, at the UGE Events trail run in Parys.

I haven't seen Christo in about two years, so it was good to see him again. The guys all got to meet each other for the first time and I echo Alex's post-meeting sentiments, "We've got a great team".

After the trail run, over lunch, we went through equipment lists and other logistics. Top priority is paddle training, which begins this week. We've got three months to prepare and we'll all do some sessions with paddle coach Russell Willis; his training really helped last year.

The next time we'll all get together will be early October; and then again in November for the foot and mountain bike rogaine.

Getting together yesterday has ignited a buzz of excitement and made our team feel 'real'. We'll keep in contact a lot over the next few weeks and I look forward to our next meeting.

(Would you believe that I forgot to take a photo of us together - Arrrggghhh!)