2012 has kicked off with a bang. With the first weekend of racing under the belt it’s good to have settled the nerves and pushed the body into the racing mode forcefully at a national event, amongst all the top professional racers in South Africa, in one of the most mountainous regions of Mpumalanga.

The small old mining town of Barberton is situated at 800m of altitude and is surrounded by a caldron of mountains rising up to 1800meters in every direction. This only means one thing when it comes to mountain biking, CLIMBING! The race route followed a similar route to the previous additions of this event in that the major climbing was at the beginning of the 75km and 45km routes. The ultra is a combination of the two and has a total accent of over 3300meters over 122km.  The field was stacked with all the big names and a top ten podium was always going to be a tough ask, especially with the cumulative experience of the top contenders.

From the end of the neutral zone the pace was quick with many of the guys trying to get into a favourable position before the 14km hill which started at 5km into the race. As the group hit the base of the climb the pace settled and the tactical riding began. The first to attack were the MTN crew followed by the 360life team mates and a fair number of the other teams followed. The length and extreme gradient of the climb meant the light weight riders had a big advantage over the more powerful athletes and so the pace quickened till I found myself out the back of the main bunch with a small group of racers. The constant thought that we still had 90km to go played a big part in the decision to climb at my own pace and conserve energy for the final 1000m climb at 85km in.

The tactic worked and by 75km I was feeling relatively fresh and passed a couple of riders. The real trick to racing ultras as I found out over the weekend is consistency and controlled efforts. The body goes through so many different phases whilst you are on the bike for 5hrs. You can feel like death at one stage then feel amazing an hour later, the experience is one that you cant gain by listening to others but only through going out there and doing it for yourself.

I crossed the line in 19th place overall finishing about 10miuntes off 10th place. The positions were very tightly bunched and you had the likes of the REcM duo of Waylon Woolcock and Neil Macdonald in 15 and 16th place. A great result for my first ultra ever and I’m looking forward to Sabie next month.

This following weekend I’ll be having some fun at the Hermannsburg Mudman event which should be great to spend some time with friends at a social event.