This is one of the most amazing mountain bike stage races in South Africa and the bonus is that it is in our own backyard.
If you looking for pure mountain biking then this is the race for you, with the most amazing single track, rough cattle tracks and beautiful mountains one couldn’t ask for much more.
Stage 1
Dropping into the Sunday’s River South valley, crisscrossing citrus orchards and the Addo Elephant National Park. The route consists of 1400m of climbing over 66km.
NUTRITECH athletes Bruce Campbell together with his partner Wayne Brown under the team name Cyclopro, had a great day. This was a very competitive race with some of the top mountain bikers competing from all over the country. They came in 7th overall with some of the top dogs. I road with another lady Monique Beattie from Cape Town and we managed a 4th in our category, unfortunately we had chain issues on this day and it cost us 10min. We knew we would have to work hard the next two days.
Stage 2
Zuurberg Mountains and Karoo (north), Trace the historical Voortrekker wagon route over the remote Zuurberg Mountains, taking in awe-inspiring panoramas of the vast Karoo on one side and the distant Indian Ocean on the other, 78km with 2000m of climbing.
This was by far the toughest stage of the 3 days, with big climbs and technical down hills. Team Cyclo Pro unfortunately had a mechanical issue resulting in Bruce having to push Wayne (literally) for 40km. Even with this unfortunate mechanical they came in 14th overall with some work to do on the last day.
We had a good day and managed to move from 4th ladies team to 3rd. Leaving one more day to maintain our podium.
Team Cyclo Pro were very fortunate to even cycle past a few elephants drinking from the dam at the one water point, now you don’t get to see that every day.
Stage 3
Hayterdale Trails (east and west) hug the southern slopes of the Zuurberg Mountains as you traverse some of the best purpose-built single track in the country at Hayterdale Trails. 50km with 1400m of Climbing.
If you like single track and you are a technical junkie then this is the day for you. Team Cyclo Pro were back in the mix with Bruce’s incredible technical skills and Wayne hanging onto his wheel they managed a 7th overall placing them back in the top 10 and finishing the race 7th over the 3 days combined.
We managed to keep our 3rd placing us 3rd in the overall standings. So team NUTRITECH showed great results and the bonus was the water points on route, they were fueled by ENDURADE. It was so amazing to have the product on route that you use and that definitely put power in the muscles.
Finishing each day with RECOVERY MLK you couldn’t ask for anything better.
“Train Like a Pro” and race like a hero.
-Bruce Campbell