Sanbona Forever Wild Weekend
This past wekend was the Sanbona Forever Wild weekend held by RaceInterface…
It promised to be an action packed weekend with MTB races and a night ride and run on Saturday as well as trail running races on Sunday. Sanbona Reserve is Between Montague and Barrydale. I had entered the 57km MTB race and this was my first race as a member of the Hangsgrohe team, my sponsor for the Epic 2013, so I felt that I needed to do well. As well as racing I was doing sports massage on Saturday and Sunday for all the competitors and manning a water point for the trail run! Busy weekend!
I arrived on Friday and after dropping off massage plinths at Khanni Lodge (the main event centre) was put to work at the front gate signing people in. Then my friends with whom I was sharing accommodation arrived and we all went to register for our races and then went off to find where we were staying at Akerboom Cottages. By now it was past 9pm so we all tucked in to dinner and settled in for rest before our race the next morning.
6am the alarms went off and we all rolled out of bed and into the showers……only to realise that there was no water! This was a serious problem for 5 mountainbikers with pre-race jitters!
We arrived at the start venue for the race and got ready for the race. There we all were at the start but Lara Klaus and Simon were missing and we were about to start. At the last minute they dashed around the corner and said that they had had to break the bike rack lock as Klaus had forgotton the key! Close call. A quick race briefing and we were off……straight up a hill! Then a right turn onto rougher tereign and another even steeper hill up steps of rock and over scrubby bushes. Lara, my main competition in this race, sponsored by Bike Plus, had pulled a little ahead of me but was in my sights. After some rough hill climbs and traverses along the hill ridges we dropped down again and there was Lara on the side of the track…….her handlebars had come loose. This was my chance to put some distance between us. So I checked she was ok and dashed of at high speed.
I managed to pass the 15km waterpoint and get about 3 kms futher when I heard “Hi” behind me.
So we rode together for a while and then she took the lead. Not long after she was just ahead of me and suddenly went flying over her handlebars. It was a proper wipeout! I stopped and made sure she was ok. More frustrated than anything. So after a big yell she shot off and I rode like hell to keep up. Which I managed until we came off the rough stuff and onto easy dirt roads and then she smoked me! By now I was having gear troubles and my chain was screaming for lube. We climbed many hills and crossed quite a few rivers and my chain continued to scream and gears just wouldn’t come right. eventually half way up a pass I stopped and lubed my chain. Just round the corner there were two ladies in a van who said that I was almost at the 50 km mark and the worst was over….they lied! Just around the corner was another hill!! Then we had some fast rough roads to the finish. I pushed as hard as I could and flew over rocks, ditches, river beds and bushes at high speed thanks to my 29er wheels and my speedy Scott. I love my bike!!! The finish was in sight and I sprinted as hard as I could and almost lost it on a corner! Close one. There was Lara chatting to the mates at the finish. So second it was by about 7 mins! Considering a year ago I used to finish 40 mins behind her I was very happy.
That was not the end of it! Off to shower sadly not a superior Hansgrohe shower but it got the dirt off and I had a nice view of a watering hole for the game and the mountains behind.
Then off to the massage room to massage all the riders I had just raced against…..there was something very wrong with that! Shouldn’t I have been getting the massage?
At last we finished up around 3pm and I was shuttled back to my car.
It was a perfect spring day and when I got back to the cottage everyone was outside catching me sun.
After refeuelling and a short rest in horizonal positionwe headed back to the reserve for the evenings entertainment. A night ride or run. Lara and I both opted ro ride……in the game viewing vehicle! Thank goodness we did. It was a slow ride as there were 30 people with varying degrees of capability. We saw a red bottomed rock rabbit which is very rare and a few zebra from behind and a grysbok. Fortunately no hippos as they could have been a big danger, according to Jannie our game ranger.
When we got back there was a lamb spit awaiting some ravenous riders and they fell on the food like vultures. We all had at least 2 helpings. Then Prize giving was announced and we all crowded into the tent. Amongs our mates we racked up 3 firsts a second and a third!!! Not too shabby. The trophys were the highlight as they were wooden carved meerkats and each winner had to do a meerkat pose which was hilarious. All in all great fun was had by everyone.
Day 2 dawned bright and early and I creapt out of the cottage bright and early to go and man registration for the trail run and set up my water point…..in the middle of nowhere. See the picture!
As the runners approached the waterpoint i thought some music would perk them up and so cranked up some tunes …… and then they died….silence……my battery decide to go flat!!
So there I was in the middle of the karoo in a reservefull of wild animals with a flat battery!! Yay!!
At last 5th car lucky and some time later, someone had jumper cables. Whew! Thanks to the girls who rescued me. The last runners came through and I packed up and headed for the Lodge at the finish. Then back to the massage room to see 4 more customers. Sojourn NaturalSpa did its bit for this event!
There was a prize giving for the runners and that was that. Weekend over!
Thanks to Sanbona Game reserve and all the Rangers and to Taryn and Kerry and Jody and all the others who put on a really well run event.
www.raceinterface.co.za have a look at the event pics.
Keep Riding Keep Safe.
Diana Carolin
@di_carolin