The Ashburton Investment National series #1 Meerendal

It was a few month ago when I only talked about my first Ultra Marathon race and this past weekend it got real. The 1st leg of the Ashburton Investment National series was held in Durbanville at the beautiful Meerendal wine estate. It was a early rise with the start at 6:30 and no time to waste, soon the top UCI riders were called up Alban Lakata, Robert Menen, Erik Kleinhans ,Konny looser just to name a few and just after that it was the rest of the UCI riders(myself) that got the opportunity to get in the start shoot. It was a very special moment in my career to stand on the start line with probably the best Mountain bikers in SA and the world. At first I had no idea what to expect from a Ultra Marathon for example how fast is the pace? How many times must I stop at water points? But soon I realized it was going to be a fast start with a even faster finish.

 With 2900m of climbing it was always going to be a tough race but the downhills was worth all the effort to get on the mountains, it was smooth hand build singletracks with some nice berms to take you down the hill even faster. It was very nice to race in our new Jeep team kit (left & right)) for the first time and it looks so nice and it is very comfortable so look out for this kit all over SA in 2015.










It was a big learning experience for me and I'm looking forward to race In Sabie for the 2nd leg of the series on the 21st of February. I want implement all the things I have learned over the last few weeks training and racing in Stellenbosch to perform better as the series goes on throughout the year.


I finished 22nd overall in the UCI elite category and looking to improve my result. For now I am back in Gauteng to prepare for Sabie and doing a race or two for some training to give my best when the 21st arrives. Thanks you for all the support from everyone leading to my first ultra it was special to read all of the messages and receive all the calls. Thank you to amazing sponsors supporting Jeep team so that we can race all over the country and to Metro Cycle Works here at home for fixing and tuning by bike before every race to make sure I don't have any unnecessary problems.



Till next race
train safe train hard

Smurf