Racing from the Drakensberg to the desperately beautiful Kwazulu-Natal bushveld, the Berg & Bush offers spectacular riding. Race winner, MATT BEERS shares his race thoughts on the ever popular event as well as his daily race reports.
Berg & Bush still remains one of my favourite stage races of the year, it has such a great atmosphere about it. The route is amazing, not too hard for the guys starting out but very hard if you are racing up front. It has a great diversity of terrain and scenery starting up on the Drakensberg escarpment at the Free State and Natal border dropping down to meander alongside the mighty Tugela River and ending in the bushveld proper. It also comes with the bonus of some of the best man-made and animal made trails SA has to offer.
The event also caters for the less competitive riders with the Great Trek and 2 DAY events offered as non-competitive options, which is really great as it appeals to the guys and girls that just want to ride their bikes without the stress of other people rushing them or being on the clock, but still having the same organisation and superb atmosphere offered in the Descent (Race).
The whole vibe of the race village is great. Situated right along the banks of the Tugela river at Em’Seni campsite, it is stunning. It offers one of the best chill zones around with the famous on-tap chocolate milk fountain which is amazing along with what is probably the healthiest and biggest variety of food any stage race has to offer!
The whole crew at Berg & Bush are awesome and help make the event! Everyone is so friendly and always willing to help and really try to make it easy for the riders after a long hot day in the saddle. Farmer Gary Green and his staff (mostly family) do an incredible job and it’s great to see the event growing every year; they really do have a good formula going here.
I can’t wait to go back and race again next year; it’s already on my race calendar!
Erik Kleinhans and I were delighted to take podium honours.
Race Report Day One:
The first day of Berg & Bush is always a special one starting right at the Sterkfontien dam on top of the mountain. With such a strong field and more than seven teams that could win, Erik and I knew we had our work cut out for us. The start was fast with a lot of teams and riders fighting for position at the front. After the tussling stopped Alan Hatherly, Brendon Davids, Team Telkom, Scott LCB and I managed to get a gap on the rest of the field. The slight problem was that Erik was in the chasing group… but after we finished the descent off the escarpment Erik and the rest who initially were quite far back managed to bridge the gap. The racing continued to heat up – four teams managed to get away from the main bunch: Erik & I (RED-E TOPEAK ERGON), Telkom, Scott LCB, NAD. We started working hard together to keep the other teams at bay… at around 25km to go Telkom had a mechanical problem and we where down to 3 teams. Now it was the fight for the top step of the podium. After some rad single track and fast racing, we approached the final descent of the day about 8km from the finish – I attacked and headed down first, knowing I could maybe get a gap on the other guys and try solo to the finish praying that Erik would come out the winding singletrack along the river to the finish first. It worked! We took the stage win with a small buffer. It’s going to be some super tough racing over the next two days but we are in a good mental space and are ready for the challenge!
Race Report Day Two:
We knew today was going to be a tough day on the bike with the stage only being 60km with 890m climbing, so all the XCO (cross country) riders where hungry for the stage win. Our work was going to be cut out for us…
The racing got off to a fast start with the first climb (Ox wagon hill) within 5km of the race village and the XCO riders set an uncomfortable pace up the climb. As we reached the top there where still quite a few teams with us and as we approached the descent it was a massive fight for position to see who could start going down first. At the bottom we hit a district road and most of the teams rejoined.
As we approached the final big climb of the day (Mike’s pass) the pace started to step up and the fight for the position started again! The XCO boys hit the front fast and hard, with Erik and I following suit. We knew we had to stay with them down the other side (Puff Adder pass). Erik & I, Team Scott LCB And Team Kargo started the fast and incredible descent; after enjoying myself a little too much I had to regain focus and start racing again…
When we reached the bottom the gap had grown on our rivals (NAD) so we took it as the perfect opportunity to try and put some time into them but with 20km still to go it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. So we started laying down the watts. I went to the front with Erik on my wheel and we put our heads down and went. After about 5km we managed to ride the other two teams off our wheel (Scott LCB and Kargo). Then we had to go into full on time trail mode to try hold them off; we put in a massive effort along the Tugela river but we could see team NAD was slowly catching us… After a bit of doubt Erik and I decided to give it one last dig to try increase the gap and solo to the finish.
I’m so happy we never gave up and pushed on because we managed to win another stage and most importantly, gained some valuable time (1min 30sec) going into the final day of racing!
Race Report Day Three:
The final day was upon us. We had a good lead going into the 3rd and final day with 1min 45sec over second place. And with it being such a short day (only 50km) we just had to play it safe and get to the finish in one piece.
For the first time the start was a little more marathon like and not XCO flat-out from the gun. Everyone knew no-one could get away on such a short day. The pace started to ramp up on the district roads with a lot of teams wanting to position themselves up front in hopes for a stage win or podium, so there where a few new faces. Our main goal was to just stay safe and ride smooth to avoid any unwanted technicals.
As we approached the first single track it was clear Scott LCB wanted to control the race in hopes for a stage win. Philip Buys was on the front with Gert Heyns laying down some power on the uphill single track out the river bed. As we climbed out, the field had whittled down quite a bid, making it a bit less stressful.
The main obstacle of the day was the climb up Spioenkop – a 1,5km climb at 11% avg gradient and this at 35km. After you reach the top it’s all downhill to the finish. As we hit the climb I set the pace and rode a bit in front of the group mainly so no one would catch me off guard and try put in an attack. It worked pretty well and I was feeling good. The other guys where tired from the Hillclimb challenge – up the same climb the previous day – which Gert Heyns from Scott LCB won.
As we reached the top of Spioenkop, the amazing single track decent started and now the fun could begin! For the first time I could actually take in the views and appreciate the amazing area we where riding in! It was pretty special. We all descended at a reasonable pace. At this time of the year no one wants to take risks and get injured so it was quite relaxing. But it still called for focus in order to get to the finish line safely.
When the descent finished the pace picked up and the bar banging started for the stage win. Erik and I sat back and kept ourselves out of trouble, knowing we could finish a few seconds back allowing the guys to fight it out. Scott LCB took the stage victory and as the dust settled with the finish line in sight we could finally relax! Mission accomplished! We had won the Berg & Bush ̶̶ Erik and I where both optimistic coming into the race and winning was going to be extremely tough with such a strong field, but we managed to play our cards right and get it done!
Thanks to Erik as well as all my sponsors, family and friends for the support. I am extremely grateful.
