The KZN MTB Commission is responsible for hosting the KZN Provincial XCO/Enduro/DHI MTB Series every year and has established this series as the breeding ground for many of South Africa’s champions. In the January issue of Full Sus, some of the reasons that SA is battling to keep up with the International standard in XCO Racing were highlighted and the KZN XCO Series is providing a vehicle for riders to overcome these challenges. Riders get to gain race experience and push themselves to perform better. The KZN MTB Series also includes downhill and, for the first time, Enduro. All disciplines are criteria for Provincial Colours so there is a lot of motivation for the riders to give their all.
In 2013 it was decided to move two of the series events to new locations so that riders could experience varied terrain and give home ground advantage to more participants. With this in mind, the 1st event was staged at a brand new venue. This meant that new routes had to be cut, which in itself is no easy task. Nick Floros (NES Trails and designer/course builder of the Cascades UCI World Cup XCO route), Nigel Hicks (Cascades UCI World Cup DHI route) and Mark Sydney (Enduro Series SA) spent many hours clearing undergrowth and setting up routes that would be challenging yet fun. It’s extremely difficult to design a route that will suite every rider and impossible to keep everyone happy, but without a doubt these routes came pretty close to doing exactly that!
The 2014 KZN Provincial MTB Series got off to an early start with the first event taking place at Hill ‘n Dale (Hammersdale) over the weekend of 11th and 12th of January 2014. This was an earlier start than usual due to the UCI MTB World Cup #1 and UCI MTB Marathon World Championships taking place later in the year. This didn’t give participants much time to get over the Festive Season (and the Christmas pudding indulgences) but it sure was motivation to start 2014 with a bang.
XCO
Official practice was held on Friday, 10 January 2014, and everyone who was planning a podium finish came out to pre-ride the course and get their race tactics sorted. It was decided that the start would be a quarter loop of 1 lap before riders headed out for their age specific required number of full laps. This was to give riders a chance to spread out and position themselves before going into the first fast singletrack section.This also meant that riders would start on a hill… meaning a combination of speed and tactics would be the advantage on the day!
Race day dawned cool and a little wet from the previous night’s rain. The route had held up well though and the cooler weather was great for racing. Registration was a buzz of activity as riders picked up their number boards or submitted late entries. The mix of race face tension and smiles of competitors and friends was palatable… it was race day! Riders were checking each other out and wondering who had done what training… who was ready… who would be attacking where.
Racing started with the Sub-Nippers, Nippers, Sprogs and Sub-Juniors all together. This type of racing gives the youngsters a real race feel and motivates them to compete against each other as well as against riders in a higher age category. The route was not changed in any way, but each age category had specific number of laps to complete. Once the younger riders were finished their race, the juniors, under 23, elites, sub-vets, vets and masters all had their turn to race. The pace was hard and it was really exciting to see the riders fly around the course.
The day, and the pace, got steadily hotter but the riders still gave their all. Team KARGO MTB and Team BMC/Velo-Life dominated the top end of the categories and walked away with several podium finishes.
Enduro
KZN MTB had embraced the MTB Enduro concept and has included this discipline in every Provincial event for 2014. The Enduro takes place on the same day as XCO and riders have the option of either doing both events on the day.
Several of the XCO riders took part, with the balance made up of riders doing just the Enduro and others who were competing in the following days DHI.
The Enduro route was made up of 4 timed sections over 3 routes. Liaison routes joined the sections together and riders had to ride up to the start of each. As this was the first event of the series it was seen as a great opportunity to introduce Enduro to more riders so the sections were not overly technical. However… they were challenging! Trail, DH and XCO bikes were used with majority on full suspension rigs. Whilst a Trail or DH bike may be more suited to the downhill sections, the XCO bikes were much easier to pedal back up to the start of the next section!
DHI
The first DHI race of the 2014 Provincial Series was held on a crazy hot Sunday, when normal people choose to go to the beach and eat ice cream. Instead, people dressed in very thick clothing and full-face helmets were lured into riding one of the most fun tracks ever sliced into a side of a KZN hillside!
Hill ‘n Dale farm offers a wide variety of soil and vegetation types, which make this short but engaging track into a challenging race platform. Starting off right on the back lawn of one of the main farm houses, the track shoots through a winding section of grass (with a few sneaky rocks) into a steep drop of pine trees. Smoothly sliding off dry grass into powdery, rocky dirt; the off-camber nature of the hills and the slippery fingers of pine roots had many a rider puzzling over how to keep speed without running the risk of dead-stopping side-ways up against a solid tree.
A short pedal section on a dirt road led riders to a drop into another grassy slope (optional booster jump into grass, which was said to not be faster but “it just makes it so much more fun!” according to Sam Bull), with perfect arced chicanes which led riders into the next two sections of rooty pines and dark, rocky soil. Another heavy-breathing sandy road sprint and then a “hold-on-for-the-ride” downhill following the fire break between sugarcane and alien invasive plants! The ending was of course the badass, with a 90-degree left hand turn onto a dirt road to end (sans a constructed berm).
With the Joburg DH series still in a bit of disarray, a number of GP riders made the trek for the race, with the added lure of the Enduro on the Saturday certainly proving it’s worth.
The popular Sunday race format has returned this year (after a trial run of Saturday races in 2013, which saw quite a drop in the number of people able to race due to work and school sport), and the increased numbers of riders and youth was really wonderful to see. Unfortunately, the ladies seem to have taken a bit of a nose-dive with only two women riding in the event, but it’s hoped that’ll pick up for the next event.
By 12:30 it was game on, and with 30-second gaps we made our way down the hill, with the spectacular endings onto the dirt road becoming more and more frightening. Peter Hoyer (Masters) performed a phenomenal skid-drop-and-roll into the actual timing table, with his gear shifter snagging the laptop power cable! Thankfully Peter was all good (aside from being upside down in a cane field), as was the laptop!
With 20 Elites, the competition was incredibly fierce and very unpredictable. The track became looser and more exposed, with a noise akin to gunshots firing out when pedals smacked rocks, while the proximity of limbs to tree trunks at race pace became cringe-worthy!
If you thought the Elites were fierce though, there were no holds barred in the Sub-Vets with 14 men vying for top honours. It was a very interesting mix, particularly on a track that didn’t offer a distinct advantage to those who are ballsy jumpers. Our Canadian import for the season Joe Bauckham really stirred up the pot by nipping a gold medal in the Enduro the day before (on a DH bike!), and then proved he was out for World Champ blood by licking Nigel Hicks’s time on the butt by 0.1 seconds!
All in all, it was the kind of race that reminds us why we love DH so much. Standing after my last race run with Jo in the dust cheering 8-year-old Cameron Curtis over the line, discussing tactics on the back of the bakkie with a red-faced Tim Camp (10 years old, first DH race ever), dipping our shirts in the drinks bucket at the food stall to try and cool off, sharing tools and fist-bumping good lucks and congratulations – it’s all part of why we enjoy it I guess? Here’s wishing everyone country wide an awesome 2014 of gravity riding!
For all the info on the KZN MTB Series go to www.kznmtb.co.za