What mud?
This past weekend I did my first mountain bike race of the year in a town called Baberton just south of the Kruger Park. The race was 80km’s of off road punishment on jeep tracks through plantations and across a mother of a mountain, and it was hot as hell! There were 8 water points and I drenched myself in water at each one to prevent myself from over heating! Me and 2 friends decided to start the race out together. We started off pretty good, then after 50 meters Marcel had a puncture! We stopped to fix it and lost about 15 minutes. This didn’t turn out so bad and it was fun to catch the people falling off at the back! We lost count at our 33rd victim and raced together up to 30km’s. At this point we went our separate ways. I had a good race considering my not so good fitness level at the moment. Marcel went on to have another 2 punctures and a dog bit him 3km’s from the finish! Obviously this sucks! I suppose at least his bad luck for the year is over and done with and the rest of the year should be a breeze.
Baberton is renowned for being one of the muddiest races of the year. It’s the first time I did it and I am pleased to say it was the driest race I’ve ever done. The first rain in over a month arrived on the evening of the race day. Obviously the past month wasn’t so good for farmers but mountain bikers were delighted about this “dry spell”.
We spent the evening at a local pub and found out that apparently it’s legal to start smoking, drinking and listening to Nicholas Louw at the age of 15 in Baberton.
