Greg Minnaar Racing & Mongoose DH Provincial Cup #2 – report by Conrad Davies
Alasdair Fey – photo by Kim Kerry
KZN DH is without a doubt the premier province for racing in SA, hence the fact that they will once again host the UCI World Cup in April this year. But this past weekend of 20 February saw the second leg of the Greg Minnaar Racing Mongoose KZN provincial cup and it proved to be a another very successful event as usual…
This past weekends racing started like any other – with me fixing Alasdair’s DH bike in the parking lot at Cascades Shopping Centre, on Saturday afternoon. I had headed up early to get a couple of practice runs in on the new track that we would race on Sunday. Spent a few minutes sorting some stuff out on Al’s bike and then uncle Des (K-Dub’s dad) was kind enough to take us up to the top of the hill.
The course started about a quarter of the way down a track we used for a provincial at the end of last year. First off was some twisty tech stuff before you got spat out of the pine forest into a huge hip to the right, that set you up for the lung busting peddle down what’s become known as the N3. Things have changed on the N3 in preparation for the upcoming World Cup. There are now lots of jumps. Lots of jumps, so it now more of a pedal, pedal, pedal, jump, pedal, pedal, jump, pedal, jump, pedal, pass out…
Good stuff, after all it is a bicycle which infers a little pedalling may be needed. After all the pedalling, you were into a small berm, a right hip, a big berm and ski jump to WOHOOOOO! The old bomb hole revisited. Such fun. The track then made its way into the WC 4X course and back into the track we rode at the last provincial.
The first run down the course went well, I just wasn’t sure how this new Morewood Mkulu would jump, so I didn’t hit any big stuff. By the time we got to the bottom, the rain had started to pour down, but being non fair weather riders, we decided to go for a few more runs. I jumped some stuff (wow this bike rocks), drifted some stuff, slipped around a bit and decided to call it a day, after making it down to the bottom on a near slick rear tire. Went home, washed the bike, had a good dinner and went to bed early, ready for a early start.
Sunday morning was sunny and the few clouds around just made for a beautiful day. We got to Cascades early, set up camp and were soon greeted by and excited Alasdair and Kelvin. The Maverick DH Team riders had received their new race bikes – Kona Operators – late on Friday afternoon and were, what can only be described as super psyched to get some podiums.After a bit of catching up and getting kitted up, we all got on shuttles and headed up the hill for some more practice. I was a bit tired and didn’t want to over do it in practice, so I just had a bit of fun, learning how the Makulu jumps. The bike pedals exceptionally well, which makes it very easy to get up to the right speed to clear jumps and such. Everything went well, even a little panic rev moment off the drop at the end turned out fine, but I still wasn’t comfortable.
It may have been that I was tired or stressed, or my head just wasn’t in it, but I just couldn’t find a good run in me. The usual playful banter and a little inner reflection that precedes the first race run, happened. and then it was on. I pedalled out of the start gate and down towards the hip. Hung the rear wheel up exiting the forest and didn’t carry good speed on the N3. No worries, I’m on and Makulu, so I pedalled hard, clicked down through the gears and hit the launch into the jumps fully committed. Good times, things where going well and they continued to go well, but when I got to the bottom the time just wasn’t what I needed. I put in a clean run, but just wasn’t fast enough, and it kind of felt like I was about to throw up a lung. The bike was great, the Intense Tires hooked up well, the VZ goggles where clear and the Dakine kit was super comfy. Everything was good, but it just wasn’t happening.
Very frustrated, I sat down in the pits and tried to coax myself into getting back on the shuttle. As I sat there Kelvin came through the finish and had had a great run, he was so stoked. We waited and Al came down in an unbelievable time, putting him in the hot seat, with only a few riders to go. Once the dust had settled on the first run Alasdair was sitting in third with only Hayden and Travis – two elite riders – ahead of him. Alasdair must have been very motivated, because he went 4 seconds faster in his second run, beating the next fastest junior by a massive 5 seconds and putting himself firmly on top of the podium in the overall.
Kelvin improved on his last few results with a third in elite and a 4th overall. In hindsight it was all worth it. To sit there and watch the race unfold was amazing. To see Al, win his first overall and see K-Dub improve so much was bitter sweet, but worth it. Two very cool guys deserve to go well.I got on my Shova and went for a ride this morning, to work stuff out. I said next time last time, but it’s true. You just have to stick with it and have fun along the way. Next stop is Cape Town for the SA Champs. Bike is sorted, training is going well, the track looks like a lot of fun, so let’s see what happens.
The overall results were as follows:
1 Alasdair Fey JM 2.50.36
2 Travis Browning EM 2.51.91
3 Hayden Brown EM 2.52.37
4 Kelvin Purchase EM 2.55.66
5 Tiaan Odendaal JM 2.55.73
6 Tim Bentley EM 2.58.78
7 Simon Dinkelman EM 3.05.48
8 Alan Hatherly YM 3.07.14
9 Mark Malherbe EM 3.08.29
10 Brad Purchase EM 3.08.77
11 David McClenaghan EM 3.08.82
12 Kyle Davids JM 3.08.86
13 Gian-Pierre Orselli EM 3.10.09
14 Cameron Muller EM 3.10.56
15 Dave Dinkelman EM 3.10.57
16 Peter Bentley YM 3.10.69
17 Nigel Hicks SVM 3.10.96
18 Shane Martin JM 3.10.97
19 Steve Jackson JM 3.11.64
20 Anthony Botha EM 3.12.88
21 Dane Curtis EM 3.14.47
22 Sam Bull JM 3.14.66
23 Louis Smith JM 3.15.08
24 Jonathan Philogene SJB 3.16.24
25 Andrew Martin YM 3.16.47
26 Raymond Acutt JM 3.16.95
27 Sven Pottow JM 3.17.73
28 Fabien LeMasson EM 3.18.02
29 Chrisjan Smit JM 3.20.39
30 Kyle Du Toit EM 3.21.02
31 Norman Hatherly VM 3.22.10
32 Dylan Jacklin YM 3.22.19
33 Nic Venter EM 3.25.32
34 Dean Henning SVM 3.26.46
35 Gregg Brown YM 3.27.01 HT winner
36 Martin Upton SVM 3.27.75
37 Dave Drummond SVM 3.27.86
38 Greg Fey EM 3.28.12
39 Mark Sydney SVM 3.30.05
40 Chris Rigby YM 3.34.01
41 David Blackman JM 3.36.20
42 Jay Dempsey SVM 3.37.68
43 Craigen Mackenzie EM 3.40.27
44 Leon Cronje VM 3.43.41
45 Christopher Philogene SJB 3.43.76
46 Conrad Davies SVM 3.50.07
47 Craig Jarrett YM 3.53.60
48 Joshua Bull YM 3.54.26
49 Grant Dinkel VM 3.56.52
50 Tristen Gwynn YM 3.57.20
51 Mike Bradley VM 3.58.14
52 Cameron Wright Sprog 4.19.54
53 Denis Leppan MM 4.24.82
54 Peter Hoyer MM 4.30.47
55 Claire Wager VL 5.05.41
56 Craig Richards EM DNS
Top 5 Overall
Tags: Cascades DH track, Greg Minnaar Racing, KZN DH, mongoose, Radiate Sports Photography
