Howich Highlander

After a long break off the mtb and only road riding i set off to the 2010 Howick Highlander 45km race, with high expectations i was hoping for a top 5 overall finish but what i didn't realise was that there were many big names that i wasn't aware were going to be there.

The start was comfortable and by the first piece of singletrack there was a lead group of about 12 riders , at the first climb the pace was quickly lifted by andrew warr which left andrew, brendon davids, tyrone white , craig paul and myself at the top of the climb in the front group. Because of my lack of singletrack riding my skills were suprisingly shocking and in the second piece of singletrack i was dropped, for the first 15-20km i had the lead pack in sight along long straights but then it was over for me and i was racing in no-mans land, i raced hard and had some stomach cramps but i managed to race hard and came in 5th overall 2min behind brendon davids and first youth male, was a awesome course and loved the singletrack.
Craig Paul secured a win over Andre Warr in a sprint

Thanx for your time
Kyle

Illovo Eston 40km

After a night of minimal sleep i was up early and off to the race i arrived there expecting to give it my all and hopefully achieve top 5 but when i arrived i was told all the juniors were racing the 60km besides Mathew English who had beaten me by a minute at karkloof so i knew a win was going to be hard but was possible. On the startline it was all jokes and before we knew it the 30 second countdown was announced, i had a good start and on the top of the first short climb it was me, Brad schuit, Evan Van Der Spuy, and Jedson Tooms, aswell as Matthew English about 5 metres back. 1km in we saw the KOM sign and Brad attacked i knew it was a large amount of money on offer so i followed and counter-attacked him, with my head down and peddalling my heart out i arrived at the top with a gap of about 200 meters , it wasnt my plan to go from the start but i knew it was a good oppertunity for me so i rode for about 8km by myself and then reached the first piece of singletrack and was held up by the 60km back markers.

While begging for them to track i was slowly losing my patiance and knew i was losing time, little did i know that jedson had overtaken me on the long grass just off the singletrack, i quickly came to my senses and starting shouting for track, as i raised my voice the 60km riders started to sympathize. Out the singletrack i was second and could hear Murray Starr and evan van der spuy shouting track about 20 meters back , so i attacked up the climb and was quickly intact with Jedson, we decided to work together but after 10km i realised i was doing majority of the work (90%) and he was just taking advantage of the slipstream so i attacked him and solo'd home with 20 km ,, the singletrack was awesome and i loved every second of it , stihl cleared the way and boy did they do a good job, with about 5km to go i knew i would win  unless i managed to get a technical or crash. i didn't do either and managed to come home in 1:31:21 and was about 5 min faster than mathew english who was closely followed by Murray Starr. I was really excited to win and was happy to have the fastest ever time for the 40km illovo eston which was a real achievement..

Until next time i'm out