XTERRA South Africa 2008

“Its this way around the buoy, right?” Dan Hugo and I looking at the 1500m swim course seconds before the start of XTERRA South Africa 2008.

It was a dark and stormy day at the Grabouw Country Club. Unphased by the weather, XTERRA Warriors lined the lakes’ edge.

The gun went and so did we. (ha ha, I made that up myself)

Dan Hugo brought his A game, and had 10 a second lead out the swim. Felix Schuman (GER)- 6th at XTERRA Worlds last year- and I got on the bikes together, and soon latched onto Dan’s rear wheel. The TV chopper loved it, as a serious power play was a-brewing.

The 1st part of the 30km mountain bike course was rather uneventful and was just a bunch of pedaling. Or that is what it felt like on my Specialized Stumpjumper 29er, anyway. (29er means big wheels- a new thing in mountain bike racing) My game plan was to let the young ‘uns go at it on the pedaling part, and I’d rather have a go at the not-braking-part of the course, hopefully make a gap and then hook it with my newly found run strength.

During all that pedaling I noticed Dan and Felix wore road shoes and rode road pedals. To save weight, I guessed. Wonder how it worked out? Lets see if Dan will tell us about it on his blog. Dan Hugo

Through the 1st real technical section I laid down the law, but unfortunately I laid it down so heavily, I cut the rear tire in a g-out, and the sad sound of Stans saying “ssst sssst sssst” sang somewhat somberly as I sat in the saddle sinking* what to do next. The hole was big, and I had to put a tube in and air it up using 3 CO2s.

Got back on airy tires, I spun the pedals a while to shake out the Cafe legs (what you get when stopping at the cafe too long), and then went fast. Just for the fun of it. Placing was way out of reach, but that wasnt the point. Going fast is fun.

The run was steep, muddy and wet. (but fun)

I finished 6th.

Dan Hugo won with a spectacular performance. Too bad we didn’t get the highly anticipated show down, as it definitely would have been a nail biter.

2nd: Felix Schuman (Ger)

3rd: Nico Pfitzenmaier (Ger)

1st lady: Eszter Erdelyi (Hun)

2nd Jeannie Bomford

3rd Michelle Lombardi

*”Sinking” is movie German for “thinking”