Wow, the Big Induna is well and truly back!  This is one of our best local races and deserves to be back on the calendar, it’s had a year off but even so all the ingredients that made this race so popular were present and correct.  Testament to its legendary status was the presence of some of the top pro’s in the country, both men and women!  In the end this race is all about the riding and whether you tackled the 78km or the 40km you got a whole heap of Induna spice with the usual heaps of quad bike trails, single track and short sharp climbs just to keep you honest!

The Chaingang was out in force and it was great to see our blue shirts the dominant club color on the line,  The total riders for the day was just over 600 with 110 doing the 10km, just shows how even the small kids want some of the magic!  ‘I’ve attached the results; our own Lourens Luus decimated the 78km field whilst White River local Johnny Diedricks pulled a huge gap on the 40km to take it from PJ Luus.  In the 78km Women’s race our Sam decided not to race so it was left to the pro’s to clean up, In the 40km race Mankele’s ‘Christelle Mayer showed that all the training is paying off, she’s fast becoming the one to beat in the mid distances with pretty much a win or at least a podium at all the races she enters!

A huge thanks to Jaco and the boys for putting on an awesome event and they were blessed with the perfect weather, this race will definitely get bigger next year and they deserve it, awesome venue, festive atmosphere and unique exciting route add up to a winner! Cheers Jaco!

If anyone missed the chance to buy one of the Induna race cycle jersey’s Jaco has some left over so give him a shout – 082 429 0679

Also huge thanks to all the sponsors and supporters of the race in particular the local businesses, Cycle Junkies in Sabie for some great prizes and Valencia Cycles for an awesome display and Morne throwing spanners at broken bikes pretty much the whole day!  Don’t forget Valencia is now you local Santa Cruz agent, the Tall Boys are coming!

Chainsuck

How can anything suck after such a great weekend?  The only sucky thing was that I didn’t ride, but just being able to welcome everyone home was a huge pleasure and I didn’t even swear! And no-one wanted to punch me; I must be loosing my touch!

- Brett Coates

The Big Induna is a race which holds a lot of personal significance for me. It is staged in the Lowveld, a place I love to race, it is organised by friends – Jaco Lubbe and his team from Induna Adventures – and I have had some good results there before.

Last year the Big Induna was not held, but this year it was back and better than ever. A lot of people made the 4hour journey from Johannesburg to come and enjoy the warm Lowveld winter weather on an amazing mountain bike course.

Departing from Induna Adventures headquarters just outside of Hazyview, the route twists and turns following bush tunnels, farm roads through orchards, some river crossings, quad trails and a track along a canal. It all makes for fun riding and before you know it you are finished with the first 45km loop of the race. Riders then head out on a 38km loop all along the River with some big climbs thrown in for good measure. None of the climbs are really long or steady, but the frequency at which they litter the route really hurts the legs. Patches of forest single track make up for the pain before the final run in to the finish through some tree plantations and a very fast and flowing quad trail.

A surprisingly strong field started the race, but the 116km distance meant the first 45km loop was tackled at a conservative pace. Starting on our first of 2 laps of the 38km loop, the race really lit up. Max Knox (Ghost/Do It Now) attacked taking HB Kruger (ASG) and Lourens Luus (Cycle Junkies) who was only doing the 78km marathon, with him. They were soon despatched and Paul Cordes (MTN Qhubeka) and I caught up to them forming the chasing quartet. At about 70km into the race I punctured as we were negotiating some tight, technical singletrack. I tried to ‘bomb’ it with air hoping the sealant would plug the hole, but was eventually forced to stop for a second time and plug the hole, allowing the other 3 chasers to get away from me. For the rest of the race I rode on my own finishing in 4^th place.

Up ahead Max stormed to a convincing win in what is for him a home town race seeing as he lives only 30km’s away in Sabie. The battle for 2^nd position was hotly contested with HB Kruger just edging out Paul Cordes.

I was happy with my result considering my training has been very haphazard lately. I have been struggling with a knee injury since the Panorama Tour, but with the help of friends, family and a good physiotherapist and chiropractor all seems to be well again.

The Big Induna is a race which holds a lot of personal significance for me. It is staged in the Lowveld, a place I love to race, it is organised by friends – Jaco Lubbe and his team from Induna Adventures – and I have had some good results there before.

Last year the Big Induna was not held, but this year it was back and better than ever. A lot of people made the 4hour journey from Johannesburg to come and enjoy the warm Lowveld winter weather on an amazing mountain bike course.

Departing from Induna Adventures headquarters just outside of Hazyview, the route twists and turns following bush tunnels, farm roads through orchards, some river crossings, quad trails and a track along a canal. It all makes for fun riding and before you know it you are finished with the first 45km loop of the race. Riders then head out on a 38km loop all along the River with some big climbs thrown in for good measure. None of the climbs are really long or steady, but the frequency at which they litter the route really hurts the legs. Patches of forest single track make up for the pain before the final run in to the finish through some tree plantations and a very fast and flowing quad trail.

A surprisingly strong field started the race, but the 116km distance meant the first 45km loop was tackled at a conservative pace. Starting on our first of 2 laps of the 38km loop, the race really lit up. Max Knox (Ghost/Do It Now) attacked taking HB Kruger (ASG) and Lourens Luus (Cycle Junkies) who was only doing the 78km marathon, with him. They were soon despatched and Paul Cordes (MTN Qhubeka) and I caught up to them forming the chasing quartet. At about 70km into the race I punctured as we were negotiating some tight, technical singletrack. I tried to ‘bomb’ it with air hoping the sealant would plug the hole, but was eventually forced to stop for a second time and plug the hole, allowing the other 3 chasers to get away from me. For the rest of the race I rode on my own finishing in 4^th place.

Up ahead Max stormed to a convincing win in what is for him a home town race seeing as he lives only 30km’s away in Sabie. The battle for 2^nd position was hotly contested with HB Kruger just edging out Paul Cordes.

I was happy with my result considering my training has been very haphazard lately. I have been struggling with a knee injury since the Panorama Tour, but with the help of friends, family and a good physiotherapist and chiropractor all seems to be well again.

The Big Induna is a race which holds a lot of personal significance for me. It is staged in the Lowveld, a place I love to race, it is organised by friends – Jaco Lubbe and his team from Induna Adventures – and I have had some good results there before.

Last year the Big Induna was not held, but this year it was back and better than ever. A lot of people made the 4hour journey from Johannesburg to come and enjoy the warm Lowveld winter weather on an amazing mountain bike course.

Departing from Induna Adventures headquarters just outside of Hazyview, the route twists and turns following bush tunnels, farm roads through orchards, some river crossings, quad trails and a track along a canal. It all makes for fun riding and before you know it you are finished with the first 45km loop of the race. Riders then head out on a 38km loop all along the River with some big climbs thrown in for good measure. None of the climbs are really long or steady, but the frequency at which they litter the route really hurts the legs. Patches of forest single track make up for the pain before the final run in to the finish through some tree plantations and a very fast and flowing quad trail.

A surprisingly strong field started the race, but the 116km distance meant the first 45km loop was tackled at a conservative pace. Starting on our first of 2 laps of the 38km loop, the race really lit up. Max Knox (Ghost/Do It Now) attacked taking HB Kruger (ASG) and Lourens Luus (Cycle Junkies) who was only doing the 78km marathon, with him. They were soon despatched and Paul Cordes (MTN Qhubeka) and I caught up to them forming the chasing quartet. At about 70km into the race I punctured as we were negotiating some tight, technical singletrack. I tried to ‘bomb’ it with air hoping the sealant would plug the hole, but was eventually forced to stop for a second time and plug the hole, allowing the other 3 chasers to get away from me. For the rest of the race I rode on my own finishing in 4^th place.

Up ahead Max stormed to a convincing win in what is for him a home town race seeing as he lives only 30km’s away in Sabie. The battle for 2^nd position was hotly contested with HB Kruger just edging out Paul Cordes.

I was happy with my result considering my training has been very haphazard lately. I have been struggling with a knee injury since the Panorama Tour, but with the help of friends, family and a good physiotherapist and chiropractor all seems to be well again.

Ben Melt Swanepoel

• Thanks Jaco
  I would like to appreciate your organisation of fantastic race,it was great.We had very beautiful day and very beautiful route.
  I always enjoyed the big Induna race since Fritzpienaar introduced me to it.It is the most feverable race in my Calender,I’m always waiting for it.This year the route it was superb and really enjoyeble, especially second lube where it took us to the most challenging climbs and very beautiful single track along the river.It wasn’t that long as first 40km lube,but the climbs and single track it showed us that was proper mountain bike route.Kind Regards
  Justice Makhale

 

Perfection, this is what we strive for most of the time. The team at Induna Adventures got as close as a cat’s whisker to it last Saturday. What a great race! It is hard to think of something about the race that was not perfect. We had glorious weather and the Gauties who made the effort to come and race in the Lowveld were grinning from ear to ear. My trusted Polar watch indicated a minimum of 20° and maximum of 26°C. What a blessing! You never get it better than that – absolutely perfect weather.

All the preparation by the organising team meant everything went as smooth as a brand new XTR deraileur. The parking and starting gates were well thought out and facilitated easy and quick parking with good access to well marked starting chutes. Everything was close together on the Sabie river beach, the registration, the goods on sale, the food, the finish line – all were there. The marquis tents with benches, chairs and even mattresses, meant everybody wanted to hang around, relax and watch the prize giving afterwards.

My race started a bit slow. The steep, semi technical, but short climbs in the first 15km made it heavy going. But the reward in the form of sweet single and quad bike tracks made up for it. The route also included some straight and flat riding that must have pleased the roadies and those who hope to lose some weight after the winter. I almost bailed after the first 40km, but am so glad that I kept going as I started to feel stronger and the second 40km offered great riding next to the Sabie river. The route took us up the valley along the river’s banks and we did challenging, but flowing single- and quad bike tracks through riverine forest, past water falls and rapids, with the sound of rushing water in our ears, all of the way. The route markings and marshals were faultless.

At 58km, after 4 hours of riding, Max Knox, who won the 120km ultra race, came flying past. He was in a class of his own and won the elite section in a time of 5h01m, 18 minutes before the second placed rider. The first lady, Candice Neethling, came is just short of 4 hours in the 80km. I was absolutely spent after the race (5h35m) and was relieved to find emergency money in my camelback to buy a burger right there at the finish.

Jan Delport for www.lowveldcycling.co.za