Matthys Beukes is an XC rider. Sure he won the Absa African Jersey (with teammate Phil Buys) at the 2013 Absa Cape Epic and finished second at this past weekend’s MTN Marathon at Rooiberg, but spend some time on his backyard, home-build, training route and you’ll understand what we’re on about.

Matthys first starting trail building on his family’s property outside Oudtshoorn when he was selected for the South African team to go to World Champs back in 2005. “I had to teach myself about trail building, but since then I’ve learnt a lot…done a lot of research.” The bike park (and accommodation) idea came to him in 2008, which is when he really started investing time in the build.
He’s also had the privilege of riding some of the best trails and parks in the USA and it shows in the quality of track at Cango MTB.

THE RIDING
There is about 20-kilometres of hand-cut singletrack at Cango MTB, ranging from a kiddies trail (Ostrich) to an advanced red route which includes runs called, Cool Runnings, Magic Factory, 6 Shooters, Game Range and Need for Speed, which forms part of the Bridge Cape Pioneer Trek’s Prologue route.

The trails are edge-cut and tidy, but by no means groomed and packed, which lends them a natural, rather than ‘park’ kind of feel. It also means you have to be sharp with your skills – the surface is mostly loose-over-hard, with fist-sized Klein Karoo rocks scrunching under your tyres on the descents and keeping you honest on the climbs.

The climbs are also technical in a XCO sort of way, with short, steep inclines, followed by tight switchbacks and some longer, more gradual sections.

Many of the descent corners are beautifully bermed and you can properly let rip on the way down.
The build is an on-going process and when we visited Matthys showed us a big road gap he’d just finished. “I jumped it on my DH bike this morning. Will do it on my race bike soon…”

RIDE IT
Being a Klein Karoo boy, Matthys is pretty relaxed, which means entrance is free and you can ride day or night. He likes to know who’s coming and going though, so do give him a call if you plan to ride it.

The routes are all clearly marked, but he’s not going to mind if you stitch together your own route from the available trails.
Etiquette obviously applies with this relaxed kind of vibe, so leave it the way you’d like to find it.

While you could easily spend hours playing (and training) on the singletrack, if you’d like to add some real distance there are various good gravel roads close-by to work into the ride (our favourite is the Schoemanshoek loop). The Swartberg Pass is also not that far away.

All contact details and detailed directions are on the site. There are also rustic self-catering cottages (with views and private plunge pools).

NEXT LEVEL:
Here is the much anticipated ‘MacAskill’s Imaginate’ riding film from Danny MacAskill. A step away from anything before released by the world-renowned trials rider and his most ambitious project to date, the film sees next level riding coupled with a visually stunning backdrop.

A project that has been two years in the making, sees Danny explore the depths of his mind, conjuring up incredible tricks and lines inspired by his childhood.

Following on from four episodes of the ‘MacAskill’s Imaginate’ web series, the world has been waiting to see what was produced behind the doors of Kelvin Hall in Glasgow, a venue shrouded in secrecy until now.

MacAskill, who rose to prominence following the release of his ‘Inspired Bicycles’ riding film, has now had more than 65 million views of his three most recent edits.

Of the new project Danny says, “I have had such a free-range to build the set ups that have allowed me to do the tricks that have just been in my dreams until now.”

(watch the clip in full screen mode)

Often following a race which didn’t go quite as planned, the motivation to write about it is – as you can imagine – not high. Last weekend we had to sit in a car for a ridiculously long time to get to our destination and racing venue for the weekend, Tulsa.

Tulsa is a pretty bad ass city I might add. We managed to explore a bit of the city on our morning leg-loosener spins on the numerous bike paths. We also found not one, but two awesome coffee shops! Something I can’t say happens often on our travels.

Another highlight of the trip was catching up with a good friend from back home, Jos Le Roux. Jos has been riding on the Get Crackin team out of California this year. Our friendship goes back a few years, to my first year at University in fact. I think our trip up to Vanderbijlpark for the annual SASSU Student Tour cemented our friendship and over the years we have spent many hours together riding our bikes all over South Africa, Belgium and now the USA.

So the racing part, personally I didn’t get the results I aspired to over the weekend. A few weeks ago I wrote about that, sometimes when the racing doesn’t quite go the way in which you want it to, I have found that you need to take a step back and look at the bigger bicture. It can also help in looking at what it was that went wrong. Looking back there were a couple of things that I can now say: “Ya maybe we could have done that a bit better, and, that wasn’t quite right”. We live and learn, don’t we.

I must say that the organisers of the Tulsa Tough and the city of Tulsa put on an absolutely fantastic event! The Tulsa Tough is a sort of ‘stage race’ of criteriums running from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. Each of the 3 races was so well supported by spectators that it was an absolute privilege to be able to race in front of them. They created an electric atmosphere and perhaps this is why I was a bit more disappointed than usual. I had heard about the famous ‘Cry Baby Hill’ and the crazy spectators, it was all and more than I can imagine. My words won’t do it justice, take a few seconds a check out the YouTube clip…

Lastly, a huge thank you to our fantastic host house over the weekend: Stephany and Jeff. They had gone so far into welcoming us into our home, that Stephany had checked our bio pages on the team site and saw what our favourite meals were and cooked them for us on Sunday evening. Junior Mint and I were both blown away!

We still have a busy month of racing coming up with the Winston Salem (which comprises a criterium on Saturday and road race on Sunday) then the SRS race in Albany the following weekend (which follows format), before we head north to Wisconsin for 4 days of the Tour of America’s Dairyland! Exciting times ahead!

Until next time,

Ciao, Chris

Proportionally we spend much more time cycling sitting down so, to get stronger out of the saddle, you have to specifically train for it. Try this hill reps session to improve your climbing technique and standing strength.

SESSION:
- Warm up with 10 minutes of easy riding that’ll take you to a moderately steep hill (about 10%) that takes 3-5 minutes to climb.

- Select the easiest gear on your rear cassette (use the middle chainring if riding in a triple and smaller ring on compact or standard chainset). Ride tempo seated for 30 seconds, then shift up a gear, stand and ride strong out of the saddle  for 30 seconds. Keep alternating to the top of the hill, shifting down and easing off a bit when seated.

- Roll down to recover and repeat, but start this rep in your second easiest gear.

- Keep up the reps and increasing the gear until you really struggle to complete a rep, then, on the following rep, drop a gear. Work back down the cassette so that your last rep is the same gear combination as the first.

- Cool down with an easy 10-minute ride.

Image: Tour de France favourite, Chris Froome, knows how to dance. (c) CorVos

Team MTN Qhubeka has been doing us proud in Europe in the first six months of their Really Big Adventure. Their bike sponsor is Trek, so it made sense to use one of the team bikes to assess that firm’s top-end racing frame, if only because it gives us a chance to give the Qhubeka initiative some well-deserved extra exposure.

Top-end training rig
This is one of the team’s training bikes – South African Jaco Venter’s, to be precise. The race rigs are fully decked out in SRAM Red and Zipp 404s or similar, but the training bikes are mainly Force equipped and roll on Zipp’s 101 wheels. Venter’s bike has more Red than most, though, as worn bits have been replaced. The finishing kit is all from the aluminium arm of the Bontrager arsenal, with durability in mind rather than the ultimate in lightweight. Even so, Venter’s bike tips the scales at just over seven kilos – race worthy in any other environment!

The frame is what we wanted to experience, so let’s take a look at what Trek have done to make it a world-beater. It is made from their top-end 700-Series OCLV (Optimum Compaction, Low Void – in case it comes up at pub quiz) carbon fibre and handmade in America (the majority of Trek’s frames aren’t any more). As the lightest frame they make, it is on a par with all the sub-kilogramme players, 170-odd grams lighter than the previous 6-Series frame, including an integrated dropped-chain catcher, but has a couple of extra tricks up its sleeve.

Pump up the Kamm
The first is on the aerodynamics front, where Trek has pioneered the use of the Kamm Tail in bike frames. In the early 1930s, German engineer Wunibald Kamm discovered that if he abruptly chopped off the end of the trending teardrop-shaped sports cars of that period, approximately 45% from the rear, then there was a noticeable reduction in drag. Kamm Tails are used in all the forward-facing tubes on the bike, and Trek claim a 25 W gain at 40km/h over their non-Kamm frames. On the road that claim is difficult to measure, and with our control set of wheels installed, it felt nearly as speedy as our windcheater benchmark, the Cervelo S5 we tested in the April issue.

Not satisfied with tweaking the frame tube profiles, Trek have also hidden the rear brake under the bottom bracket (British time trialists have been doing this for decades) and integrated the front one with the fork, both done to reduce drag even further. There is no loss of stopping power at all from either change, and the brakeless, bridgeless seatstays give the Madone one of the prettiest derrieres in the pro peloton.

Rad ride
We have touched on the sensation of pure speed you feel on the Madone. As nice as that is, our reality is far from the pro peloton, and we need things such as comfort to keep us riding, especially on South African roads. The good news is that there has been no sacrifice in this department: the ride is as smooth as you are likely to find in a carbon frame. The front end is a little harsher than the rear, but that speaks to the race heritage, as the oversize steerer and bulbous head tube are designed to resist flex in flat-out sprints (like Milan-San Remo…). Overall, though, it’s a frame you will bond with on a rough ride.

Climbing is great fun, as the frame’s low weight and shortened chain stays (over the 6-Series) make it responsive and agile. Changes in pace are easy to follow, standing or sitting, and frame-flex was virtually unnoticeable. Descending is even more fun, with the long top tube pulling the rider into an aero position, and the 73,80 head angle making the steering predictable and assured. Pick a line, commit, and fly: this is not a twitchy criterium bike – its playground is the mountains.

The coolest part, though, of this particular frame is that you too can ride the same paint job as the team, including your name and flag on the top tube. Trek’s Project One allows you to spec your own paintjob, and the Qhubeka option is proving pretty popular as the team continues to impress. For each Qhubeka option chosen, Trek donates $200 to the organisation, continuing the ongoing process of mobilising Africa. Or just visit Qhubeka and donate direct…

Summary
Often, there is a forced smile when riders extol the virtues of their team’s choice of frame, but no forcing is needed here. There can’t be a team on a more race-ready frame. And we can ride one, too, and chip in some cash for Qhubeka.

FRAME                                  4,99/5
EQUIPMENT                       3/5
CLIMBING                            4/5
DESCENDING                     4,5/5
SPRINTING                          4,5/5
COMFORT                            2,5/5
AESTHETICS                       2,5/5
VALUE FOR MONEY        2,5/5

The frame will cost you around R50 000

Cold and wet weather did not deter the record number of 270 mountain bike riders who competed in the first Western Cape leg of the 2013 Spur High School Mountain Bike League hosted at Willowbridge in Bellville this weekend.

Defending national champions in the boys’ team category, Paul Roos Gymnasium got their season off to a great start finishing top of the log on the day with 395 points followed by Montana High School in Worcester with 279 and DF Malan with 252 points in second and third place respectively.

The league, which was launched in 2009 has shown exceptional growth and judging by the number of entries in the early races of the 2013 series, is set for yet another record breaking season with an expected 6500 entries.

The league is a joint initiative between Spur Steak Ranches and Amarider and aims to create a national platform for school kids to have fun by participating in dedicated mountain biking events, while increasing the footprint of the sport in South Africa.   Races are run on the same lap-racing format as Olympic mountain bike competitions with a strong emphasis on making the races accessible to all in terms of route difficulty and race distance.

As mountain biking is predominantly an individual sport, the points’ structure of the league focuses on team participation at school level.   Schools compete in different age categories in regional events, including sub-junior boys and girls (13-14 years), youth men and women (15-16 years) and junior men and women (17-18 years).  In each race, riders are allocated points according to their finishing positions earning a position on the log.  In the Western Cape there are also categories for primary school participants, although the emphasis is on fun and introducing youngsters to this great sport.

According to league co-ordinator Meurant Botha of Amarider, they were highly impressed with the number of primary school riders getting into the sport. “It is great to see that the youngsters are embracing the opportunity to get into the league at an early age with the support of their schools.  Totius Primary had a total of 38 riders competing, which saw them log an impressive 322 points with their closest rival Kenridge Primary coming in at 183 points”, said Botha.

School teams that finish their regional competitions within the top three positions in each category will automatically qualify for the Spur High School National Finals.   A portion of the Spur Steak Ranches sponsorship funds has been also allocated to provide all qualifying school teams with free entries, accommodation for qualifying riders and officials, free meals as well as travel assistance in an effort to make this amazing opportunity accessible to as many schools as possible.

Top individual riders after the first race are:

•             YOUTH WOMAN: Nadia Redelinghuis of Durbanville High first in a time of 13:03:32 with Montana team mates Jeanni Viljoen and Le-Anne Gregg second and third in 13:03:34 and 13:05:11 respectively.

•             YOUTH MEN (15 years): Manfred Oehl of Montana High School pipped team mate Edward Boshoff to the finish a two split second lead to finish in 12:23:01.  Matthew Keyser of Parel Vallei High school came in third in a time of 12:23:18.

•             YOUTH MEN (16 years): After a ding-dong battle race it was Matthew Lombardi of Paul Roos Gimnasium who finished first in a time of 12:17:24 with Morne Hollander of DF Malan High School second in 12:17:50 and team mate Manie Lubbe in third in 12:18:50.

•             SUB-JUNIOR GIRLS: First place went to Petra Lategan in a time of 13:01:44 followed by Sonique Louw of Welgemoed Primary School in a time of 13:02:14 and Allison Morton of Westerford High School third in 13:02:16.

•             SUB-JUNIOR BOYS:  Joshua de Freitas of Parel Vallei High School won in a time of 11:29:02 followed by Niel van Tonder of D F Malan High School in 11:29:26 and Calla De Vos of Kenridge Primary School third in a time of 11:29:47.

•             JUNIOR GIRLS: Marie-Christin Kempf of Parel Vallei High School showed great form early in the season and lead from the start to finish convincingly first in a time of 13:04:27.  Marne Botha of Paarl Gimnasium was second in 13:04:49 and Catherine Colyn of Bridge House third in a time of 13:06:13.

•             JUNIOR MEN:  A fierce fight from start to finish secured first place to Dean Morgan of Paul Roos Gimnasium in 13:58:08 with Tim Wilkins of Hugenote High School second in 13:58:45 and Nicol Carstens of Montana High School in third place in a time of 13:59:02.

Mountain bike riders in the Western Cape will have three more opportunities to qualify on 13 July at the Boy Louw Sportsgrounds in Paarl;  10 August in Somerset West and on 31 August at Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch.

The league culminates with the Spur High School Mountain Bike national league finals on 21 September, which will again be hosted at Bekker School in Magaliesburg.  Schools will compete in three categories namely best girls, best boys and best mixed team.

More information on the league as well as upcoming events and results here

We caught up with Mariska Strauss shortly after her win in the British National XCO series.

How did it compare to a South African XC race? Standard-wise, amount of riders and the depth in the field?
The course itself was a bit different to what I am used to, a lot more old school I’d say. Old school in the sense that it was a bit of a longer course with not as much technical sections as we see on World Cup courses these days. But it was a super fun track with loads of steep climbs.  Compared to SA racing it was fairly similar, their set-up of the race is just slightly different but all and all a great event.

You’ve recently signed with Team Orange Monkey, which is British, did it feel a bit like a home race? Are you based in Britain for your Euro season?
It did in a way, the Orange Monkey Pro Team has really welcomed me with open arms and it has made a world of difference in racing abroad. 

I am still studying at Stellenbosch University so to answer your next question I am not. I really love SA too much to make the full-time change! The plan for now is to shoot over for events and then return home. But its still early days and you never know what is going to happen. I am taking it as it comes and keeping my focus on my goals. As for having a EU based team…It’s awesome and I can’t thank them and my Contego/Giant team enough for giving me this opportunity.

You’ve also had a very successful first two rounds of the UCI World Cup. Has it gone better than expected?
It has been a great first half of the year so far. Everything just seems to have fallen into place (thanks for the support again especially from my family and the awesome Coaching from Science2Sport). I would really have liked that top 5, but the season is far from over and that has just added to my hunger, but flat tyres and so on are all part of the game so really looking forward to the rest of the season. 

What do you miss when you’re over there
When I am overseas I do miss my family the most. They mean the world to me and I can’t imagine any of this without them.

What’s next on your schedule and what are the goals for the year?
We are still ironing out some details but the main ones will obviously be SA Champs at the end of July and then of course World Champs, which I am super excited about. It’s on home soil and on a course I adore!

Tell us a bit about the vibe among the young Saffas at the World Cups etc, abroad? It’s great seeing the younger riders coming through – gaining the experience and knowledge, that’s what they need to do if they want to move up in this sport! 

When I told my parents over the phone last week that I was doing a criterium on Friday night called: Friday Night Fights it sounded pretty bad ass, like I was going to a boxing match, let alone a bike race! ‘Skinny, leg shaven, lycra clad cyclists’ and ‘Friday Night Fights’ are not two terms that you would often hear in one sentence, yet it all happened in downtown Gaffney last Friday night.

The race was an aggressive one and that was perfect as I was using the race as training for the upcoming Tulsa Tough this weekend. Tulsa will present us with 3 days of NCC level crits (AKA racing with the big boys) and ends off this coming Sunday racing on a course with a climb in it called: Cry Baby Hill. Pretty intimidating so I wanted to make sure I was ready!

Anyway, back to Friday Night Fights. The drag up the home stretch made matters hard which I liked. The run in to the finish was a lot about positioning or rather whoever had the biggest balls going into turn 3, off the downhill section of the course. From there it was a kick to the line, I came from pretty deep, from 4th place in last corner, and felt I kicked well to take 2nd on the evening. Ben Renkema (Global Bike) took the win and was just a bit too far ahead for me. Junior Mint also had a good evening of racing taking the Gamblers Prime (a prime on the second last lap of the race).

I was stoked to finally get on another podium; it really has been a while since my first race in the States. A couple of top ten’s along the way have been solid but I still aspire to go one better and the drive to that is deeply motivated at the moment.

With another race in the legs we were back in the car and on our way to Cheraw on Saturday for the Jazz Criterium. At least we were on our way to Cheraw after I double checked the race flyer on Saturday afternoon, an hour before our planned 2 hour drive to Columbia. We had got the wrong address and after realising that we now had a 3hr drive, the car was packed in ten minutes and we were on our way. The trusty Garmin said we would arrive at 6.22pm, a good 38 minutes before our start, it would be tight…

The race to the race was going just fine until we encountered traffic as the result of a motor car accident while going past Charlotte. As we sat in bumper to bumper traffic inching forward our arrival time went up minute by minute… Fortunately, we eventually got past the accident and were on our way again. Parker had managed to register for us and had our numbers, the question was would we still make it on time.

6.46pm drive into race parking lot, jump out car, put on kit, get bikes and bottles, find Parkers car and pin up! We even had 5 minutes to get in a quick warm up in! No stress!

We were racing another 4-corner crit course although tonight would be pan flat. With a lot of attacks the speed was high, but the right combination was not forming and hence nothing would stick. As the peloton realised this, a sort of stalemate was reached as guys started thinking about the sprint.

Coming into the last laps, I found Junior Mint’s wheel and we held positioning well at the head of affairs. The run in was looking good and I was motivated to go one better than the previous night, until Junior Mint came crashing down on the first corner of the last lap.

Somehow, once again I just managed to squeeze past and not go down, but had to kick hard to get back into the front mix. I managed to get onto 6th wheel into the last corner but it was too far back to get where I wanted to be and had to settle for 5th on the evening.

All in all it was a good weekend of bike racing. I’m looking forward to Tulsa Tough this weekend and hoping I can carry some of this form through there. Check out info on the race here, hopefully I’ll have something bad ass to report on, from what I’ve heard I will!

IMAGE: Ash Smit

NEW Date:       Saturday, 15 June 2013

Venue:            Willowbridge Shopping Centre Track – The Slammer
Time:                08h00 – 14h30

While we are able control and prepare for a number of elements to ensure that the Western Cape MTB XCO Championship runs smoothly, we are not able to control the wild Cape weather. The deluge over the last few days has resulted in the course being very wet, and the forecast is not looking good for the rest of the weekend. As a result both the Course Commissaire and Race Commissaire have confirmed that the course is unrideable, and due to weather conditions will remain so for the duration of the weekend.

The Western Cape MTB XCO Championship has been postponed until this Saturday, 15 June.

 For those who registered online and are not able to participate on the 15^th of June please contact info@roag.co.za to request a refund.

After something of a hiatus from the South African market Diamondback is well, back. They’re re-entering the market with a full range of bikes ranging from big hit free-ride machines to racy 29er hardtails. Somewhere in the middle there is the Recoil Comp, an all-mountain dually on which we had a lot of fun.

What’s in a name
On their site Diamondback (www.diamondback.com) quotes a dictionary and defines ‘recoil’ as “to spring or come back; react,” and explain that no matter what you throw at it, it will deal with it and spring back, ready to take on whatever comes next on the trail. Marketing schpiel aside, we reckon it’s a pretty apt name – once we’d got it dialed and figured out quite what to throw at it.

The lowdown
The foundation of the recoil comp is the solid aluminum frame. It’s characterised by a machine formed top tube and a butted and formed down tube (borrowed from the higher spec Sortie platform). The Recoil Comp is built on a single pivot design, and, while these have their downfalls, when it comes to simplicity and maintenance, they’re a winner.

Ironically the Recoil’s looks more complicated than it is. The pivot is just above the bottom bracket, slightly up on the down tube with a single swingarm to the rear axle. The important thing is that the rear triangle attaches directly to the RockShox Monarch R rear shock, giving it a clean linear angle (a departure from Diamondback’s Knucklebox design) allowing it to smooth out  small bumps and to use all four inches of travel to deal with the bigger hits, as it was designed to do.

The air-sprung Monarch is undoubtedly the highlight of the spec. It’s durable and adjustable (rebound and dampening) and features RockShox’s Dual Flow technology, which incorporates independent damping circuits, allowing separate rebound speeds for big hits and small ones. It also has the sag gradient printed on the tube, which aided setup immensely. Especially since up front it’s paired with a 100mm SR Suntour XCR RL fork, which features a remote lockout via lever on the handlebars.

Initial thoughts were that the front lockout was overkill for a plush-tailed bike like this, but once we had the rear sag properly dialed and realised quite how much muscle was needed to get it up hill, every bit of climbing assistance was much appreciated.

The 24-speed drivetrain is entry-level but bulletproof Shimano, with Altus up front and an Alivio rear derailleur running over the eight-speed cassette.  Tectro Draco 2 hydraulic disc brakes provide the ample stopping power with a 180mm rotor up front and 160 rear.

There is no space (or provided bolts) for a bottle cage mount, so we mounted one under on the seatpost. This wasn’t entirely successful because it scraped on the tyre on every biggish bump – a hydration pack-only go this then. Which brings us to the ride.

Ride and handling
The first ride was in lycra, but we made that mistake only once. We also ditched the carbon-soled shoes after that first outing. Frankly, we should’ve known better. The Recoil Comp is a true play bike that demands to be carved. In baggies.

It was clunky and heavy to get out the door and required some serious oomph to muscle onto a roof-mount bike rack, but once on the trail steering was surprisingly light and nimble. The shortish stem and 685mm mid-rise handlebar making for confident, direct manoeuvrability up front and the weight only becoming an issue when the tail threatened to overtake the front when drifted too far into a corner.

That said, if you plant it and guide it through the correct line in a corner it will fly. The super-treaded WTB Wolverine Comps staying where they should (you’re going to want to convert these to tubeless soon as you can though).

As mentioned earlier, climbing is hard work due to the weight and some feedback bob from the rear triangle, but there is significant help from the lockabable Suntour. Despite the slacker angles and comfortable, neutral position we found it more efficient to climb in a forward, aggressive XC manner, rather than sitting back and ticking trail-style. But then with a big bike like this, climbing is but something you do to get to the start of a singletrack descent.

And that’s where the Recoil comes alive. Aided by the big hoops it was solid and forgiving through rock gardens and roots and carvy-smooth through berms and twisty tracks. In fact we found ourselves re-riding certain singletrack sections just to push different lines.

Summary
Humble in spec yet hardcore in what it can handle. If you’re patient on the climbs you’ll be rewarded with no end of smiles on the descents. It took us back to time when as dinky kids riding a bike meant busting down the road, hopping curbs and carving your neighbour’s banked driveway.

A good value and upgradable beginner package for those looking to get into more aggressive riding without wanting to spend loads. A better crankset and livelier wheels and tyres (go tubeless for a start) would take it into another bracket altogether.

Find your nearest dealer here: