goya-goya Posted November 13, 2011 Posted November 13, 2011 I heard that some of this route was used for the XC or Marathon SA Champs earlier this year and that the organizers spend R250K making the singletrack... so...I went down to durbs to race with my brother and check out the track around Inanda dam - near Hilcrest... All I can say is WOW! - well not really - I have loads to say: 80km from Inanda dam to the Blue Lagoon... Guys imagine Groenkloof/fountains... 60km of it! but only the real singletrack part of it... not the district road... I gotta say... my arms and shoulders were not prepared for it! if any of you guys from outside of KZN want to race there... I have some advice for you:Train for short super-steep climbs!... not thing like that up here... and load of them! ...the longest climb was about 100m ascent but over the 80km we did about 1400m ascent... nothing like the MTN series ascents... but it was tougher than any of them!! BUT the absolute bliss of riding next to the dam....on endless singletrack in lush bush... up and down.... eeeeish!! There were some dodgy place that we rode through to get to the Blue Lagoon... but it was 3 km... If any of you get the opportunity to ride there... no questions... just go!!
Mackie Posted November 13, 2011 Posted November 13, 2011 You forgot to mention the riding through human excrement, and poor organisation.
Monark Posted November 13, 2011 Posted November 13, 2011 How was it after the rain? I woke up... looked at the mud in my garden and went back to bed.
goya-goya Posted November 13, 2011 Author Posted November 13, 2011 You forgot to mention the riding through human excrement, and poor organisation. Yea... that was part of the 3km i spoke about... but if thats all you can remember from the ride... then thats cool...
goya-goya Posted November 13, 2011 Author Posted November 13, 2011 How was it after the rain? I woke up... looked at the mud in my garden and went back to bed. The last realish "climb" was a bit sticky... but i cannot say I remember any other issue... although that was nothing like Clarens!!! Dude it was so awesome... I am sorry you missed it
Grebel Posted November 13, 2011 Posted November 13, 2011 You forgot to mention the riding through human excrement, and poor organisation. That was one of the surprises... oh wait, that's happened every year so no surprise there. My bad. At least there was water at the water tables (to help wash the human excrement off your legs or was that what the N2 river crossing was for...) Each year I hope it will get better because this is literally a race in our backyard, but it seems to be headed in the same direction (South...) I can understand that it may be tough to organise but maybe the organisers should look at a different route. The single track is nice but if it means riding through k@k and through general landfill waste, then I may not be back again
goya-goya Posted November 14, 2011 Author Posted November 14, 2011 Guys... either you are spoilt for choice or just whiners... I am not sure yet.... yea there was some unpleasant parts to the ride... but you had to go through a city and a rural community... I will not tell anyone that their outlook is wrong... perhaps just different... I am sorry you did not have a great ride. if you picked up your bike for 30 meters you would have been able to walk past and avoid the excrement completely... as to being in your back yard... what a pleasure!! IT WAS AN AWESOME RIDE... I will be back... hell YEA!
Grebel Posted November 14, 2011 Posted November 14, 2011 Guys... either you are spoilt for choice or just whiners... I am not sure yet.... yea there was some unpleasant parts to the ride... but you had to go through a city and a rural community... I will not tell anyone that their outlook is wrong... perhaps just different... I am sorry you did not have a great ride. if you picked up your bike for 30 meters you would have been able to walk past and avoid the excrement completely... as to being in your back yard... what a pleasure!! IT WAS AN AWESOME RIDE... I will be back... hell YEA! Living in KZN, we ARE spoilt for choice. That is why we can afford to "whine" about having to ride through sewerage! There are so many routes around that area that a different one would have been better. You may have been one of the race snakes that was lucky enough to go through while it was fresh. I was one of the unlucky weekend warriors that had to wade through the sewerage soup in the mid pack! Maybe I am whining but I would rather have ridden on tar than gone through some of the informal dumping grounds (including the broken glass and decaying food). Karkloof is an AWESOME ride. I still maintain that last year's route was better than this year's. Even having b!tched and whined about this years route, I will probably be back next year. The setup with the start and the finish has the potential to be a nice ride. They just need to fine tune the middle bits. The water tables this year were MUCH better that the last time especially the year that they ran out of water...!
goya-goya Posted November 14, 2011 Author Posted November 14, 2011 Dude... I flew in from JHB for the race... so I had to build up my bike in durbs... seat posts have to be tightened to spec on carbon frames else... well ***!... I thought 5nm was enough... and because of the continuous standing and sitting with the awesome singletrack...my seat dropped 8cm and I never realised it until the cramp set in!! ..and even struggling through the last 30km... which was the worse of the sections... it was still awesome.. I gotta do Karkloof... everyone has raved about it
Fracture Posted November 14, 2011 Posted November 14, 2011 (edited) Must say I really enjoyed the single track on this one. Coming from Richards Bay though we do not have anything resembling a hill here and the uphills killed my legs. Also got lost once or twice and ended up doing about 90 km. Edited November 14, 2011 by Skullfracture
Grebel Posted November 14, 2011 Posted November 14, 2011 Must say I really enjoyed the single track on this one. Coming from Richards Bay though we do not have anything resembling a hill here and the uphills killed my legs. Also got lost once or twice and ended up doing about 90 km. I did the 40km and was passed by some 80km guy that had the same problem. Had a chat to him and he said he ended up doing about 90km as well (You weren't the guy that wrapped his chain around his BB were you?)
Fracture Posted November 14, 2011 Posted November 14, 2011 (edited) I did the 40km and was passed by some 80km guy that had the same problem. Had a chat to him and he said he ended up doing about 90km as well (You weren't the guy that wrapped his chain around his BB were you?) Nope. That wasn't me. But I know there where a couple of okes that got lost. Passed a few of them along the way. Edited November 14, 2011 by Skullfracture
Martin PJ Posted November 14, 2011 Posted November 14, 2011 Rode through every local soccer match and Kraal in Inanda. Fortunately the locals point you in the right direction when lost. The route was poorly marked. I was looking forward to a fast jeep track / dirt road ride from the Inanda dam wall to Durbs. Guess these mountain bikers have this obsession with single track, can't understand it.
goya-goya Posted November 14, 2011 Author Posted November 14, 2011 Rode through every local soccer match and Kraal in Inanda. Fortunately the locals point you in the right direction when lost. The route was poorly marked. I was looking forward to a fast jeep track / dirt road ride from the Inanda dam wall to Durbs. Guess these mountain bikers have this obsession with single track, can't understand it. You are actually kidding aren't you!?
Benjamin Posted November 14, 2011 Posted November 14, 2011 The section around the dam was good. Nice to ride there, esp if you know the river from paddling. I was amazed how low the river was though. Woudnt have been difficult to put a little bridge over Island rapid though, carrying your bike over there was dodge. Then all good until the urban slum, the bubbling bog pipe was a beauty. Pity. Certainly a tough ride though once you crossed the new freeway bridge.
Martin PJ Posted November 14, 2011 Posted November 14, 2011 You are actually kidding aren't you!? No, was so tired at 40 km was going to phone my wife to meet me at the dam wall. Then when I saw the road, thought it would be quicker to ride to Durban than wait. From there, apart from the overflowing sewage and the climb to Reservoir Hills, it was pretty fine.
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