The Cradle Mountain Trophy 2014

[SeanScalpel]

Was my 1st Mountain Trophy 75km; it was a proper ride and from 55km things became challenging! Ride time was a 4:17 and total time 4:58 or something (most of the waiting at the river crossing) and tracked 1310m ascent on my Bryton 35.

 

Tomorrow we tackle the 45!

[Nick#46]

I think they should call this race the gras-poll race!!! Great route but organizers should use our money and a bit of common sense to firstly remove bottle necks and secondly do a bit of work on building proper trials!! Then it will be a first class race!!!!

[Markdeep]

Tough as always and fun in general. But I have made the decision not to do the race again if they do not sort the river crossing. I will not pay this sort of entry fee and find myself waiting at a crossing that could be sorted out with a short little wooden bridge that won't cost more than a single entry fee. Last year they told us the bridge got washed away this year they were just lazy

 

Agreed, done it for the 2nd year now and same thing happened last year, 20-25minute weight at river portage. Organisers please just route us around this section if possible, sure all riders agree?

 

Other than that I think its a pretty challenging route, some nice rocky testing trails. Last section along fence on flattened grass also not that fun hey.

[Reden]

The only thing that was not pleasant was the long wait at river crossing.

Other than that it was a good decent route for some real mountain biking.

I do not want perfectly manicured routes.

 

Will be back next year.

Better prepared and this time I will listen to uncle when he says ride slow for the first 50km.

The last 20km was no fun at all due to my own fault.

Saturday was loads of fun. Especially the down hill sections.

The bike show can also grow a bit.

Over all it was quite a pleasant weekend.

[ChUkKy]

I only did day 1... the wait at the water crossing for almost 30 minutes was bullkak. My second moan is that last few km alonside the fence on that mowed grass called a "trai". Thats not fun by any means and is where I lost my sense of humour.

I looked at the route profile for day 2 on the morning and saw it was the same thing in reverse.... no thanks.

 

I definitely wont be back

[Craig Slow]

Any results out?

[canfan]

I don't think the race was too bad. Especially considering the entry fee. Not often you will get a 2 day race for R350. That grass at the end of day 1 and the river crossing would be my only 2 complaints.

Day 2 was definitely a lot better doing that section in reverse. After the grass, there were some nice riding.

[Mike Bike]

the wait at the river crossing was crap..i wont be back unless they fix it

[MTB4EVER]

Great race except for the batching disaster which caused a lot of bottle necks and the river crossing which has been a disaster ever since this was the Honda trophy! I mean really I am willing to save 45 and skip that small section!! Overall ride time for day one was 5:34 and moving time 4:34 according to my Garmin and stopped at 1 water table. Otherwise an excellent event and will be back if the route is modified slightly.

[MTB Climber]

The organisation sucked, from posting the profiles until the mess of a mass group start – O sorry always someone else at fault never Leverage Corporation. The bottlenecks were terrible; this has been like this for years. Why not use some of the entry money and do something with it to better the river crossing. The last section was not a trail at all, more like riding on moved veld grass. This race will not see me again – get proper people to organise events of this nature, maybe the farmers – working in KwaZulu-Natal.

[Mojoman]

The organisation sucked, from posting the profiles until the mess of a mass group start – O sorry always someone else at fault never Leverage Corporation. The bottlenecks were terrible; this has been like this for years. Why not use some of the entry money and do something with it to better the river crossing. The last section was not a trail at all, more like riding on moved veld grass. This race will not see me again – get proper people to organise events of this nature, maybe the farmers – working in KwaZulu-Natal.

A friend and I went for a ride and watched some of this race around Magalies and Koesterfontein on Saturday morning. I did see a problem in the Koesterfontein area (attached pic) where you left the main dirt road to make a left turn into the veld up the hillside. There should have been a marshal here as we saw a lot of people overshoot the turn and have to turn back. It was also pretty chaotic on the dirt road out there and my friend was kakked on by a local who thought we had something to do with it as we sat watching the riders! (as well as a couple of people who shouted cheaters at us as we cut across the veld!).

 

 

There should have also been warning signs on the dirt roads to let locals know what is happening, normally we see a 'Caution - Cycle race in progress' sign but not this time. The route in the Koesterfontein area could have been a lot better. We have mailed the organisers in the past to see if they would like assistance for routes in that area but I have never had a reply. This is an area where I ride everyday (and used to live!) and there are some nice routes in the area so dirt road riding could have been kept to a minimum.

Edited April 14, 2014 by Mojoman

[nonky]

I would like to ask the organisers how they thought a 1000+ riders could cross a river crossing / portage where bikes had to be carried and only allowed one person at a time? We waited an hour, which is a joke - even for us buffaloes and newbs bringing up the rear.

 

Water points were well-stocked and very friendly. Nice vibe during both days. Great weather. Some challenging single track and climbs (subjectively, felt harder than the profile).

 

If the portage and start could be resolved, this would really be a good event.

[Mojoman]

I would like to ask the organisers how they thought a 1000+ riders could cross a river crossing / portage where bikes had to be carried and only allowed one person at a time? We waited an hour, which is a joke - even for us buffaloes and newbs bringing up the rear.

 

Water points were well-stocked and very friendly. Nice vibe during both days. Great weather. Some challenging single track and climbs (subjectively, felt harder than the profile).

 

If the portage and start could be resolved, this would really be a good event.

Was the river crossing this section in the pic?

[canfan]

No, it was before this area.

[Spinnekop]

Was the river crossing this section in the pic?

 

No.

[nonky]

Was the river crossing this section in the pic?

 

No, it was much worse than that...at least one could walk across the one in your pic in single file fairly easily.