Dam2Dam Stage Race

[Squier]

BTW, spoke to the organisers; less than 100 people are riding. Nice and small. No bottlenecks.

[Squier]

Doesn't look as if many hubbies did this one, still I'll give a bit of a run down for future reference.

 

Given the popularity of the rising and races in the Magaliesberg area I was surprised how few people actually rode. I guess it came down to poor marketing.

 

I rode with 2 mates. The one I rode sani with this year and the other one in riding Berg & Bush with this year. This was going to be his first stage race and first race ever longer than 60km. It turned out this wasn't the best choice for your first long one as it was tough!

 

We ended up going over the Magalies Monster climb. 1000m of proper climbing in the first 30km. The views were spectacular and the descent back down challenging but awesome.

 

Some nice sections of singletrack were added before and after the climb, and in general the rising was really good.

 

Where it did go wrong for me was in the last 10km. It was advertised as 74km but ended up being over 80km. The last hill was a tough one and came after the 74km mark. That wasn't fun. The descent after the climb was extremely rocky and tough but rideable. The extra couple of kms and the fact that the final part of the race was so tough took a lot from the enjoyment factor.

 

We ended up riding 7 hours and 30 minutes but I was proud that my made pushed through to the end. He was struggling in the 59km mark already.

 

I decided to skip day 2 after I had no time with my kids after the long day 1. We were staying at Buffelspoort so I needed to do the family thing as well. Although it seems day 2 was just as tough.

 

The organising can be a bit better, but the riding was to class. I'll recommend this one of you're looking for a rough and tough challenge.

[Daxiet]

Nice feedback on stage 1. It was a tough stage with some really good riding in the first 40kms, I however felt the haul from Brauhaus to Konka was possibly stretching to make it fit and in the end left a lot of riders frustrated.

 

Stage 2 however was great, we repeated the same climb that we did at the end of Stage 1, but with only about 30kms on the legs, it was much easier. We then got to ride some good singletrack sections along the sides of the river. Upon leaving the river the riding included some rocky climbs and descents, all ride able. The balance however for Stage 2 was much better than Stage 1, there was time to regain your energy in between the tough sections.

 

To give you an indication of how the stages differed. I completed stage 1 in 5:07:26 and stage 2 in 3:25:29.

Stage stats:

Stage 1: 80.5kms 1595m ascent

Stage 2: 60.4kms 1106m ascent

 

The extra kms in Stage 1 were attributed to land owner issues requiring last minute adjustments.

 

It must be noted that this is a new event and as such teething issues are expected. Hopefully with the feedback the organisers have received they will look to making it a far greater success next year. As for the low numbers, I think that can be attributed to contention with other events in this area. Groot Marcio on the Saturday and NW Time Trial Champs on the Sunday. As Squier mentioned, marketing was also not great.

 

All that said and done, many thanks to the organisers for all the effort and time involved in setting up this event. Looking forward to next year.

[typhoon]

Swift01 did it with his sister, they won the mixed and got the GC by 3mins or so.

 

 

[Swift01]

Swift01 did it with his sister, they won the mixed and got the GC by 3mins or so.

 

 

When will she learn to clean up ha ha. Beer was awesome at the end

[Daxiet]

When will she learn to clean up ha ha. Beer was awesome at the end

 

Ah, my favourite Team

[Swift01]

Ah, my favourite Team

Was good fun out there