[Event] Ashburton Investments National MTB Series Dullstroom

[advendurance]

Event Name: Ashburton Investments National MTB Series Dullstroom
When: 2 September 2017 - 3 September 2017
Where: Dunkeld Country Estate, Mpumulanga
Category: MTB

Venue: Dunkeld Country Estate, Bosman Street, Dullstroom, Mpumalanga

 

GPS Location: 30º 4′ 31.0″ E 25º 24′ 11.0″ S

 

Elevation: 2077

 

Terrain: Single Track, Jeep Track, Gravel Road, Savannah, Rocky, Hardpack, Plantations, Indigenous Forest

 

Features: Hand Built single track, Bridges, River Crossings, Bush tunnels, Spectacular Views, Dams

 

Dullstroom is a small town in Mpumalanga province, nestled at the foot of De Berg and although it may be synonymous with fly fishing, horseback riding, hiking and small town vibes, it has become a new retreat for mountain bike enthusiasts with its high altitude and tough trails.

 

Boasting single track, jeep track, gravel roads, savannah grass and hard pack terrain, routes meander through plantations, indigenous forests, across bridges, river crossings and bush tunnels with spectacular views of dams and the African countryside. Dullstroom’s rolling hills, natural foot paths and picturesque scenery is a mountain biker’s dream!

 

You can look forward to: A great weekend away with plenty to do and see. New routes have been added with hand built single track, cattle paths, well stocked water points, uncongested routes with little overlap, Expo area, Local & Craft beer and food stalls, Massages, Bike wash and VIP Area.

Go to Event Page

[ScaredShiftless]

Looking at the route profiles, it seems the second stage (Sunday's 62km) is actually tougher than the first (Saturday's 70km) stage. Gonna be hard, but lekker! 

[bertusras]

Getting my wisdom teeth out on the Saturday, bleak!  This is such a fun (and beautiful) race!

[ScaredShiftless]

Hi Hubbers

I did the Marathon Stage Race over this past weekend - what a tough two days! Cold, windy, high altitude, but enjoyable as always!

I would love to know what you thought of the new route for the Marathon on Day 1? 

[L46]

Hi Hubbers

I did the Marathon Stage Race over this past weekend - what a tough two days! Cold, windy, high altitude, but enjoyable as always!

I would love to know what you thought of the new route for the Marathon on Day 1? 

 

I enjoyed the previous year's stage much more, doing the "kruisfontein" climb in particular, which is tough but very scenic and without the "gras polle".  I think it might have been a case of not wanting to overlap half and full marathon distances this year as we did some of the "old" route on day 2.  Also noticed that we didn't use much of Dunkeld's routes this year which we used for the latter part of last year's ultra.  They were enjoyable but hitting that concrete climb early on might have created a lot of bottle necking.  This year's first stage was a bit like a farm tour to be honest, lots of district and non-technical farm roads and the wind didn't help, but the second day brought the fun back a bit.

 

Must be difficult to get land access, not overlapping race distances and find routes that suite everyone's taste, so all in all I take my hat of for Advendurance's efforts to still deliver top class cost-effective events in the limited time available.

 

I've done Clarens, Champagne and Dullstroom this year and they were all good, although I must admit the first two suited my taste a bit more.

[carbon ghost]

I did my first Dullstroom race on Saturday. I found the route very boring. It was advertised as lots of single track through plantations and indigenous forests.

 

I think we had about 2 km of single track only. 90% farm roads no forests or plantations.

 

On positive is that there were no bottlenecks but this is because there was zero technical sections.

 

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

[sled]

Interesting to read the various perspectives of the event. Did the half both days and thoroughly enjoyed the route, except for the wind. There may not have been much single track but the jeep track was testing enough. One of those events that you have to just enjoy the spectacular panoramic views from the tops and have fun. Ashburton have a good mix in their bag of events - done the whole series of half marathons this year and with Kaapschehoop left to go can honestly say that I have had fun on all of them. Just need to crack a nod to the VIP tent now to make me totally happy.

[L46]

Interesting to read the various perspectives of the event. Did the half both days and thoroughly enjoyed the route, except for the wind. There may not have been much single track but the jeep track was testing enough. One of those events that you have to just enjoy the spectacular panoramic views from the tops and have fun. Ashburton have a good mix in their bag of events - done the whole series of half marathons this year and with Kaapschehoop left to go can honestly say that I have had fun on all of them. Just need to crack a nod to the VIP tent now to make me totally happy.

 

Not saying I didn't enjoy it, just a bit different from previous years but the mix between day 1 and 2 was actually quite good  Will always enjoy riding in Dullstroom and the other scenic areas where they host these events, that's why I go back.