[Event] Eselfontein MTB (3Day Stage Race) Festival

[Trance Dance]

I thoroughly enjoyed the race, three days of fantastic riding and lots of fun. Good mates, good vibe and good riding. What more could one ask for...

 

It would be great to choose between doing day two of the stage race and the enduro on the Saturday. I had a bit of fomo as the enduro looked awesome. I did see one of the enduro riders doing day three of the stage race so maybe it was possible?

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

I thoroughly enjoyed the race, three days of fantastic riding and lots of fun. Good mates, good vibe and good riding. What more could one ask for...

 

It would be great to choose between doing day two of the stage race and the enduro on the Saturday. I had a bit of fomo as the enduro looked awesome. I did see one of the enduro riders doing day three of the stage race so maybe it was possible?

Yeah, if you entered the Enduro you got free entry to day 3's stage afaik.

[wolver]

Those R 30 crafties were bloody marvellous... as were the roosterkoek and lamb tjoppies. 

Those roosterkoek steak rolls got me at least 4 times 

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Those roosterkoek steak rolls got me at least 4 times

????

[Morne Veer]

I spent the last three days gathering my thoughts and made a list of the things I did not enjoy this weekend, and what should be done differently next year.....see attached    

 

 

The things I did like :

• Great vibe
• Great food (at reasonable prices)
• Great vibe
• Constantly clean mobile toilets and working showers - can't remember standing in a queue once.
• Great vibe
• Clearly marked trails, with awesome water points, with a variety offering, better than most events on the calendar, manned by some very special local folk - how about that auntie with the bottel of Jagermeister and other Oros options ? #yakes
• Did I mention GREAT VIBE ?

Nee kyk, hierdie was 'n special naweek !  The kuiers and social element makes this weekend a joy, whilst the routes were not overly taxing (but no walk in the park neither) - I guess it helps when you bring along some kind of fitness. 

 

Entries open for 2018 yet ? 

Edited October 18, 2017 by Veer-Factor

[Shebeen]

going to file this under the - while i didn't finish here is my story anyway category.

 

So despite quite a lot of mtb miles over the years, I’ve never actually done a stage race. I just don’t like paying for the hype that goes around them, so they remain mostly on the page2 of the bucketlist. That was until we see Esels 3Day 2017 – I have done the festival quite a few times, but this was quite a lekker challenge – and boy did it hit my bang for buck don’t tell the posers price point (R1500 for 3 days of riding, free camping – per PAIR). It was easy to find a partner, just entered my wife and told her later about it. This was actually all about her, don’t think she’d ever done more than a 30km race so the plan was to have fun, and hopefully finish. Had to do things like always taking both bikes, buying more lights and even night rides on the greenbelt.

 

The shall we/shan’t webring the kids (age 2 & 4) was luckily taken care of by our grannies and we headed out of town racing the traffic, setting up camp and a 6pm night ride start. We set up our possie in the (allegedly) rowdy endure campsite down the road and lined up with about 10mins to spare – right at the back. The mass start of 800 odd wheels meant quite a bit of dust until we hit the smaller roads and strung out up the hills. Stage 1 was 34km, with about 600m of vertical ascent, but most of it in the first 10kms. We would be switching on lights sometime during this, which for us was when we hit the ‘dark forest’. Now the last time I rode the dark forest, I ended up in Ceres Netcare for stitches so was extra careful this time! We took a route where you ride past your campsite, but it was early days so no quitting here and the water point came at just the right time. We had now done about 20km, and it was time to tuck into the smorgasboard that was the well stocked waterpoint. We did a quick loop round the dams, rejoined the waterpoint which now had boerie too and ticked off the last little section for a well earned 37km night ride. There was a straggler whose light had gone pap who needed to stuck to our wheels as the last bit of poplar forest was far from simple.

 

Rave #1 – the finish village was just brilliant. Food was super hearty braaikos and damn good pricing. Gin bar/local craft beer had all the good stuff – we eventually rolled down the hill to our campsite and warm showers as the next ride was actually only a few hours away.

The morning dawned and it looked pleasantly warm for us today. Today was the big kahuna, while last night was Vic’s longest ever race this was going to be 55km with 1400m of climbing. She was a bit daunted by some of the downhills being named Death Drop and Dead Man Walking – nothing like the smell of nervous fear in the morning! We kicked off in the last batch, but soon had some of the 40km one day riders joining us. It was a nice mix of uphill s’track and jeep before we did some of last night’s route in reverse. This is not a problem at all as these tracks are great for bidirectional riding and totally different when they’re done in night and day. We got to the WP1 and revisited it a few kms later of circumnavigating a steep and scenic koppie which gave us a good lung bust climb, great views and gnarly descent. The farm kids wised up to this WP and were just eyeing all the sweeties on the table, I wonder what happened when they packed it up!

 

Rave #2 It was an honest trek up to WP3, the highest point for the day – and we earned our downhill of Shapiro’s. This remains one of the coolest trails to blast down, and I doff my helmet to Ride journalist Steve Shapiro who was so right to rant about how cool this place was all those years ago.

 

The downhill was long, and Vic was taking strain and needed a bit of a rest after doing it. We were on 37km, and the thought of another 18km was quite daunting. There was talking of packing it in. We soldiered onto the next WP4 at 43km and then some stern talking, boerie, sweets and joining up with camp neighbours Kasha and Claire saw us off for the last loop which was a reverse of the previous night’s dam loop. Damn but farmer Deon’s dam levels are dire (we like to think we brought rain on Day3). We knocked off the last section nicely and didn’t even stop at WP5, as it was about 3km to the finish. This ended up being almost 6 hours in the saddle, with about an hour of rest along the way – long ride for a rookie and a well earned selection from the Gin bar was a great compliment to more lekker kos.

We came to our campsite with a FREE afternoon, which was probably the biggest highlight of Vic’s weekend. This was spent reminiscing/snoozing and listening to tales from the Enduro crazy boys whilst some people returned to the beer tent to watch rugby. All very civilised.

We finally opened the fridge that evening to do our own cooking, and there’s nothing like a decent braai in a cow fields round likeminded bikerfolk to put your mind at ease that all is good with the world.

 

There was a bit of cloud, impending rain and current stiffness to wakeup to on morning 3. A 40km route with most of the 1100m of climbing in the first 15km was a sharp reminder that the finisher’s medal was not in the bag just yet. A bit of prestart drama saw some brake caliper modifications and we missed the start by about 3minutes, but caught up with the backmarker just on turning off the main road. Things were going just fine until 8km, where we went through a farm section and hit a short downhill that went through a small old farm dam. This entailed a lekker ramp on the wall, which Vic hit with way too much speed – I heard the sound of an endo behind me and pretty soon knew that that was us for the weekend. She landed on her head, and was in quite a bit of pain. We got hold of the race organisers and they sent us a bakkie with medic to come to the rescue. Cornel drove us back to camp and paramedic Linn phoned through to the Netcare. The doctor popped back a rib and the X-Rays all came back with no permanent breaks but some serious whiplash. Not the way we wanted to end it all, but really comforting to know that when you really need it the help was there. Even more importantly, we’re ready to sign up for 2018 as soon as it opens!

 

Rave #3. Deon might be the landowner and instigator, but I can see that his wider team (and wife Janene) have really got behind this event and it’s a drawcard to the area. The last time I went must have been 8/9 years ago, and it was still quite wild – band playing opskop rock in the barn/okes ramping BMXs into the pool etc. That was quite a lot of fun, but it is now seriously professional. For instance. the route is obviously great, but also incredibly well marked, I think we had 2 marshalls on route for the night ride, that is almost unheard of! 5 water points on a 55km route! I do hope they can keep the pricing lekker, as I think it attracts lekker people. Double the price and you will probably still sell out, but there just might be more posers!

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

lekker report, rider35! 

 

How DARE you!?

[Buchu]

I am glad your wife is okay. What a brilliant report rider35. Do not worry about the price for next year, it will always be fair. 

Ek doen die roete merke en is baie bly om te hoor dit is goed gedoen. Dit is nooit lekker om te soek vir merkers nie, al het die bobejane al my borde en plakkers by baboons highway afgeruk en vol gate gebyt.

Cheers. See everybody next year.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

And yes. How's your wife feeling now? Better?

[Shebeen]

And yes. How's your wife feeling now? Better?

shaken, not stirred! She even drove to school today all by herself.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

shaken, not stirred! She even drove to school today all by herself.

Just watch for signs of concussion, eh. It's not lekker. Even this long after the fall.

[Eselfontein]

Our t-shirts can now be bought "online".

Please visit our website: http://www.eselfontein.co.za/festivals

[capediver]

Our t-shirts can now be bought "online".

Please visit our website: http://www.eselfontein.co.za/festivals

Asking for a friend.....

Can you buy one even if you didn't finish?

 

Edit:

Asking for another friend....

Can you buy one even if you didn't enter?!

        (couldn't resist!!!)

Edited October 30, 2017 by capediver

[Eselfontein]

Asking for a friend.....

Can you buy one even if you didn't finish?

 

Edit:

Asking for another friend....

Can you buy one even if you didn't enter?!

        (couldn't resist!!!)

YES YOU CAN

[Jewbacca]

Just watch for signs of concussion, eh. It's not lekker. Even this long after the fall.

I'm still struggling with mine.. I'm not dropping things or walking into door frames anymore, but the concentration drifts, the headaches come and go and things are difficult when they shouldn't be. Having been on the receiving end of quite a few black out concussions I am luckily aware of the potential for this to develop into far worse things if you let them, so off the beer, off the trails and staying away from anything that could lead to bad life choices for a while!

 

Pretty stoked though because I had an excuse to get a Bell Super 3R and justify it as 'needed safety in my old age' to the missus!

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

I'm still struggling with mine.. I'm not dropping things or walking into door frames anymore, but the concentration drifts, the headaches come and go and things are difficult when they shouldn't be. Having been on the receiving end of quite a few black out concussions I am luckily aware of the potential for this to develop into far worse things if you let them, so off the beer, off the trails and staying away from anything that could lead to bad life choices for a while!

 

Pretty stoked though because I had an excuse to get a Bell Super 3R and justify it as 'needed safety in my old age' to the missus!

ja dude, be careful. It's a cumulative thing, the concussion monster, from what I've read. 

 

Good purchase, though!!!