One of the nicest guys I’ve met through sport of late has been Ben-Melt Swanepoel, a pro cyclist for the MTN-Raleigh-Energade mountain bike team. We met at an EA Sports Poker Night in Joburg late last year, and I got to spend some time with Melt after his brilliant Subaru Sani2c (sani2c.co.za) last weekend. Considering my inconsideration for the sharper end of the event with my sofa-style riding at at the Adventure, I’ll plagirise and post Ben-Melt’s last two reports. They make for great reading.
(Ben-Melt Swanepoel)
The first concerning a commanding victory:
Hi Everyone!
Sani2c is one of the most prestigious mountain bike stage races on the calendar. It has been voted as SA’s best mountain bike race a few times and the race offers one of the best race courses around. The 3 day race that heads from Underberg through the Umkomaas valley to Scottburgh tests the 2 man teams’ skill and fitness to the limit.
As such, it is one of our biggest goals of the year and we always go there wanting to bring the silverware home. This year Mannie and I were facing strong competition in the form of team Garmin (Marc Bassingthwaighte and Arno Viljoen), team Mongoose (Oliver Munnick and Renay Gouwstra) as well as Burry Standerwho partnered with Rourke Crouser for the event.
USN’s (usn.co.za) Brandon Stewart and J.P. Pearton also formed a strong combination while their teammate Francois Theron partnered Max Knox (team Stevens).
Race conditions were probably the best they had ever been and the dry hardpack course made for extremely fast racing.
Day one’s 83km stage was covered in less than 3 hours and in the end Mannie and I won the stage from Burry and Rourke by just over a minute. Team Garmin suffered a mechanical mishap which relegated them to 3rd on the stage about another minute back.
Day 2 started at 5.20AM in the morning as we faced up to the longest stage of the race at 99km. We raced into the first singletrack of the day as the sun rose and the 25 odd kilometre descent into the Umkomaas valley was absolutely awesome as we dropped down through the mist line.
By the compulsory halfway stop Mannie and I had built up a lead of about 3 minutes over the next team (team Mongoose). From there we kept a very good pace and even managed to extend our lead until we reached the finish at Jollievet farm.
Half the reason we raced so fast was the legendary steaks that the farmers prepare for us at this overnight stop. The people’s passion and hospitality at this event is pretty much unrivalled and they really make you feel at home.
The final stage was a 73 km dash from Jollievet Farm down to the coastal town of Scottburgh. Although Mannie and I had a substantial lead by this stage, we rode on the front for most of the day to be safe.Along with team Garmin we really tried to make things pretty hard and as we entered the last 5km only teams Mongoose and Garmin were still with us.
I made a mistake on the infamous pipeline and punctured leaving them alone at the front to duel out the stage honours.
Ollie and Renay (team Mongoose) got away from Arno and Marc (Garmin) over the Scottborough beach and held on to take the final stage win. David Leiman and Roan Exelby(Fullimput) also passed us while we were fixing our puncture and they rounded out the podium on the final stage. Although 4th on the day wasn’t ideal, we were more than happy to take the overall title for the stage race.
Final results:
MTN/Energade – Mannie Heymans and Melt Swanepoel
Mongoose – Oliver Munnick and Renay Gouwstra
Garmin – Marc Bassingthwaighte and Arno Viljoen
We look forward to returning in 2009 to defend our title at this brilliant race and who knows, maybe we will even be the fortunate ones to walk away with the lucky draw prize – a Subaru fitted with a Thule bike rack, Garmin GPS and a Specialized Epic bike on the roof rack!!!
Now we are in Cape Town for the Giro del Capo road stage race. This will be some of our final preparation for the Cape Epic. I’ll let you know how things turn out.
Happy trails,
Melt
And the second a miserable defeat to the hand of sports politics:
Hi Everyone!
All dressed up and nowhere to go! That’s the only way I can describe how I felt at the start of the 2008 Giro del Capo on Tuesday morning.
Let me explain: In order for me (and Kevin Evans) to ride the Giro, we had to ride as invitational riders for another team since our road team (MTN/Energade) already had a full compliment of 6 riders. As such we had joined forces with the riders of team Sotheby’s and would form part of the team for the 5 day stage race.
The head race commissaire (basically a race referee) wasn’t happy with this – under due pressure from other team managers – and told us we couldn’t start. They had a million and one different reasons, but at the end of the day they needed only one and we weren’t allowed to start.
So, here I am in Cape Town. All dressed up and no race to ride. Kevin and I decided to see the glass half full and took it as a compliment that some managers saw us mountain bikers as a threat to their road teams… Having said that, I still feel a bit taken aback that anyone would question our integrity.
Anyway, Kevin and I will spend our days here in Cape Town wisely and come out stronger on the other side.
Hold thumbs for my other team mate Mannie Heymans (and his Namibian team) and our MTN/Energade roadies as they face up to the next few days of racing around the Cape.
Happy trails,
Melt
