Morewood Bikes Blog » XC http://www.morewoodbikes.com/blog Fri, 28 May 2010 09:29:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 SA National XC Pretoria http://www.morewoodbikes.com/blog/2009/05/sa-national-xc-pretoria/ http://www.morewoodbikes.com/blog/2009/05/sa-national-xc-pretoria/#comments Sat, 23 May 2009 08:20:46 +0000 Morewood http://www.morewoodbikes.com/blog/?p=394 Morewood XC rider Roan Exelby gives us feed back on his weekend at the nationals:

Bad luck strikes again!

Tire problems seemed to be the flavour of the day for lots of riders, myself included – I paid special attention to getting a tire that would work on this course. Its quite tight forcing you to use a lightweight tire but the rocky nature of the trail also means that you have to use something with a strong carcass. So its all about compromise – as always, performance comes at a price.

The stakes were high with just a couple of points separating Marc Bassingthwaite, Brandon Stewart, Renay Goustra and Craig Paul – the SA title would come down to the last of the 5 race series. No pressure!!!

The race started out well, I settled into the racing for the first couple of laps then started pushing the pace up a bit, dropping Marc and Philip(Garmin) to take the lead. Then i burped my tire, and again … and again – forcing me to slow down on the technical stuff to avoid pinch flatting. Marc started clawing back and passed me just into lap 6. I stopped to bomb my wheel, losing around 1min30 sec … On the last lap, I managed to catch back slightly but not enough! Thats the way it goes.

Marc rode a solid race and deserves to have a good win – he had technical issues at the World Cup and his form is good… its just a pity that a Namibian wins the SA XC Cup ! :-) Good work Bass. But watch out next year! hehehe!

Cheers Roan

]]> http://www.morewoodbikes.com/blog/2009/05/sa-national-xc-pretoria/feed/ 0 KKC … Karkloof Classic http://www.morewoodbikes.com/blog/2009/05/kkc-karkloof-classic/ http://www.morewoodbikes.com/blog/2009/05/kkc-karkloof-classic/#comments Tue, 12 May 2009 08:43:28 +0000 Morewood http://www.morewoodbikes.com/blog/?p=403 Another good weekend of riding for our Morewood XC riders Roan Exelby and Dave Leiman.
Roan gives us some feedback about the Mr Price Karkloof Classic:

Awesome showdown. These timber/dairy farmers know how to put on an event. Everything ran super smooth. All of the courses were perfectly marked and prepped … each year it just keeps on getting better.

Burry Stander cleaned up in the Sprint Shootout and cracked Kevin Evans in the last km’s of the classic to take home the bacon.

I managed to take the XC race… Brandon Stewart made it tough work for me though! The legs did take a bit of extra time to warm up on the classic as a result. Pete Smith managed to take 5th overall in the classic amongst a star studded field, placing in amongst the full time pro’s – nice work brother! Dave had a solid ride to finish top 15, I came 8th.

Shale is riding like a machine – 8th in the ladies – way to go sis! Respect!

Roan

]]> http://www.morewoodbikes.com/blog/2009/05/kkc-karkloof-classic/feed/ 0 Houffalize XC World Cup http://www.morewoodbikes.com/blog/2009/05/houffalize-xc-world-cup/ http://www.morewoodbikes.com/blog/2009/05/houffalize-xc-world-cup/#comments Mon, 11 May 2009 08:37:41 +0000 Morewood http://www.morewoodbikes.com/blog/?p=398 They say that Houffalize is the Grandfather event in the World Cup – it is definitely the most exciting WC that I have been to! The crowd is insane! It is said that cycling in Belgium has more supporters than football – well, i can believe it! Spectators were 4 deep on the main climbs, the atmosphere was electric… if you ever have to choose a European event to spectate, i can recommend this one!! The Belgians even know how to braai. Cheers Roan

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