Blood, sweat and crashes at Momentum Health i-Flex Duathlon 2011, Zevenwacht, race 2

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Sunday, 17 April 2011 20:01

Blood, sweat and tail-slides in tough Winelands duathlon tester

The second leg of the Momentum Health i-Flex National Duathlon Series took South Africa's best duathletes to the scenic, dusty heights of Zevenwacht Estate in Kuilsriver, with the looming mass of Table Mountain on one side and the burning mountains of Somerset West on the other.

With so many mountains in view, it was little surprise that the race course on the 450 hectare property featured generous helpings of up and down. Warm, almost windless conditions and cloudless skies provided a canvas for what turned out to be a day of red-hot painting by the top three artists in both the men's and women's races.

In the men's race, Brand du Plessis (PeptoSport), the winner of the first Series event at Waterfall Estate in Johannesburg, was not expecting a podium. "I was hoping for a top five," the soft-spoken Secunda-based technician at Sasol told us afterwards. This was because his legs were feeling the effects of the grueling 226km Ironman South Africa the week before. In the same boat with Ironman legs was Cape Town's XTERRA and 2010 SA Long Distance Triathlon champion Kent Horner.

Once the gun fired for the first of two 2.5km laps, du Plessis was snapping on the heels of ITU Triathlon Continental Cups campaigner Richard Murray (Team BSG Elite) on the steep, loose gravel climbs through 200 hectares of vineyards in the company of another Cape Town local, Gilbert. Horner suffered patiently 40 seconds back, with KZN trail run ace Iain Don-Wauchope 15 seconds back, his legs hammered by the previous day's First Ascent Mast Challenge.

Onto the three-lap 30km mountain bike, du Plessis and Murray were riding in tandem, like they were super-glued together. Du Plessis moved to the front and pushed the pace on the high-speed, bumpy downhills. "I battled a little with the bumpiness of the trail and Richard was better on the downhills." On the last lap, Richard tried two hard attempts to pull away but every time du Plessis closed it down. "I realised it was going to come down to the final run," said Murray.

He was right, they came into transition together. Richard opened a 5-10 second gap in transition 2 and sprinted down the sharp downhill where he opened the gap further to win by 30 seconds. Kent Horner finished third. Both leading men arrived at the finish with cuts on their left biceps, the result of cutting one of the corners and hitting a tree branch.

In the women's race, Carla van Huyssteen (Team inov-8) of Pretoria race a dominant race throughout, starting with a searingly first run, leaving rivals Riana de Lange and Su Don-Wauchope trailing by nearly two minutes. Former mountain bike specialists Hanlie Booyens (Jeep) of Stellenbosch and Gauteng's Carla Rowley (Biogen) battled the gradients even further back, grinning and bearing it, confident that they'd pull back time. At the end of the run, van Huyssteen had a 2:15 gap on second and three minutes on joint-third Booyens and Rowley.

De Lange unfortunately left transition without a helmet and was well up the hill until she realised she was wearing a cap, not a helmet. She lost over three minutes going back to transition.

As temperatures climbed into the mid twenties, van Huyssteen opened her lead to 3:40. Booyens clawed back 40 seconds on the second lap, but had herself been caught by Rowley. The fight for second was not a done deal though, as Rowley (nicknamed Crash) over-cooked a tailslide on the third lap and graunched her left elbow. The post-crash shock hit her hard in the absence of a pick-up GU sachet (she'd forgotten them at home), giving the ever-strong Booyens the opportunity to put in a big effort to ride clear. Booyens was now hunting van Huyssteen, who had also slid out on loose sand on the second lap. This allowed Booyens, with her world-class MTB skills, to whittle the lead down to a small 30 seconds going into transition. Rowley arrived in transition two about 2.5 minutes down on Booyens, with no chance of catching the two ahead.

Performance of the day may well have been Master category Frank Smuts finishing in 10th overall.

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