After a nervous start due to an electrical fault in the timing system, the trail run got underway a little after the scheduled 6am start time. Cool dry conditions made for perfect trail running conditions for the handful of runners who made the effort get up at the crack of dawn. Scything through single track on a run can be as fulfilling as on a mountain bike, albeit slightly harder work. Judging by the comments, it should be one of the race options that we promote more aggressively next year.

Batching certainly helped relieve the congestion problems that we experienced last year. Although racing with a significantly large late entry batch can place strain on both the slower pre-entry riders and the faster late-entry riders, our new double and triple single track took care of that. The double/triple track was the brain child of Gerald, our course designer. Many good comments were received about this, and I believe it is a feature of our race which is here to stay. Gerald is the human equivalent of a Leatherman multi-tool. He designed, cut, and marked the route, he built the bike racks for the wash bay and sorted out the electrical problems experience on race day. You know when you think that you have found all the blades and functions on your multi-tool, and you turn it around and in the handle is a tooth pick? Well Gerald also helped the medic fix a dislocated finger in the middle of nowhere. Hey, every race should have a Leatherman like this!

The Wartburg Spar Classic was the most popular race of the day, having the most entries. This is always a good sign to organisers, because it means the serious mountain bikers are choosing your race. I hope it lived up to your expectation. It is not an overly technical ride, but the faster you go, the more technical a track becomes. We thought that we had upped the grade of the race a little by adding a new section… but obviously not! Craig Paul, David Leiman and Carl Calverly scorched around the route and set a new record winning time. Julia Colvin’s time was equally impressive. I believe that we should guard against making the course too tough for a race date so early in the season. It is better to allow riders to finish the race with a little something left in the tank, and hope that they enjoy the experience that much more.

We believe the intermediate ride should be there to promote cycling with the youth and hook the occasional cyclist into the sport. The reason for setting the Spur Intermediate race distance at 19.9km was two fold. Firstly, to make it more accessible to those stepping up from 10km. Secondly, to prevent not having a CSA license from being a barrier to entry into the sport. Gauging from the reaction we got on race day, we succeeded on both counts.

The Supa Quick 10km ride provided the battle ground for some very competitive youngsters (and some not-so-youngsters). We had a group of riders getting lost for the first time, and finding themselves on the 19.9km route some how. We cannot quite work out how this happened except that they must of ridden through some waist high grass to get there. Guys (and gals), racing is also about reading the course, following the signs and using common sense… not just putting the brain in neutral and the legs into overdrive. The Supa Quick 10km also formed the first leg of the BMax Primary School League. It was hampered a little by the fact that many of the youngsters had not done their ROAG registration. That being said, I think it was still very successful.

Greg Minnaar kindly led out the Build-it 1km kiddies Crash and Dash race around the school field. Not only was he looking very dashing in his dark glasses and white hat, but he also dipped at the line and took the 1km race honours in a respectable time, given his race pedigree.

Many riders missed the prize giving because of the soaring temperatures on the school field. Check out the race results on http://onlineentries.mrpricesport.co.za/Default.aspx and if you are a category prize winner, phone Barbara Love on 033 5031416 during school hours with your banking details and she will get the prize money to you.

Bike envy rears it’s head at the start of the 2010 Warburg Spar MTB Classic

Thank you to the Wartburg community
What a turn-out! We had 1310 cyclists (and a handful of runners) compete in one or more of the six events on offer. This is one of the big fundraising events for Wartburg Kirchdorf School, but possibly more importantly; it exposes the school, the village and community to mountain bikers from all over KZN. Thank you to everyone who went out of their way to make these folk feel welcome in our neck of the woods.

To the residents of Wartburg, who had their Saturday morning turned upside down by hundreds of cars and cyclists, thank you for your patience (and in some cases use of your verges and open plots). The smell of Deep Heat so early in the morning makes people park in strange places sometimes. To the landowners along the race route (Lance Trethewey, Manfred Hillermann, Lothar Schulz, the Hillermann Bros, Rudolf Meyer, GT Meyer, SAPPI, Heinz Wittig and Eckhard Wittig): An enormous thank you for all the slashing and grading that you guys did. The farms were all looking in mint condition, congratulations.

To everyone who helped on the day, I hope you enjoyed the cycling buzz as much as we did. It did get rather warm in the late morning, so thank you for persevering until the race was complete. We were very fortunate to have many loyal sponsors. The title sponsors were: Wartburg Spar (45km race); Spur (19.9km race); Supa Quick Dalton/BP Wartburg (10km); Build it (1km). We had a number of secondary sponsors who included BMax energy drinks at the seconding tables, aQuellé water at the finish, and numerous minor sponsors ( Just Loo’s, GAP chemicals, PANNAR, Farmers Agri Care, SAB, Nampak,) whose contributions were much appreciated.

We are indebted to uMshwathi Municipality for allowing us to hold the event, for providing traffic officers to assist at the road crossings and for getting Warburg into showroom condition for race day. In particular, a big thanks to Theo Eggers who personally took it upon himself to give the whole of Wartburg the proverbial short-back-and-sides. Danke!

The race registration and entry was done by Nicole and her team from ROAG, the timing done by Mr Price (the un-flappable Lyle) and overseen by the Mountain Bike Commission (Trevor and Martin). To Greg Minnaar (World downhill Champion) thanks for being our ‘celeb’, for handing out our prizes and leading out the kiddies 1km race.

To Chris Schutte and the school staff who got the grounds into great condition, and sorted out all the niggles on the day… well done.

A final thanks to the race committee, who took about eight months of dedicated work to put the race together (Elmarie, Barbara, Sonja, Monica, Craig, Dave, Mark, Jean, Gerald, and Marie).

Antony Jarvie (Race comm. Co-Chairman)