ShowMe South Africa

Text and Photographs: Craig Kolesky. Article from the April 2013 issue of Ride Magazine.

The inaugural Tankwa Trek offered Craig Kolesky and Tyrone Rawlins a fine opportunity to fine-tune their Absa Cape Epic training in the heat of the Ceres Valley.

The view of Tulbagh comes at a cost lactic acid by the legful

Approaching Kaleo Farm in the Koue Bokkeveld for the start of the inaugural Tankwa Trek, neither of us knew what lay ahead. This was mainly because we were unable to see through aspirant rally driver Darren Lill’s dust cloud: he had purposely overtaken us just before we hit the dirt – our little taste of things to come for the hotshots.

Ceres, in the middle of summer. Sensible advice would be to find somewhere cool, like nowhere near the heart of the Western Cape and its mountains. And certainly not to ride a mountain bike in the midday sun. The team at Dryland Events put in a lot of effort to ensure the mad dogs didn’t fry: plenty of shaded areas in which to relax and escape the burning sun, hot showers and proper toilets (not just portaloos), Wi-Fi and fires for when the sun went down and the temperature plummeted. Add to that great food, strong coffee and a well-stocked bar… We could go on, but there’s some exceptional riding to talk about, too.

It’s amazing what ice-cold water over your head and being told that there is a nine-kilometre downhill to come will do for the spirit

The inaugural Tankwa Trek attracted a small field of 92 riders, which guaranteed an atmosphere that was humorous and friendly; even the pros seemed relaxed. Day one started off rather fresh, with a 6.30 am start time, but it didn’t take long for things to heat up. The neutral zone took riders towards the Witzenberg Valley, where Hannes Hanekom (Ride’s February cover model…) was responsible for the recent opening of an amazing old ox wagon trail for the Absa Cape Epic. Then we faced a 12-kilometre climb through pine plantations, ending up looking out over Tulbagh before descending back into the heart of the valley and exiting the same way we entered.

Chilly starts belied the heat to come.

It was a long day in the scorching heat at the back of the field. The benefit of riding at a pace just fast enough to stay balanced is that you get to appreciate the surroundings. Although there was a fair bit of climbing, nothing was impossible and we knew each grovel would just lead to another viewpoint. As with most things regarding gravity, what goes up, must come down! There were plenty of fast descents, with some rocky, technical sections and plenty of great singletrack. The water points were nothing short of brilliant, as they need to be in Africa: friendly and helpful staff at a well-stocked table with ice-cold drinks, sandwiches, chocolates, koeksisters and the area’s famous steak pieces. And shade.

Thankfully, the first night was warmer than the prologue one, which made it a bit easier to sleep – post-race supplement flatulence aside (the tented village has no secrets). We were due to ride 97 kilometres on day two, with a total vertical ascent of 2164 metres. After an easy start through the orchards, we descended towards the Ceres Valley via the old ox wagon trail alongside the Gydo Pass. Fast and furious! Once in the Ceres Valley we tackled a few more old trails, cleaned up by local farmer Mouti Walters – and things were all going swimmingly until we remembered the map had shown four water points for the day. Why so many? We were soon to find out. The third one marked the start of a solid-surfaced jeep track: Merino’s Monster. Aptly named for its severity (not because it bleats), this epic climb rewarded us with a mind-blowing descent down to Kaleo Guest Farm. Because we wanted to get some images of the pro riders, we left earlier than the field to get to the shooting points. Neither of us got half as far as we expected before the pros came hurtling up behind us.

Oli Munnik chillaxes between stages.This must have been a harder day in the saddle for the pros. By the time we had finished, not one of them was hanging around at the finish area to give us comment or race information. They were sleeping and recovering – and later claimed it wasn’t that bad. But the water table staff at the top of Merino’s Monster told us none of them looked too happy at that point…

For us, the first 42 kilometres flew by, even with a number of stops at various points to take photos. The next 20 kilometres were slower, on a long, false-flat district road leading to an even longer and narrow singletrack climb up to water point three. Here, a few local kids came out to cheer us on, but it was really more demotivating to see how they (some barefoot) easily kept up, running alongside us most of the way to the top.

Purpose-built singletrack on Morester Farm and one of the 36 specially constructed bridges.

We were warned by the organisers to take on enough food at water point three before taking on the Merino’s Monster. Eight hundred metres’ climbing in eight kilometres, at 37 degrees. This was no joke – it took us an hour and 40 minutes, the majority spent pushing our bikes or taking photos. It’s amazing what ice-cold water over your head and being told that there is a nine-kilometre downhill to come will do for the spirit. The downhill was a rough mixture of steep, technical sections, fast contour trails, bumps and jumps, sand traps and rocky terrain – it was good, and fast. We finally dragged ourselves home in just on seven hours.

With only 58 kilometres on the cards for the final day (the organisers had cut out 30 kilometres of boring farm roads for us), we celebrated mounting the Merino with an alcoholic beverage or two that evening, and we were not drinking alone.

Brandon Stewart (FedGroup Scott) leads the peloton.

The following morning we were all shuttled by local farmers to the new start point on Morester Farm. Singletrack, Koue Bokkeveld style… Môrester owner Charl van der Merwe had recently spent too much time cutting in singletrack around the harsh rock formations in the area. His apples are known to miss him when he leaves home for days, armed only with his bike and shovel. The Tankwa Trek was the first to use 30 kilometres of virgin singletrack before the Epic swept through in March.

With a delayed start at 8 am, the heat of the day had already begun to settle in. As the lead motorcycle pulled away it was flat-out racing with the Cannondale/Blend boys, desperately trying to bridge a small gap for the overall podium victory. RECM had every attack covered and soon it was the two lead teams who once again broke away from the pack to fight their battle.

 Lourens Luus (RE:CM) and Nico Pfitzenmaier. Lead the pack.Oli ‘Pinning It’ Munnik and his GT/Bridge-Momsen teammate Timo Cooper bridged across, eventually, to take the stage win, but Waylon Woolcock and Lourens Luus did enough to maintain their overall lead, and take the win from Darren Lill and Charles Keey.

Surrounded by amazing rock formations (some that you ride through), down fast-flowing singletrack and over 36 specially constructed bridges, we found the first 21 kilometres very, very slow going, but only because we kept stopping to take photos and redo sections to film with the GoPros. These trails are open to the public – check them out at www.houdenbek.co.za

After the first water point we decided it was enough with the photo-taking. There was one short, but nastily steep, last climb leading up to the final water point, and then a fast, technical downhill.

One of us (names have been changed to protect…) got a taste of Mama Africa, and then it was just a short dash to the finish line.

We had conquered the Tankwa Trek. It was only fitting to have a celebratory drink at the finish line – and it was decent wine. The hospitality and service during the weekend made the Tankwa Trek an unforgettable experience. And the riding was pretty stellar, too.

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