Frustration Fuels Janse Van Rensburg For MTN Blockhouse

Press Release : News Center

On Sunday, during the MTN Blockhouse Ultra-marathon, it is no secret who will be the most frustrated rider in the competition - it will undoubtedly be the young Jacques Janse van Rensburg (DCM Chrome).

His main goal during the past 12 months has been to be at his best for the Tour de l’Avenir in France.  And with good reason, because the Tour de l’Avenir is considered to be the ‘Tour of the Future’.

One good performance is all a young rider such as Janse van Rensburg needs to ensure that he gets a contract to ride for one of the ProTour teams.  This would mean that he could get an opportunity to ride in the Tour de France or Giro d’Italia.

Janse van Rensburg was really getting into top form. He proved this during the recent Sparkassen Giro in Germany where he rode shoulder to shoulder with some of the world’s top ProTour riders.

Unfortunately, he was unlucky to miss out on the deciding break, but he still managed to finish 42nd, just  65 seconds behind Mark Cavendish (Team Columbia), the eventual winner.  Jaco Venter (DCM Chrome) finished 26th , just 5 seconds behind the winner.

For those who might not know, Cavendish won six stages in this year’s Tour de France.

Shortly afterwards, Janse van Rensburg’s cycling dream was temporarily derailed when he received the news that he was, after all, not going to ride in the Tour de l’Avenir.

“It certainly rates as the worst news that I have received in a very long time. I know I would have had a good tour. Everything I did in training showed that I was in the best form of my cycling career.

“I know there is nothing I can do that will change anything, but I am upset and angry.  To me it feels like a classic scenario of ‘all dressed up and nowhere to ride’.”

“Luckily I can use the MTN Blockhouse Ultra-marathon to get rid of some of my frustration. You can believe me when I say that I am really going to go out hard.

“My goal will be to make the pace hard every time we will be climbing.  I see it as a way to eliminate my rivals. If I can drop a few riders on every climb, I will be happy. I should then just be careful not to lose too much time on the technical sections.”

For a part-time mountain biker, Janse van Rensburg’s racing CV is quite impressive. He finished 2nd overall in the MTN Barberton Race, and was 6th in Harrismith.  He also managed to win the Forest to Falls Race in Graskop.

The general consensus is that team-tactics will play a major role during the MTN Blockhouse Race, because there are no really big climbs on the route.

If that is the case, the DCM Chrome team must be hot favourites, because they have four riders competing – Janse van Rensburg, Stewart, Max Knox and Johnny Kritzinger.