Evans In A Class Of His Own At MTN Blockhouse Ultra Marathon

Race Report : Advendurance Media

After his disastrous experience in the MTN NTC3 (Dirty Harry) in Harrismith, Kevin Evans (MTN-Energade) promised that he would win again and it was not just an empty promise.

He kept his word when he won the MTN Blockhouse Ultra-marathon (110km) in fine style yesterday. Actually, it was not a mere win, but rather an annihilation of his rivals, because he finished more than nine minutes before the 2nd placed Ben-Melt Swanepoel (Specialized/Mankele) and 13 minutes ahead of 3rd placed Andrew McLean (Toyota Cyclelab).

Evans ‘s winning time was 3 hours 40 minutes and 37 seconds, with Swanepoel finishing in 3:49.35 and McLean in 3:53:17.

At the first rise on the route, at about the 36 kilometre marker, Evans attacked and just rode away from everybody else. He was completely in control.  Even when he crashed after 70 kilometers, he could afford to dust himself and his bike, before continuing on his winning ways.

By winning the MTN Blockhouse Ultra-marathon, Evans has basically ensured his 5th consecutive overall win of the series.

“Even though there are two races left in the series, I don’t think any of the other riders can still overtake me as far as points are concerned. I can now relax and enjoy my racing.”

According to Evans, there was a very special reason why he was anxious to win.

“It was the first time that my little girl, Ruby (18 months), came to watch daddy racing.  Of course I did not want to disappoint her.

“So I put in a seriously hard effort at the King of the Mountain climb.  I did not expect that the other riders would allow me to gain the lead, but when nobody chased me I thought: ‘OK, if they choose to play tactical games, I might as well use it to my own advantage’. So I just continued at a hard pace.

“I think the big mistake that the other riders made, was to look at one another to be the first to start doing the hard work and initiate the serious chase. Every moment they hesitated, counted in my favour.”

What makes Evans’s victory even more amazing, is the fact that he had only arrived back on Tuesday after having competed at the World Marathon Championship in Austria where he finished 8th overall.

Evans admits that he did not have the best of racing legs, but there was no way that I was going to give up.

“What definitely counted in my favour was that I had only spent about 7 hours on my mountain bike since arriving back in South Africa. That gave my body a chance to recover.”

The other big hero of the day was Swanepoel.  Before the Blockhouse Race much was said about the role that team-tactics could play in the outcome of the race.  But, like Evans, Swanepoel is a ‘lone crusader’ and he could also maintain a very fast   pace.

In doing so, he managed to shake off the other riders – Brandon Stewart, Max Knox and Johnny Kritzinger (DCM Chrome), Francois Theron and Philip Buys (Garmin-adidas) and McLean – one by one.

“I had nothing to lose because, having missed most of the early season’s racing, I had no position in the series to defend. So I could afford to make the racing hard. It was a case of ‘if it works, it works and if it does not, so be it’.  At least I could then be proud of the fact that I gave it my all. The optimist in me was hoping that there might be a small chance that I could catch up with Kevin. But that was not possible. He was riding like a ‘King’ and really deserved his victory.”

McLean proved that there is life after 40 by finishing third. At 45 “yesterday’s hero” simply outrode riders who are half his age.

“It was the hardest race I have competed in for a very long time. Luckily the course suited me. As far as the racing was concerned, it was very much like tracks racing – devils race. You just had to hang on until one rider after another popped off at the back. The trick was to try and stay unobserved under the radar for as long as possible. Eventually, just Ben-Melt, Brandon and I were left together, with Kevin way out in front.  Ben-Melt was amazing.  He just kept turning up the gas until, first Brandon and then I, could no longer keep up with him.”

Photo credit: Zoon Cronje