It Takes A Big Man To Admit That He Was Wrong

Press Release : Team Garmin

After finishing 5th in Sunday’s MTN Blockhouse Ultra-marathon (110km), Francois Theron (Garmin adidas) immediately admitted that his perception that the race would be a long, flat and boring affair was totally wrong.

“I have to take my words back. In the end, with all the single track, it was quite an entertaining race.  I still can’t believe how fast we rode. In spite of all the single track, we managed an average speed of 30km/h. That was very fast in mountain biking terms and made the race a really hard-paced event.

“Kevin Evans (MTN-Energade) and Ben-Melt Swanepoel (Specialized) are to blame for all our suffering. Actually, Kevin was just amazing. When he went out hard just before the King of the Mountain climb, I thought that he was just trying to win the prime.  The rest of the riders and I never expected him to stay ahead on his own for nearly 80 kilometres. It was a truely magnificent performance.

“Then Ben-Melt fell in behind Kevin and just ‘killed’ the rest of us one by one by making the pace so hard that we could not keep up with him. It was not for lack of trying. I tried to hold on to his wheel but just could not.”

Theron had quite an eventful race. He predicted beforehand that it would be ‘game over’ for any rider who had to stop to fix a puncture. Well, with those words he jinxed himself because, at about 10 kilometers before the technical zone, he was the one who punctured. Even though he managed to fix it in double quick time, it was to no avail as from then on he was a lone rider and had to battle along on his own.

That was not the end of his bad luck.  In the last 20 kilometres, while trying his best to catch up with the leaders, he had the unfortunate ‘privilege’ to befriend one of the fun riders.

Theron said he was racing at near top speed when he saw the slow rider in front of him.

“Keep left! Keep left! I shouted, but it was to no avail.  Instead of doing what I asked him to do, the rider turned around to see who was shouting at him. That was a serious mistake, because the next moment we collided.  I made a turn of about 360° on my bike and, even though I was thrown off my bike in the process, I managed to stay on my feet. The slower rider was not quite so lucky.

“If something like this happens, you can’t help but be demoralized, my whole rhythm was gone.  I have no doubt that, if it were not for the crash, I could have achieved a better finish because I was still feeling quite strong.  Nevertheless it is water under the bridge, there is nothing I can do about it now.”

Philip Buys (Garmin Adidas) finished 7th in 4:00:23.  According to him, the biggest mistake he made was to ride too fast during the first 70 kilometres and he ended up paying the price.

“I really dreaded riding those last four kilometres of the race when it was all zig-zagging. I could see and hear all the action at the finish but it felt as if I would never get there.”

Marc Bassingthwaighte (Garmin adidas) had one of those frustrating days when everything seemed to go wrong. He battled on but was definitely not enjoying himself.  He had no time to reminisce about what went wrong after having finished, because he had to go to the Oliver Tambo Airport to depart for Australia where he will compete in the World Cross-country Championship.

Bassingthwaighte’s goal is to achieve a top 40 finish in Australia. The last time he had competed at a world championship he finished 68th.

Kevin Evan (MTN-Energade) won the MTN Blockhouse Ultra-marathon in 3 hours 40 minutes and 37 seconds. Ben-Melt Swanepoel was 2nd in 3:49:35 and Andrew McLean (Toyota Cyclelab) 3rd in 3:53:17.

Theron came in 5th in 3:54:38. For Garmin adidas