The Lowveld Quest - Race Report by Emily Clarke

The 2014 Lowveld Quest was a 4 day stage race hosted by a bunch of passionate mountain bikers and overall awesome people. The stages took us from Lydenberg to Haziview via Mankele (Nelspruit) and Graskop. And a quest it was!!! The race had been something I was looking forward to for months. It kept me going through the last few weeks of my term at uni like a carrot at the end of a stick.  As it drew nearer, however, the nerves built up and I began to stew over who I’d been paired with for the race and the reality of her superior skill and power... well the reality was 100% true but I got lucky.

 

The race began at Hoerskool Lydenberg . Crowds of students cheered as we raced out the school grounds and up the road. The neutral zone ended and the chasing began as riders charged into the dust... and mud.  Amy McDougall and I started off strong and used the stage to find out how we could work together through the race. This is where I found my pot of gold... in my race buddy. From the beginning till the end Amy was like a rock and a real mentor. We unfortunately encountered a hairy decent from the wrong angle later on in the stage and Amy crashed hard resulting in a couple of broken spokes and some “loose toes”.  But nothing too serious ;) We came across the line at Mankele MTB park in 2^nd after an interesting but truly beautiful first stage.

From the race briefing the night before we sort of gathered stage 2 would entail quite a bit of climbing. What I didn’t realize was that the first 40km of the stage would be uphill. And only uphill. It was like mountains built themselves in front of us!!! Conditions were wet and muddy but perfectly cool for a long day of mountaineering on bikes. I was overjoyed as we descended past misty cliffs (a little less overjoyed when I decided to show a tree some love and hug it on the way down but anyhoe...) I vaguely  recalled a comment at the race briefing about there being a decent into Sabie from that point. I fixed myself onto Amy’s back wheel for the last 30km into Sabie and we again finished in 2^nd this time a little closer to our competitors Vannessa Bell and Dalene Van Der Leek.

Stage 3 loomed and more mud and mountains were ahead of us. Both Amy and I were under the false impression that the stage would be less daunting in terms of the vertical ascent involved. Well we were wrong... but the race was on and we were itching for a win. I could feel my legs creaking on the start line but and the wheels started rolling a felt a little fire ignite itself inside me (which may very well have actually been Amy pushing me up yet another hill...) either way it felt awesome and we hurtled up and DOWN the kilometres of fantastic single track cut by Dennis Lowry and his team in Sabie. 

I was in my element :D  As the course got closer and closer to Graskop it felt like the hills got steeper and the mud stickier. Somewhere along the line I hit mute mode (which is pretty close to a complete and utter sense of humour failure) round about which time Amy pipes up “hmm I feel like we in the Lord of the Rings” with a smile on her face, referring to our pretty spectacular and surreal surrounds. Well I think I might have grunted. When the last two kilometres of the race finally ended, we crossed over the finish line in 1^st with muddy smiles on our faces 

I woke on the final morning of the race and just didn’t want to see a positive gradient in front of me. After another fantastic breakfast provided by the NG Kerk, we lined up tackle the final stage of LQ from Graskop to Hazyview. I managed to take a head dive into the ground going down the first decent of the day and bent my handle bars and seat post skew. I got up and could feel my head pounding immediately. We straightened (sort of) things up and began chasing again. In the end we finished up in 2^nd after a tough but fun 4 days of racing. Congratulations and thank you to Dalene and Vanessa on the win and for the great vibe.

Quest was both fun and motivating for me. I feel incredibly privileged to have had the opportunity to race with and learn from Amy. Massive thank to Naeem and the V-team for getting us to the start line and supporting us unconditionally though the race. Huge thanks to coach Bosseau Boshoff at Infinita training academy... the machine maker. Special thanks to Brett Coats and Barry Grobler for looking after us and our bikes so beautifully... literally. Barry from Valencia knows how to do miraculous bike makeovers. Mark, Goeff, Jaco and Brett (race organizers) put on an awesome race from every front. I hope to be back next year for more!

Next stop Expedition Africa.... a race with a bit of a twist J