Mountain Biking race (Sani2c) 5:23:34 [5] 98.0 km (18.2 kph) +1823m
shoes: Specialized Epic Comp 2006
0548 - Day 2 of Sani2c. The long day, including a drop into the Umko river valley and then another into the Ixopo. Lots of climbing, but a lot of this was on a district road. We started in C batch, but had a great start. Don was much quicker out of the blocks and more race-savvy, hence he followed me into a break as we hit the first singletrack at about 7km. A lot of these tracks are dual tracks and we were the first down the 2nd unused track, allowing us to get a gap on the bunch. We went down into the Umko as one of the first C-batch pairs and quickly caught B-batch (5 min ahead). Lots of mud lower down the valley (very steep as well). We did a lot of picking up the bike and running, which was faster, but also kept mud off our wheels. We caught the majority of B, but also some A-batch. After the Umko, the Ixopo was also technical, but thereafter the course was technically easier. We settled down and came home in a good place about 63rd for the day. Tm 5:00:36 Dst 95.28 Av 19.0 Mx 66.0