Attakwas 2017
One of those races that leads to memory loss, this would be my second stab at the "Hell of the South" - the Attakwas Extreme MTB Challenge. In 2016 I missed my goal of a sub 7 by 17 minutes. Preparations went well over the December holidays with lots of riding on the gravel roads of Stilbaai and in mid-January I lined up again at the Chandelier Game Reserve with 1000 other riders for the first big race of 2017. SAS still has no intention of giving me an actual useful seeding so again I lined up in Group D, at least this time I made sure I arrived at the start early so I did not have to work my way through the rest of the group in the first 30 kilometers, saving a lot of energy that would be sorely needed later on. As described in the 2016 blog entry the race can be divided in 3 parts. On the first & easy 45kms my time was more or less on par with last year, I passed a number of familiar faces on-route as this is a must-do "training ride" for many Cape