Gravel Travel 2011 Marathon

The Gravel Travel has somehow become a bit of an institution with me and my racing partner over the last 3 years.  We have seen Welvanpas (or Bain’s MTB Trails) evolve from a few roughly cut trails to arguably one of the best mountain biking spots in the Western Cape and every year the event seems to grow and improve on the previous year. So much so that it caught the attention of the National MTB series sponsored by MTN and Nissan.

We wisely decided to downgrade from the Ultra marathon to the marathon as we had our doubts about making the cut off at 70kms in the allocated time. The decision paid dividends as we were treated to a very tough, but rewarding race at the Boland’s finest.

At the start the UCI (I am starting to get a serious dislike in this institution) ordered that all GoPro cameras be removed from the bikes. I was not sure why, but not wanting to cause a scene, I removed my camera and placed it in my Camelback for the day, so I’m afraid my ride report will have to suffice.

The start / finish layout was improved from previous years with a long straight exit around the farm dam at Diemersfontein. Soon we were going up. After about 8km of climbing we got onto the first section of single track. The section was cleaned up from previous years and with a bit of rain earlier in the week the riding was very fast.

Traffic was not so much of an issue this year and soon we made our way to the Welvanpas trail start. Soon we were climbing out of the valley again and suddenly we were in the heart of Welvanpas single track. I love the fast flowing trails and soon me and my partner closed the gap to the group riding ahead of us. Once we arrived at Doolhof, we had a quick stop to fill the bottles and take on something to eat. The next section took us to the back of Groenberg for more of the famous Welvanpas single track. Like most good sections of single track, we had to work first before we could rip it up.

We made our way to Welbedacht for the second water point. The route changed here and instead of going straight onto a good gravel climb, we were diverted back to Groenberg and climbed our way to the top again. Some more single track sections brought us closer to Bainskloof Pass. We made our way to the next water point for a quick stop and soon we were off again to approach Diemersfontein via another monster climb. In previous years we encountered the back markers on the 40km route at this point. It was great to be able to focus on our own race rather than to try and dodge riders that were less confident on some of the off camber turns in the vineyards.  The last bit of the route was altered to stretch it out a bit, but fortunately we kept a bit in the tank and were able to finish strongly.

After a double Spur Burger and a Sterri Stumpy we loaded our bikes and were on our way back home with firm resolutions to come and do a lot more riding at Welvanpas before the Cape Pioneer Trek in October.