A duo of Ride Reports : ILLOVO-ESTON

A trio of Team Flying Jellies, just before the start of the

18K race; we were joined at the event by Tee Jelly who

breezed thru the 40K, and Martijn, who stopped along the

way to assist an eplileptic rider (!)

Tennis Jelly and Capn Jelly, at the finish, just before

collecting our free frosties (no kidding!)

Report #1 by Aroon
Dabz, Bear and Yours Truly decided to make the trip up to the Mtidlands to ride ILLOVO-ESTON 18K event, once we got informed that our preferred race, the Dolphin Surf Mile Series event had been cancelled again, due to continued "sardine activity"....

Bear hired a GIANT Escaper from Cyclesphere in Winderemere Rd, and was very content with his ride and their service - it was his first offroad event, and he'll definitely be back for more! I sensed that the knuckle-whitening descents had something to do with that :)

Dabz is becoming somewhat of a veteran, riding in his 3rd offroad event this year, on Heidi's trusty Silverback. I had serviced the bike after the Big5 Mtunzini event, during which the chain had jumped off 8 times! This time round, there were no mechanical problems experienced at all, making for an enjoyable, hassle-free ride....

My CALOI, purchased from De Jesus, shaped very nicely, leaving me especially pleased with the level of confidence afforded by the downhill performance of the disc brakes.

The event was a WHOPPER in terms of attendance, which was probably around 3 thousand riders (!) and should be an auto-include into anyone's race schedule, except that you should pre-enter so that you might get into an early race batch.....







Report #2 by Tertius
This past weekend I attended the Illovo Eston MTB day and what an event! A mass turnout close to 3400 saw cyclists battle it out over 60km, 40km, 18km and 10km. A wise man told me to stick to the 18km race - which I found very challenging with lots of ‘walkout’ hills and fast descends. A couple of ‘comrades’ managed to flatten some parts of the bumpy track in the event meeting with mother earth (“koop ‘n plaas”). The 18km route took us through the Tala game reserve where I saw a few ‘Rooi bokke’ along the way with one daring Ostrich charging past in a race to the finish line – I’m convinced she took short cut..!

All in all, this event was well organized with good support from locals and suppliers of needy refreshments etc. A race I will definitely add to my MTB race calendar for next year.