Caveman wins XTERRA Buffelspoort 2012 despite a broken zipper.

Stoked to kick the season off with a win. The Festive Season on the farm is over, so is the twice weekly splash in the dam, but the never ending honeymoon is full steam ahead.

Even though its the start of the season, I’m happy with a solid performance - set up by a reasonable swim. I’m busy fixing my swim stroke (again) and just started real THRICE weekly swim training- tailor made by Mikael Mendonca.

The bike leg was quite eventful early on- about 10 minutes in I was pumping it, and there was no one in the rear view mirror. I then came upon a closed gate as the road forked. The arrow pointed towards the gate, but in my disbelief I went the other way. It was a 6ft game fence with bladed wire rolls on top. How can the route go there?! But I knew it saw the right way, and turned around, opened the gate, just as the 2nd guy and Dan rolled up. 5 Min down the road there was another closed gate- this one had a lock on it. I got off the bike and started to look for a place to throw my bike over. Was still pondering the consequences of climbing a bladed wire fence in white Lycra. (and how 500 other guys in Lycra would fare) I took a last look at the lock- the shackle was not clicked in. A loud “BLIKSEM” helped it open quicker - a minute gone - I hopped on, just in time to have Dan and Theo velcro onto my wheel. Ah, a pretty swim wasted. I had to rebuild a new lead, and got off with a 2 min 30 gap.

My bike training has been pretty solid as we’re getting ready for SA Time Trail Champs. (last week my coach discovered the event is March 1 and not next week!) This time I have been spending more time testing and getting comfortable on my UCI legal Specialized SHIV - we’re up quite a few watts from last year, but I bet so is everyone else…

The run course was really really tough, (I ran 53min for the 12km) - it has 3 huge climbs per lap and equally steep downhills. It was hot, and felt slow, but it turned out everyone was slow. Even Stuart “Flying Feet” Marais battled on the run. Hats off to the Warriors battled on till way past lunch time.  I’ve been doing a lot of Biomechanical correction work with my physio in Stellenbosch  Christoff Smit, and I’m looking forward to increased mileage and a more rounded game.

Top 10 Pro Male results:

My new not-so-secret weapon

Even checking the bike course to make sure the bridges are Caveman proof…

I quote from the XTERRA race report:

STOLTZ AND VAN HUYSSTEEN SECURE ANOTHER XTERRA BUFFELSPOORT VICTORY

Reigning individual men’s and women’s champions, Conrad Stoltz and Carla Van Huyssteen expected nothing less than a battle when they returned to Buffelspoort Dam on Saturday, 28 January 2012 to defend their titles at the grueling TOTALSPORTS XTERRA Buffelspoort Full presented by REHIDRAT® SPORT. Although competition was tough, both Stoltz and Van Huyssteen proved to be unstoppable on the day, railroading to victory in a finishing time of 02hours20minutes08seconds and 02hours52minutes55seconds respectively.

According to Stoltz, the 2012 XTERRA Buffelspoort was a fun season opener. “The event was really scenic with a great atmosphere. I had a good swim and made a gap on the mountain bike discipline right away. I really enjoyed this leg as it featured a bit of everything. The run was tough with some big hills, this combined with the heat and humidity on the day made it quite a challenge. I take my hat off to all XTERRA warriors who spent up to 5 hours out there. I dont think anyone had an "easy time" out there. I am really happy to start the season off on a good foot and am looking forward to XTERRA Grabouw. I am thankful to have my wife, Liezel support and help me on every level. I’m usually a little late for my races, but this morning I was on time and even had warm breakfast in bed! I could relax and take it easy before the start all thanks to her. Married life really is better than what I imagined possible, I'll never leave home without my wife!” says Stoltz. Dan Hugo came in second, while Stuart Marais finished third.]

Carla van Huyssteen had to wrestle free from her torn wetsuit in the middle of the lake, (it started parachuting wildly) but stayed calm and strong. Good luck

with the European XTERRAs this year!

I rolled my beloved Specialized Sworks Epic 29er with fast Renegade Control tires on this undulating, sandy, rocky and lumpy course. Raced with GoPro camera, which will hopefully provide some footage for the XTERRA TV shows.

In order to get the Caveman some real splits, Liezel even braved the back seat of Fanus Oosthuizen’s* very unique dirt bike - with real bells and whistles!! - the price to pay was shooting B-roll with the fish eye lens at 60km/hr through the veld. Thanks Fanus!

*Official Oakpics photograher and Roof of Africa hopeful.

Russell White - aged 55 - dirt bike legend and coach - also triathlon ace (he taught me my 1st Motocross Start right after the 2000 Olympics - and rolled with laughter when I flipped the bike). He aced the Lite race by such a margin and speed, the camera man wanted to know if it was the leader of the Lite race, or a pro warming up for the full. I’m with you Russ - age is but a number…

The bike transition was PACKED.  A lot of new people to the sport: The story of the day though was the record field of 1500 athletes combined in both events. Wow! It is so cool to see how our sport has grown - a testament of the importance of TV, good, fun races and especially the way Stillwatersports has managed the sport and the brand the past 8 years. Looking forward to racing more XTERRAs in more places soon.

Like I said, PACKED:  Lite race start - there is barely space for water in there!

Lite swim finish… at least now you can see some water in spaces

Getting a tweet from Lance Armstrong on race morning is always nice… thanks Lance!  Hope to see you at the XTERRA SA Championships in Grabouw end of February…

Looking at my wife… I’ll have to work on my 6-pack a bit harder… Thanks to Oakley who pimped us earlier this week. I raced with the “Radar” with XL lenses and Liezel is rolling the “Immerse”

Did I mention the hills on this nasty 2×6km “run”? (I also sauntered them on lap 2)

Did I mention the heat? These are the more serious athletes cooling down. I took a similar little dip here and vowed to never go to a race without my Bex Runner cooling devices again - no matter what the weatherman says…

Some had cooling strategies of their own…

Great to see XTERRA family from all over. Got to hang with the Namibians quite a bit. What a fun group of people. Patrick, (de Goede) we missed you this time, thanks for the biltong, and God bless…

Traveling by rental car, my wife, my bike and I miss our Thule bike racks and Kelfords Ford Fiesta TERRIBLY.

We’re currently on the farm visiting my parents. We recently heard my dad’s cancer is terminal. He is not getting further treatment. He walks most mornings, I hobbled along on sore legs. Happy to share a mile and a story. If people ask him how he is he’ll say: “I’m dying, but otherwise I’m fine thank you.”