Leave home in perfect weather, arrive at Stellies to be greeted with gale force winds... hello, this could get nasty. Meet my teammate (Etienne) & Macdonalds so we can ride through as a warmup (just getting there turns into a mission, fighting a block headwind all the way).
Register & fight our way through the crowd to the front of the start group (where did all these people come from?), shoulder to shoulder with Mrs. Lombardi & Mr. Boonstra... hmmm, this could get ugly.
Martin G4 Dreyer gets us started, flat box, short section of flat, over the bridge then straight uphill (doing the Jonkers loop anti-oclockwise), climb, climb, lose a lung, climb, lose Michelle's wheel, lose the other lung, fight just to keep contact with Et, hook a left for a fast downhill section back onto the road at the bottom and then battle the headwind till the bridge at the top of the loop. Glad I left the HR monitor at home coz I don't want to know what the ticker is doing, I can feel it in my throat. Is that blood I'm tasting?
Then it’s flat & fast with the wind in our blades, I see 50km/h on the clock before a sharp right (Et misses it and we lose 2 teams). Work our asses off and catch them again just before we hook a left into the old section of single track. Hook a pedal on a rock and nearly dislocate a hip… ouch. Eventually get the flow going… heeyaaa!!!
Burst outa the single track, short section of road and hook a right, straight up the &^%$ mountain’s firebreak. Climb, lose kidney, climb some more, beg Et to slow down, left onto the road and left back onto the new section of ST. Can’t see jacksh*t through the dust, just riding on instinct, lose the front wheel and endo but land on my feet. Turn around, fetch bike, catch Et. Finally make transition… lap 1 complete.
Tackies on, gulp 500ml fluid, wife's are shouting "run Forest run". Straight back into the ST near the gate… it’s so much better on the bike. Then down into the kloof. Awesome kloofing section all the way up the valley to the bridge at the top again. Welcome relief to be in the cold water but the slippery rocks are trecherous and we fall on our asses a few times. Hook a right at the bridge and folow the road all the way back to the gate, interupted with another section of kloofing. Two teams overtake us… running sucks… I suck at running… bikes rule!!!
Into transition for lap 2 of the bike… the legs are lame. Catch 2 teams and sit slip all the way to the top bridge. Attack them just before the 1st section of single track so we can ride a clean line. Duck into the ST, hear Et hurl abuse but keep the pressure on. Halfway down start shouting for Et… no Et. Stop, get overtaken by the 2 teams, Et passes covered in dust. Go, go, go… Et sets a cracking pace but he’s all over the place on the ST, as we exit onto the road Et loses it in the worst kinda way. Huge wipeout, back wheel pulled outa skewer. Check out Et, check out bike, wipe off blood, go, go,go. Pass some smiling locals at the top of the climb and they chirp “so are you guys enoying yourselves”… coz we are dude, doesn’t it show 
? We live for blood & dust ;-)
Back into transition… the 2nd run leg has been shortened to exclude the kloof, thank heavens, legs buggered.
Cruise in at 2hrs 28min… stuffed but elated… Sprint racing at it’s best. 
Team Phoenix
(Brett & Etienne)
