Race Report: Team Pure Savage's Enjoy One Tonner

The unfortunate cancellation of the West Coast Express a week earlier meant the Enjoy One Tonner was the first race of the PPA calendar for many Western Cape roadies. This was abundantly clear with the event being sold out. The major change to the event this year, apart from the awesome new sponsor Enjoy Fitness, was the addition of shorter route options.

As Pure Savage has recruited so many new domestiques, it was decided it was a good idea to ride together as a team for the One Tonner so we know who will sit on the front in the last 50km of the Coronation Double Century. This did mean that with the unhealthy level of mountain bikers in our team we would be starting in the devious D bunch.

Calvin trying to take up as many Pixels as Kevin.

Heading out of Stellenbosch #LightBro

The first test of the morning came from Hellshoogte pass, the pace was set by Cecil Nurse as we were taking pictures for Instagram. Over the top of Hellshoogte, most of the group was still together and we set about opening the taps.

Will towing us back on, Calvin not being much help

By Wellington we had caught the back of C and were still altogether when Kevin couldn’t put off the call of nature any more and answered the call. So, as the pro team we are, Kevin pulled off, Brendon waited, Will waited in the middle of no mans land and Klyde went to the front of the group and put the hammer down. After a small 5 minute chase back, we were back in the group.

Will towing us back on, Calvin not being much help.

Setting the pace.

The group slowed down on the run up to Bothmaskloof, as we based the Strava segment sign, our new recruit stuck it in the big ring and took off, this was the last we saw of him! He managed to come second on the day on the Strava climb, only losing out to Darren Lill. The rest of the team climbed well together and started to drop some hammer on the descent.

As we wanted to emulate the DC experience during the ride we planned a quick 1 minute stop at a water point at 125km. To make it even more realistic, it turned into a 4 minute break and we were faced with a 14km chase to close the 4 minute gap to the group. Kevin, being extra light after his earlier comfort break, put in some monster turns along with Carl in the chase back.

A bit of TTT back to the D group.

Rolling into the Bosch.

We managed to get everyone into the final kilometre together where all of a sudden we saw people from our group at the front that had not been able to find the front the whole day. The team stopped the clock with a 4:44, having caught most of the B and C group. Will, in true Savage fashion, finished 7 minutes ahead of us after his 70km time trial! The team is looking good for the DC!

The team really loved the event, the new sponsor Enjoy really put a lot of effort into making the post race village really inviting and this made for a lekker vibe after the race that was missing in prior years. The marshalling was great again and we had no issues with the route or accidents. We do hope the guys we normally roll with in $ heal up after their crash during the race.

Broken Brendon.