{"id":18447,"date":"2016-03-27T09:55:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-27T08:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2016\/03\/27\/melt-keen-to-tackle-clarens-trails-for-marathon-champs-r4452\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T08:29:21","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T08:29:21","slug":"melt-keen-to-tackle-clarens-trails-for-marathon-champs-r4452","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/melt-keen-to-tackle-clarens-trails-for-marathon-champs-r4452\/","title":{"rendered":"Melt keen to tackle Clarens trails for Marathon Champs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The third round of the Ashburton Investments National MTB Series \u2013 which plays host to the 2016 South African Mountain Bike Marathon Championships \u2013 is almost upon us and the sublime trails of the Clarens countryside will attract South Africa\u2019s finest endurance athletes from 16-17 April. South Africa\u2019s Ben \u201cMelt\u201d Swanepoel has always enjoyed riding his bicycle and changed over from a keen cross-country racer to a marathon enthusiast, without completely leaving the shorter rides behind. \u201cI just absolutely love riding my mountain bike,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After having just completing the Absa Cape Epic, Swanepoel is feeling surprisingly fresh. \u201cLook, there are different levels of killing yourself out there, and I just killed myself a little less. Its all relative I guess, so I\u2019m feeling pretty good,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n

He spoke of the venue of this year\u2019s National Championships, and said: \u201cClarens is beautiful. It just has such unbelievably unique terrain, and there\u2019s a great variety of racing. It\u2019s quite a high altitude course \u2013 so that could influence the riding of the guys from the coast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\"ccs-62657-0-65798300-1459072665.jpg\"<\/a>Marathon racing stalwart, Ben “Melt” Swanepoel is keen to tackle the trails in Clarens for round three of the Ashburton Investments National MTB Series \u2013 which plays host to the 2016 South African Mountain Bike Marathon Championships \u2013 in the Free State from 16-17 April. Photo: supplied<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

When chatting about personal goals ahead of the event, he said: \u201cI think all of us as humans have some form of goal or another in mind going into these races. We all try to do as well as we can within our given constraints \u2013 be it the Pro-Elites who went all-out at epic, or your weekend warriors who only get to ride then,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The major difference between cross-country and marathon racing, according to Swanepoel, is energy and pace. He stressed the importance of energy output on the longer rides, how every little bit of exertion counts, and how it will come back to help you or haunt you later on in the race, depending on how you\u2019ve used it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith cross-country racing, it’s a shorter time so you have to go flat out from start to finish. For marathon, you have to pace yourself, push a bit, ride a bit. One of the most important things to have out there is backup and support. If you have somebody out there handing you a bottle and you do not have to use that extra energy to go and get from the water tables, the amount of energy you\u2019ll be saving is incredible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While the 2016 SA National MTB Marathon Championships is targeted at the Elite Men (Ultra Marathon) Elite Women (Marathon) and Junior and Youth Men and Women (Half Marathon) for National Championship status, the race event is the third round of the Ashburton Investments National MTB Series, which caters for all age groups and fitness abilities.<\/p>\n

Not only does the picturesque Free State village boast exquisitely breath-taking mountain views, but also offers a range of activities such as golf, horse riding and hiking, a selection of coffee shops, cafes, art galleries and pubs. The event also offers child minding facilities, hospitality, bike wash and complete medical centre with a doctor on site.<\/p>\n

For more information and to enter, visit: http:\/\/www.cyclingsa.com\/2016-sa-mtb-marathon-champs\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The third round of the Ashburton Investments National MTB Series \u2013 which plays host to the 2016 South African Mountain Bike Marathon Championships \u2013 is almost upon us and the sublime trails of the Clarens countryside will attract South Africa\u2019s finest endurance athletes from 16-17 April. South Africa\u2019s Ben \u201cMelt\u201d Swanepoel has always enjoyed riding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2974,1494,904],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-18447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-ben-swanepoel","tag-clarens","tag-national-mtb-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18447"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=18447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}