It is the start of the crazy season when we all struggle to get everything covered before the year closes off. Although our team members are no less affected by this in their everyday lives, they have been even more busy than normal training and racing, as well as helping in a final environmental awareness push for 2011. So here’s a short update on what we’ve been up to and what you can expect for the rest of the year.
First off, below is a great clip which gives a visual summary of the year so far.
As with many other athletes and Teams, we were very disappointed with the cancellation of the inaugural Challenge Cape Town, not least because it would have been Raoul’s first Ironman-distance race as a pro. Not to be disheartened after all his training, Raoul jumped striaght in and substituted the event with the Slanghoek Triathlon in the Cape and Triple Challenge in Durban on consecutive weekends. He finished these tough multisport with great 2nd and 4th places respectively.
Max Cluer interviews Raoul at the finish of the Triple Challenge Multix
Keeping up the Team momentum, Simon and Gavin have been spending every free moment on their mountainbikes, and Simon’s phenomenal form was evident in his 3rd place finish at the hotly contested Eselsfontein Mountainbike Race last month.
This weekend was the Contego Wines2Whales, a 3-day mountainbike stage race from Somerset West to Hermanus. This is one of the biggest races of the year and Cape Town brought out its best weather conditions (and mountainbikers) for the first and second stages, although the weather turned dramatically on Day 3 leading to the cancellation of the last day. Simon and Gavin had a amazing first day on their bikes, got a bit lost on day 2, but had a big enough margin to still grab a podium, finishing 3rd in the sub-vets. This year we were honoured that one of our great product partners, Rehidrat Sport, provided a celebrity entry to Raoul, who then auctioned off the chance to ride the event with him. Greg Goodwin rose to the challenge and in the process donated funds to be used in the planting of trees along the BRT Route in conjunction with the City of Cape Town later this month. Thanks Greg for helping to contribute in maintaining our Pure Planet!
Later this month, Pure Planet Racing will be putting a team in the 212km Double Century road cycling race. The Team includes some serious sporting names, and the 12 men will be looking to place in the top of the field. After that, we will be winding down the year, but not before Simon and Gavin get married (surprising not to their bikes, but to the ever-supportive Michelle and Helen), followed by six of us riding on mountainbikes unsupported and off-road across the Klein Karoo from George to Cape Town.
We are also very excited about our coffee table book, which will be coming out in December. This will include 24 pages of amazing images of the Team racing and training across the planet. Please get in touch if you would like to get a copy.
To finish off, we would like to bring your attention to an amazing charity that many of you will already know, Songo.info in the Kayamandi township near Stellenbosch. Pure Planet Racing loves this charity for what they are doing in terms of hands-on youth development on both a sporting and social level. We were fortunate enough to spend a Sunday afternoon recently riding in Jonkershoek with Songo and some of the great kids. We would encourage you to support this great cause in whatever way you can. Below is a clip on the initiative and their involvement in the Wines2Whales MTB event this weekend.
