When it starts to rain on a daily basis, you know it’s time for the ultimate MTB-Race, the Xtreme Duo-race! During November and December the Sorsaka members trained on Sundays to get used the difficult route and distance of the Xtreme. Unfortunately this training did not go that well for Michael Samson and Chen. Both ended up with injuries that kept them from competing in the race.

 

Due to several reasons, some other Sorsaka Bikers were also unable to participate last Sunday and finally Sorsaka was represented by six teams:

* Team “Sorsaka Bikers 1”, Thea & Tamara (also called the T&T Xpress!!)

* Team “Bonny & Clide”, Lies & Walter

* Team “Basilon”, Reno & Lysander

* Team “Sorsaka Bikers 2”, Wouter & Rene

* Team “Kooysaka”, Mieke & Rob

* Team “De Ketelbinkies”, Niels & Bas (guest racer)

 

Some of us were a bit nervous before the start, but Rob (Roskam) definitely wasn’t. He cruised through the starting area wearing his diving mask and fins!! At 7:15am we hit the road and dirt, or should we say mud?! For me it was the first time that I competed in the Xtreme and it was a very special and cool experience. The off-road tracks were very muddy which made it extra heavy, but still I enjoyed racing these back roads! My partner Bas and I were doing very well, despite being overtaken @ Bullenbaai by the “Bonny & Clyde TGV”!

 

Unfortunately luck was not on our side; with 20km to go, my partner had a flat tire, which took us about 5 minutes to change. Wouter and his partner also had a flat tire. Good lesson for Wouter, when you change the inner-tube, make sure you remove the pica’s, or you will keep on pumping!

 

Finally, after 3 ½ hours we reached the finish 16th of the 93 pairs, we were very satisfied! The other Sorsaka competitors all finished and did a superb race. Our national champion Lies won again together with her “schatje” Walter, in the mixed team category…pabien!! Rob & Mieke will also step on the podium, as 3rd of the mix-team category. Also congratulations to Wouter and Renee, who were 2nd in their category. All results can be seen by clicking this link.

 

 

 

Looking back, I can say it was a nice event, perfectly organized by Vista Bike (thanks!). Also thanks to Tom and Norman for helping and supporting us during the trainings as well as on race day! After cleaning the bikes (the worst part of the race!) we will stall them in our garages and start partying until January 2008, I believe we deserve it!!

 

Niels van Gehlen

 

More pictures can be seen in the Photo albums.

 

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