Gary Barnard reports on his run:
I have just got back from the Knysna Festival. Every year the Knysna Festival starts with a weekend of Mountain Biking and finishes, one week later, with the Half Marathon. I have been going to Knysna for the MTB race since 1995 and thoroughly enjoy the event.

The Downhill is held about 2km's out of Knysna near the Simola Farm. It is a fun course that winds down the mountain on a narrow single-track, the highlights being two wooden ramps near the bottom of the course, the second one has the riders jumping over a small river! Spectators congregate here hoping for people to crash, bloodthirsty bastards... Last year I won the race by 16 seconds and the pressure was on to defend my title. The competition this year was allot tougher with more of the Cape Town guys coming up and the Kona team from PMB making the trip as well.

I arrived at the course on Saturday morning and started practice immediately, 25 minutes later I had done three runs and was ready to race! I love the course and know it well. Racing only started at two o'clock so I spent the morning having the odd run to keep in touch. Camera men from Old Mutual's World of Endurance where there and they interviewed me, asking why I did DH and what my chances where of winning.

When racing started it didn't take long for Jonty Neethling to set a fast time of 3:19 (He is only 14 years old). That time stood until his brother came down in 3:11, I knew that I would have to ride 110% to beat that time and started my mental preparation. My run went well and I pushed it as hard as possible focussing on accelerating out of the turns. In the last section I pedalled flat-out for the bridge jump (spectators later told me it looked like I had taken off). I crossed the line exhausted with a time of 3:09. The rest of the Elite Men came down with Chris Nixon getting a 3:14 and Thomas Rood a 3:15. I had managed to keep my title and will be back next year to try make it a hatrick.

We have now got a short break until the next Provincial on the 29th of July. The race for the WP title is on and I need to do well to win the Championship, I have came 3rd or 4th for the last 4 years and am determined to break the habit.

Thomas Rood gives us his perspective:
Just got back from the whole Knysna Oyster festival and sitting here typing with a couple of screws and plates in my left arm after coming horribly short on stupidly easy section of the local's dirt jumps hidden away in the hills of Knysna. Previous week was good though with an excellent turnout for the Knysna Gavin Ragsdale Memorial Downhill race and what proved to be a pretty awesome course once again that the guys from Knysna seem to maintain year after year with a few changes here and there to keep things fresh. I was really impressed to see that Supersport were doing coverage on such a small elitist event and giving the top guys a bit of air time for interviews and that (look out for my mug on M-Net...).

A single run format meant that you needed to practice a few race-paced practice runs on the day to be sure you were in tune with the course and Gary Barnard managed to maintain his awesomely consistent performances at this one to win overall and Elite men in a time of 3:09, with Chris Nixon second elite in 3:14 and myself (Thomas Rood) in third one second back at 3:15. Other notables included Andrew Neethling's win in Junior with a time of 3:11 placing him second overall and his brother Jonty's win in Sub-junior with a time of 3:19, which included a crash! (It's good to see him always so hungry to beat everyone, cos' I think he'll be doing it sooner than everyone thinks!).
I was racing a borrowed Trek Pro Issue Downhill bike for the second time in competition and I have to say that it rails switchbacks like it's on tracks! There were pedaling sections of the course (mainly at the top and the bottom sandy section) where I really struggled to get such a heavy DH bike moving on the flats and out of corners but on the flip side of the coin, that machine is sooo plush it can put just about anything to shame! Being only my third downhill race this year and not actually having a downhill bike of my own it was nice to have all the right equipment for once because it meant I could more or less perform up to my potential and just have FUN, and although I had a pretty average run I was satisfied with the result and it was a good weekend of riding. I definitely need to get me one of them full-on downhill bikes!!!

Gary Barnard reports on the 3rd leg of the SAMBA National Series from Pietermartizburg. 01 July 2001.

The PMB course was one of the best of the series, very steep and fast with a top speed of 60km/h on a narrow single track through the forest. Going into the Race I was lying second in the National points behind Duanne Stander from Port Shepstone. It was always going to be difficult to beat Duanne on his home course remembering that last year Mark Hopkins and I put 17 Seconds on the rest of the upcountry field when we raced in Tokai.

Practice was a case of redefining the limits and I had a couple of high speed crashes. The worst was hitting a small "disguised" tree while in full flight, serious wake up call....

In the first run I rode a very smooth race and ended up in 3rd position. The competition was very steep and I was fairly happy with that result but I knew I could go a lot faster if I just committed more.
After listening to a bit of Limp Bizkit and focussing on the number one slot I was better prepared for the second run. I had a great run, I hit all my lines and pedalled the fast bottom section as hard as possible. I was starting to get very excited when it all went pear shaped, 1 km from the end my derailler broke and jammed my gears, I could not pedal, furious I pumped the last sections of the course as hard as I could using all of my body to gain speed out of every little bump in the course. By the time I got to the line I was crawling, due to a very rocky uphill finish section. I was then amazed to hear that I had still managed third position. 0.6 seconds behind second place and 4 seconds behind first.

I know I could have won that race but on the other hand I didn't have a single mechanical problem all of last year and they have to happen sometime. But, I am still lying second in the National Points.

The last round of the Season is in Sabie and hopefully I will have better luck there.

Cheers,
Gary Barnard

Races to look forward to are the following: