Day 8 is probably the day that most people look forward to and dread in equal measure. After the zippy fun of a short day 7, the task of tackling the climb out of the Umkomaas Valley on the penultimate day looms large.
But what goes up must first go down somewhere. And boy do you go down into the valley. I’m not sure of the exact distance, but the drop into the Umko features something like 16km of hand-crafted, blissful, near perfect singletrack.
The surface is compact, the switchbacks are friendly, the rocks are unobtrusive and the path is wide enough that you don’t feel like you’re about to plummet to an untimely end – though I did pass two people who veered a little close to the edge; one gentleman imploring a young onlooker to see if he could spot a bike somewhere in the shrubbery just below the path.
Day 8 of the joBerg2c is probably my favourite 99km of riding. I enjoyed it in 2014, and I loved it in 2015. The drop down sections called “Wow” and “Yankee Doodle” gets you in the right frame of mind for the valley crossing.
Once at the bottom, there are wooden bridges to be navigated, veld to be admired and abandoned farms (ironically, the shiniest parts of these derelict farms are the gleaming signs announcing them as government land reform projects) to be crossed, all which culminates in a gees-sapping climb on a blistering district road towards the second water point of the day.
After the waterpoint, it’s on to “Push of a climb”, a steep, rocky ascent that Strava tells me I went up quicker this year than I did in 2014. Well done, me. (Ridden twice, pushed never. The Plum Pudding Effect at work).
Everything you could ever hope to experience on a mountain bike happens on day 8 at the joBerg2c, including some occurrences that are, possibly, quite unique to this event – the village kids serenading you with the national anthem as you whizz past, for one.
Glen Haw has also revamped the race village in Jolivet, the last stop before day 9. A huge open air barn lends itself to the festival atmosphere and semi-euphoria of having just one day to go. After dinner I noticed that every table in the barn was littered with empty wine and beer bottles. With only 84km to Scottburgh, the first few kilometres of the last day could afford to be slightly bleary-eyed.
And so on to day 9, which is a fast ride to Scottburgh with thoughts of the previous eight days running through the mind – what was the best, what was the hardest, favourite stop, favourite route, and all that jazz.
The final day course is fast with a few bumps until you reach the second water point. From there its 25km to go and you can really hammer it on the smooth singletrack trails that the Scottburgh Mountain Bike Club has built. It’s a fine finish to a fantastic event.
This race is the ultimate stress reliever. When you’re away from home for more than nine days, and traveling through some pretty remote areas, all you can think about is mountain biking.
You wake up thinking about cycling, you cycle thinking about cycling, you eat and go to sleep thinking about cycling. Nothing else has a chance to enter your mind. Bills, school fees, work stress, the daily grind of life and the flood of bad news around the world all comes a very distant 10th as the first nine slots in your brain are flooded with cycling thoughts.
If you ever want to put your body through the mill, yet emerge utterly rejuvenated, then the Old Mutual joBerg2c is the ride for you.
With 10km to go on the final day, I thought I’d had enough. But as I roared onto the floating bridge I immediately started plotting ways to get back in 2016. It’s long and tough, tiring and testing, but also the most enjoyable test of character you’ll find in South Africa.
Read all Dave’s J2C blogs
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