Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 90, January 2017 | Page 48

Ma In the Lead Jurgen and Devin A JOURNEY Like no Other! Having won the competition in Modern Athlete for a team entry to the FNB Wines2Whales three-day stage race, I found myself riding this incredible event with my mate Devin Atherstone. It truly was an unforgettable experience! – BY JURGEN STRINGER Continuing in the true spirit of the Weekend Warrior, we did the Karoo-2-Coast this past September after driving to Uniondale on a freezing cold Saturday night before the start and surviving on barely two-and-ahalf hours of sleep. We weren’t going to let a family wedding in Elgin get in the way of not participating! After finishing within 30 minutes of each other, we chugged down a beer or three and our group headed straight back home on the five-hour return journey. To recap, in the space of 22 hours we drove for 11 hours, raced for 6 hours and slept 2.5 hours, completing 1,000km of driving and 100km of mountain biking. Somewhere during that epic trip, I entered the Modern Athlete Wines2Whales team entry competition and suggested to Dev to do the same, to double our chances. A few weeks later, Roxanne Martin phoned and when she introduced herself from Modern Athlete, I knew it had to be good news! Ready to Ride Jurgen at Comrades 2015 48 need to do something with less impact, so mountain biking entered the void left by running. Birds of a Feather I met Devin after moving from Hertfordshire to Somerset West in 2012 and together with other riding mates we have explored the many trails the Helderberg, Overberg and Stellenbosch area has to offer. With everyone having varying capabilities, Dev and I soon became natural partners – mainly because we want to play on the weekend, but not put in the training during the week! This has made for many a suffer-fest, one example being the Burger MTB Challenge in Stellenbosch a few years ago. After about 50km of the 60km we vowed never to MTB again! Another was completing the 2016 XTERRA long race in Grabouw with zero training in the months leading up to race day. It got to the point where we would opt for the shorter 25km races while our mates were doing 50km. ISSUE 90 JANUARY 2017 / www.modernathlete.co.za Packing for the race was seamless thanks to the checklist the organisers provided on their handy mobile app, and with our wives and children in tow to see us off before having to go to work and school respectively, we set off for day one. Fortunately, the car-ride was super quick, as the start at Lourensford is a short 5km from our homes… and naturally, my wife Sarah and I argued and then promptly made up again, as we tend to do before these sorts of things. We seem to like adding drama and romance to the excitement. (Recently, Sarah and I teamed up at a potjiekos competition, and in the build-up to the cookoff we had a heated debate for a full 24 hours about the ingredients and recipe, but it was worth it, as we placed second out of 16 teams.) Images: Ronel Atherstone & Courtesy Jurgen Stringer M odern Athlete magazine was part of my distance running journey in the couple of years leading up to my maiden Two Oceans and Comrades ultra-marathons in 2015. However, then the wheels came off my distance running ambitions after struggling with numerous injuries, and by Christmas that year the inevitable weight-gain and general “out of shapeness” followed. To get out of the slump, it became clear that I would I have participated in many road and off-road events, but the Wines2Whales has no equal! For a change, I did a bit of training in the weeks leading up to it, 500km mostly on flat tar roads. If Dev did 200km, it was too much. We are actually a mismatch of sorts, with him weighing 20kg less than me, and to make matters worse, he bought a carbon frame before the race! Anyway, whether Dev knew it or not, I appointed myself as the leader of our two-man team, justifying it on the basis that I had done a couple of three-day stage races before, and having done the superior training mileage. But then, as Devin joked, my 500km equates to his 200km.