Day one of the 2012 Omnicane Southern Tropical Challenge was a nice short sharp intro – a 6km prologue round the estate of the Domaine de Lagrave, an area of forest near the self-explanatorily named village of Bananes, in the Midlands. Further from my home Midlands of glamorous Leicester, Dudley and Rugby you could not hope to be!
Looking pretty slick
This was the first chance to get settled into the vibe of the race. Yesterday was the briefing, with some people a bit nervous, most people getting settled in with unpacking bikes, finding tents, signing on and the other inevitable race admin. With much of it in French and slightly muffled, I caught about 5% of it; ah well, hopefully there was nothing important in there anyway.
The immediate impression is of a relaxed, friendly race. Very much in keeping with the general spirit of Mauritius in so far as I have experienced it in the last few days. As it often the case with a stage race, there are some fast-looking pairs of legs here, but there are also some which look – how should I put it – a bit more relaxed. Getting round safely and having fun is the order of the day. As well it should be; it’s that kind of spirit which makes these races so great to be a part of.
Nice work pal
The Omnicane Southern Tropical Challenge is unashamedly aiming to be a “little Cape Epic”, seeking to emulate its big brother just over the water in South Africa. A stage race, competed for in pairs, with a tented village for the competitors, exploring some of the most beautiful bits of its native land. And today gave an idea of how serious they are about this endeavour – a representative of the Mauritius tourist board stood up before the start and made an impassioned speech about how they want to show off the interior of this beautiful island – not just the usual beaches and resorts – and to attract a different and complementary kind of tourism to the island. And just to show they mean it, they’ve put up an impressive USD2,000 prize for the winners this year, to increase to USD5,000 next year.
Let’s hope that doesn’t distract though from the charm of the race, which is a bit more informal and a bit less businesslike than some of the bigger races out there. On the evidence of today though, the next few days are going to be a treat to ride – a mixture of farm tracks, rocky and then jungle singletrack, with a sharp kicker of a climb to the finish.
Stage races the world over – anything and everything used as a washing line
So what of the racing itself? Well, the race went with the form-book. The GreenField Team of local boy and creator of the race, Yannick Lincoln, and team-mate Ben Melt Swanepoel from South Africa taking the win in today’s prologue with a fairly scorching time of 13:19. Next was another Yannick, this time Cornille with his team-mate Cedric Gasnier, the Explosive Riders from nearby French territory La Reunion, 11 seconds in arrears. In third place was your Subaru-MarathonMTB.com team of Will Hayter and guest rider Jeff Bossler, 30 seconds from the leaders.
Unlucky to be unclassified was Kallen Williams of the Toyota CSA Academy, whose team-mate Nic White was unlucky to break his wrist in the warm-up while attempting to tackle a rocky stream crossing. Kallen’s time would otherwise have been good enough for third place.
Category winners were: vets, Team Newbikes 1, Gil Guillaumin and Georget Burel in 14:21; mixed, Team O-K, Kimberley and Olivier Le Court, in 18:11, and ladies, Aurelie Halbwachs and Yolandi Du Toit, in 22:52.
Sunset back at base
Now that tomorrow’s start order has been sorted out, the real business starts – a 65km stage with a circular route back to Domaine de Lagrave.