Novel navigation format returns for dusi2c
Last year's champion says she enjoys the whole GPS racing concept.
THE mountain bike race that started the trend of using GPS navigation is back, fully committed to developing and entrenching the pioneering concept when the second edition of the BSi Steel dusi2c, which takes place from Camps Drift in Pietermaritzburg to Blue Lagoon in Durban on 21 and 22 June.
The introduction of the concept at last year’s inaugural edition of the race through the Msundusi and Mngeni Valleys marked the start of a revolutionary trend in the South African stage racing mountain biking scene and, despite a few anxious competitors last year, the resounding success first time around has everyone eager to enjoy the format again.
“Ah, it was just so much fun” 2013 dusi2c women’s winner Eszter Erdelyi exclaimed. “I used a device that wasn’t quite ideal but the whole concept was just incredible. We went off track once or twice but that was part of the amazing fun of GPS racing and racing through the beautiful valley. You got to a split and we’d go left only to see some of the riders behind is go right and so we’d have to turn around and correct ourselves it was such fun,” she enthused.
Erdelyi, who won the women’s category of the race’s first edition with fellow team mate Lise Olivier, believes the format is something that the mountain biking fraternity is catching onto quickly and is not only beneficial for the riders but event organisers as well.
“Looking for arrows or day glo stickers along a route is easy, racing –especially stage racing–with a GPS add such a different element to a race. It’s then not necessarily just the strongest riders who win but also the smartest. It is also easier for organisers so I definitely like the concept and hope to see it at even more events in the future,” Erdelyi said.
