After seven days of racing, the Old Mutual joBerg2c is coming down to a two-horse race between defending champions Neil McDonald and Waylon Woolcock of RE:CM and overall leaders Kevin Evans and David George of Nedbank 360Life.

On Thursday, Evans and George notched up their fourth stage victory as they outsprinted Woolcock and MacDonald after 86km of racing between Hazeldene Farm near Underberg and McKenzie Club in the Ixopo region of KwaZulu-Natal.

Another fantastic day of riding in glorious weather through KZN. Today covered the familiar Sani2C day 1 route which included some incredible single track which was very welcomed by the riders. We woke up to a very chilly Hazeldean Farm, with a general sense of calm filtering through the race village due to the ‘short’ day ahead of us. Farmer Glenn even referred to today as a rest day!

Kevin Evans and David George had more than winning on their minds as they extended their already comfortable overall lead to almost nine minutes on day six of the nine-day Old Mutual joBerg2c on Wednesday.

The Nedbank 360Life riders were racing for a greater purpose as they sealed their third stage victory in 3:17:13 on the gruelling 94km route from Glengarry resort in the Kamberg district to Hazeldene Farm near Underberg.

Today’s ride from Kamberg to Underberg was fantastic. It was however brutal, with 2000m of climbing in 93km. My body seems to have recovered from the jippo guts, making the ride today way more fun. The views of the Southern Drakensberg were spectacular today. I really need to come back and explore this area some more one day.

Nolan Hoffman and Maroesjka Matthee walked away from the 2012 SA National track and Para Cycling Championships at Alexandra Park, Pietermaritzburg beaming from ear to ear after the pair completely obliterated their respective elite men’s and elite women’s field over the five day cycling showcase.

Today will go down as one of the hardest days I have had on a bike for a long time. Last night I developed the legendary multi stage jippo guts which leaves you feeling pretty weak and unenthusiastic for 103km’s on a mountain bike. I managed to force down some breakfast and get to the start line feeling rather sorry for myself. After a short neutral zone we hit the dirt and the racing began.

Wow, what an amazing day of riding, one I will not forget for a long time. It was tough, no doubt, 122 km with 2000m of climbing, this after 125 km yesterday. This morning saw some weary riders lining up for what was going to be the longest day of this years Joberg2C. Another mass start in a chilly 7 degrees behind the Massey Ferguson tractor saw us riding 3-4km of neutral zone before the racing started.