We Nerded Out on Bike Setups… Then Raced to the Clouds | Gravel Burn Stage 3
Stage 3 of the Nedbank Gravel Burn 2026: Blaauwater to Merino, the longest stage of the week. 137 km and 1,550 m of climbing, from a 6 am start with the bagpipes, over the pass behind the clouds, across a long stretch of tar in the crosswinds, and up the Swaershoek to the most remote summit finish in gravel. Race morning at Burn Camp: oats at 5 am, a very specific good morning to Barbara in Australia, a fire-side chat with a rider who’ll do the Sedgefield 500 in December, and the race plan over breakfast (get over that last climb, and don’t get caught in a crosswind split). Then we got permission to nerd out: chainrings, tyre widths and tyre pressures, with Charl and half of Burn Camp. Up front, Eddy Le Huitouze (The Grip) won from the break on the Swaershoek, Nele Laing took the women’s stage and the Ember jersey, Tristan Nortje took his first-ever climber’s jersey, and Matt Beers keeps the overall lead. Behind them, David finished 63rd in 4:35:41, beating Charl by 3:55 (Charl says it was “one minute”), and was back on the category podium. Simon came in 137th. Charl’s verdict: “David now has 12 minutes on me… but the bro must just know: we don’t quit. We’re coming.” On the Burn Pod: Tebogo Galagala, the Soweto-born cyclist behind Banditz Bicycle Club. From a back room in his mom’s yard to a shop that became a place where people come to talk, and a DM that saved a life. “People just need friends. The bicycle comes as an extra.” A week before Gravel Burn they had to close their shop at 44 Stanley, but as David says: that location doesn’t define you, what you do does.