MONSIEUR MARK BLEWITT

It seems that cycling is filled with Marks, Mark Florence, Mark Pinder, Marc Madiot, Marco Pantani and Mark Blewitt.

Here in the photo, a badly taken one I might add, he is in full flight on a windy, rainy day on the Killarney Race Track. Flying by me at 55km/ph and a relentless peloton who acted with indecision and so Mark took the chance and they never caught him all day having to fight for consolation positions.

That day Mark was so strong, at one time he sat up and looked around and asked the race referees; 'what's going on no-one's chasing me', but they were chasing him they were just that far behind, he was leading by almost a full lap, how they let him get away only god knows but he went on to a great solo victory.

We had been friends for a long time and during his years of racing in France he regularly kept me posted on all the happenings. He stayed and raced in Toulouse for a long time.

I also remember him racing in the Milk Race, in those days because of the beast in South Africa, called apartheid; our professional teams were not allowed to participate in international races. When a relationship between the then present governments was forged with Mr. Nelson Mandela and his release was imminent, these strict rules begun to slacken, so off to England Willie Engelbrecht and his team went. They came last mostly day to day and Mark got better placings on each day ahead of the South African professional squad.

He was such a fine rider and in one of his letters to me he wrote: “…Sebastian you should see these mountains it will be embedded in your brain forever. I cycle 100kms just to get to my first race, and then race 120kms only to cycle 100km back over mountains back home again…” of course Mark used more colourful language to make his point. Jai D’ Amours, my two loves; cycling and France, when it gets to July each year and I am not at the Tour my heart sinks and I so miss France.

If there is one rider that trained for miles and miles, it’s Mark Blewitt. The Peninsula Cycling Club that we cycled for in years to come would have an annual training camp each year starting in Cape Town and finishing in George. One such time Victor Johnstone told me they saw a lonely figure in the middle of nowhere many miles away from George. As they came closer they discovered it was Mark, he turned around and went all the way back again. This particular type of training I adopted; LSD…long steady distance.

The MBK cycling jersey in the above photograph has a short history too, or is it long history? Mark Blewitt was a friend of Marc Madiot of the Madiot duo in France who had raced in le Grand Boucle on several occasions. This jersey kept me warm on cold windy days while training in Cape Town. So from the shoulders of Marc Madiot to the shoulders of Mark Blewitt to Sebastian Engelbrecht and I still have it today.

The last time I saw Mark Blewitt was while training along Suikerbossie one morning in 2007 just before leaving for Australia, he has moved on in years as we all do and the scar of age has found her way into his form but this is how I remember him. He shall always remain a dear friend.