This was to be my first 5 lap XC race and it was really going to be a tough one, especially on the very tough and fast course with the humidity that was going to take some getting used to. I was entered in the A batch and we were only scheduled to start at 10h30. The race was off on time and it was not long before the humidity and the heat, especially in the cane sections, began to make their presence felt, as it pelted down on the course.
Off the start Travis Walker and myself were able to get into a break, but it did not last long. On the one climb I tried to sip on my bottle, but then a big rock flicked up into my front wheel and I hit the deck hard, but tried to get back up and going as soon as possible which was the case as soon as I had got both the bike and myself out of the sugar cane.
I had lost a couple of positions at this early stage but I was able to put my head down and work my way back up to 2nd place by the end of the first lap.
After the initial crash and in my haste to try and get Trav back into my sights, I obviously lost some focus and concentration, causing me to crash on every single lap and at times I was crashing for the silliest reasons and this in turn saw me dropping positions to riders I know I should have beaten.
Nevertheless I fought hard to try catch up again and despite respectable lap times it was to no avail and I finished in 4th place overall and 2nd in the youth category for the day albeit with a huge time gap between myself and Travis.
The course was absolutely awesome! I made the comment on the day and will repeat it again by saying it was the most awesome and best XC coarse we have ridden this season. It was well marked and had great flowing single track, with a lot of technical sections thrown in for good measure. The coarse also had nice long big climbs making for a coarse the organizers could be proud of.
Well done to Charles Stander and his team for a most memorable event!
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
1st Super Classic-Thrombi-X-Fest - 17 February 2008
My first super classic of the year saw us spending the weekend in the vicinity of the beautiful Underberg and Thrombosis Gorge. The weekend in general was fantastic, with Croc racing, mtb super classic, Down Hill racing, River Kayaking and the paddle race.
The venue was absolutely awesome and provided something for everybody the entire weekend.
The big one for me was definitely the MTB Super Classic on Sunday. All the big guns were there, Brandon Stewart, Max Knox, Pete Smith, Craig Paul, Tim Stark and Willie Brink and I had decided to dedicate my efforts in this race to my good friend Kirsty St John Ayre who had tragically passed away a few days earlier.
.
Our race started at 09h00 on the dot and Brandon Stewart set a blistering pace from the word go, but was soon caught on the first climb, about 5km into the course myself, Willie, Bruce Hughes, and Jedson Tooms and we settled into a small pack behind the leader.
After the 7km mark I dropped off the back of the pack, which was still hammering at a fast pace and rode at my own more comfortable pace.
Another 2km or so later, I caught and passed Gary Flint from Jowett’s in the single track, and set my sights on catching Jedson Tooms from Maverick and Daniel Paul , another Jowett’s team rider.
Going up the next big climb I managed to catch them, but as I reached them, Daniel put in a huge attack, and Jedson went with him. About 8 or 9km from the finish I caught and passed Andrew Warr, and once again set my sights on closing the gap on Jedson Tooms who was having problems with a loose saddle.
With about 3 km from the finish I saw that the gap was closing, but to my disappointment “the jeddi” was just too strong and managed to stay ahead to claim 9th overall, with myself taking the final spot in the top 10 overall and winning the youth category.
The course was absolutely AWESOME, but very very tough, with insane rocky and bumpy single track, climbs and descents. Great organization by the guys, and a huge thanks to all the farmers, for the use of their property.
The weekend was a great success and my fellow JEEP team mates all had a fantastic day with equally good results.
Well done to all.
The venue was absolutely awesome and provided something for everybody the entire weekend.
The big one for me was definitely the MTB Super Classic on Sunday. All the big guns were there, Brandon Stewart, Max Knox, Pete Smith, Craig Paul, Tim Stark and Willie Brink and I had decided to dedicate my efforts in this race to my good friend Kirsty St John Ayre who had tragically passed away a few days earlier.
.
Our race started at 09h00 on the dot and Brandon Stewart set a blistering pace from the word go, but was soon caught on the first climb, about 5km into the course myself, Willie, Bruce Hughes, and Jedson Tooms and we settled into a small pack behind the leader.
After the 7km mark I dropped off the back of the pack, which was still hammering at a fast pace and rode at my own more comfortable pace.
Another 2km or so later, I caught and passed Gary Flint from Jowett’s in the single track, and set my sights on catching Jedson Tooms from Maverick and Daniel Paul , another Jowett’s team rider.
Going up the next big climb I managed to catch them, but as I reached them, Daniel put in a huge attack, and Jedson went with him. About 8 or 9km from the finish I caught and passed Andrew Warr, and once again set my sights on closing the gap on Jedson Tooms who was having problems with a loose saddle.
With about 3 km from the finish I saw that the gap was closing, but to my disappointment “the jeddi” was just too strong and managed to stay ahead to claim 9th overall, with myself taking the final spot in the top 10 overall and winning the youth category.
The course was absolutely AWESOME, but very very tough, with insane rocky and bumpy single track, climbs and descents. Great organization by the guys, and a huge thanks to all the farmers, for the use of their property.
The weekend was a great success and my fellow JEEP team mates all had a fantastic day with equally good results.
Well done to all.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
2nd S.A XC Cup Race-Fountains-Pretoria - 10 February 2008
We arrived in Pretoria on Friday morning, for the 2nd S.A. XC cup. Practice went off well and I was really impressed with the changes that had been made to the course and when I had finished with my practice run I felt that I knew the course well enough to race it hard from the start.
On Saturday race day dawned and I made the most of my late starting batch at 13h30 by sleeping in until 08h00 and taking it easy until we arrived at the venue at 11h00 to support the other riders who’s racing had started earlier in the morning. I was fortunate enough to be seeded onto the front row, so my game plan was on track at this stage.
We were started a little earlier than planned as Burry was lapping in 17 and a half minutes and we also got off to a blistering start, where I had managed to get into the single track first and eventually settled into a top four position riding with Travis Walker and the other chaps that regularly prove to be stiff competition.
However my plan to sit with these guys was to be short lived as I suddenly started feeling incredibly nauseas towards the middle of my second lap, and began to drop off the pace very rapidly and lost the front group completely about 500m from the end of the second lap.
Going into my third lap I began to feel extremely weak and found myself bringing up anything that was left in my stomach on the side of the course and was forced to pull out of the race in order not to cause permanent damage to myself.
I was really disappointed as it was the first time in my two years of competitive riding
that I had been forced to abandon a race under the circumstances.
The course was extremely fast and flat, with one or two awesome single track sections! It was also well laid out for spectators and it was great to be cheered on at so many places by the same people who seemed to move around and still be at the feed zone when we came through.
Well done once again to the organizers who did a great job with the set up of the course and all their hard work was evident when one considers that all the river crossing bridges were washed away in a freak storm earlier the same week.
On Saturday race day dawned and I made the most of my late starting batch at 13h30 by sleeping in until 08h00 and taking it easy until we arrived at the venue at 11h00 to support the other riders who’s racing had started earlier in the morning. I was fortunate enough to be seeded onto the front row, so my game plan was on track at this stage.
We were started a little earlier than planned as Burry was lapping in 17 and a half minutes and we also got off to a blistering start, where I had managed to get into the single track first and eventually settled into a top four position riding with Travis Walker and the other chaps that regularly prove to be stiff competition.
However my plan to sit with these guys was to be short lived as I suddenly started feeling incredibly nauseas towards the middle of my second lap, and began to drop off the pace very rapidly and lost the front group completely about 500m from the end of the second lap.
Going into my third lap I began to feel extremely weak and found myself bringing up anything that was left in my stomach on the side of the course and was forced to pull out of the race in order not to cause permanent damage to myself.
I was really disappointed as it was the first time in my two years of competitive riding
that I had been forced to abandon a race under the circumstances.
The course was extremely fast and flat, with one or two awesome single track sections! It was also well laid out for spectators and it was great to be cheered on at so many places by the same people who seemed to move around and still be at the feed zone when we came through.
Well done once again to the organizers who did a great job with the set up of the course and all their hard work was evident when one considers that all the river crossing bridges were washed away in a freak storm earlier the same week.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
2nd XC Provincial- Mountain View Bike Park 3 February 2008
Another bright and early morning, and an extremely hot one to, with the temperature reading 33 degrees at 07h30 in the morning greeted us as we rolled into the Mountain View Park venue just outside Bishopstowe in Pietermaritzburg to participate in the 2nd KZN XC provincial.
The weather forecast had indicated we were in for a scorcher and I needed to prepare accordingly in the run up to the event.
The heat was unbearable, so much so that each batch had been told to drop one lap. I had entered the A batch and we were only scheduled to start at 10h00, which meant we would be racing in the heat of the day.
The start was unusually slow but about 1km into the race, the pace picked up considerably.
Travis Walker riding for Maverick and myself managed to break away from the pack up the first climb, as we approached some back markers I got caught up behind them and Travis used the opportunity to make a break. I put the hammer down to close the gap, but was constantly reminding myself to pace myself as I still had three and a half hard hot laps ahead of me. As we hit the big dirt road and single track climb, the sun hit me like a brick wall.
I changed my strategy in the feed zone and ensured my neutral feeder kept me on track with a bottle of ice water to cool myself down as I came through. I continued to push on in an effort to close the gap a little bit at a time but this plan was put to rest when my seat worked itself loose in the third lap, making it my slowest lap of the day. I tried frantically to tighten it but could only tighten it little by little (due to the size of my multi tool). I managed to get going with a semi-tightened saddle and decided that I would just have to give it my best and try to regain the second place position I had lost while carrying out the repairs to the seat.
I put the hammer down and went as hard as I could for the last two laps and despite the heat put in a good fourth and final lap but had to settle for third position in the batch and a second in the youth category.
I was really happy with the result especially with the fact that I was able to hold it together, while so many of the other competitors succumbed to the heat which was reaching 46 degrees in the shade in the feed zone and over 50 degrees on parts of the course.
The course was tough with the open veld single track, and a couple of rock gardens thrown in for fun. There were pallet crossings at the river and some really tricky technical bits.
Thank you to ˚the organizers who could unfortunately not order the weather, but were able to put together a great day’s racing.
˚C
The weather forecast had indicated we were in for a scorcher and I needed to prepare accordingly in the run up to the event.
The heat was unbearable, so much so that each batch had been told to drop one lap. I had entered the A batch and we were only scheduled to start at 10h00, which meant we would be racing in the heat of the day.
The start was unusually slow but about 1km into the race, the pace picked up considerably.
Travis Walker riding for Maverick and myself managed to break away from the pack up the first climb, as we approached some back markers I got caught up behind them and Travis used the opportunity to make a break. I put the hammer down to close the gap, but was constantly reminding myself to pace myself as I still had three and a half hard hot laps ahead of me. As we hit the big dirt road and single track climb, the sun hit me like a brick wall.
I changed my strategy in the feed zone and ensured my neutral feeder kept me on track with a bottle of ice water to cool myself down as I came through. I continued to push on in an effort to close the gap a little bit at a time but this plan was put to rest when my seat worked itself loose in the third lap, making it my slowest lap of the day. I tried frantically to tighten it but could only tighten it little by little (due to the size of my multi tool). I managed to get going with a semi-tightened saddle and decided that I would just have to give it my best and try to regain the second place position I had lost while carrying out the repairs to the seat.
I put the hammer down and went as hard as I could for the last two laps and despite the heat put in a good fourth and final lap but had to settle for third position in the batch and a second in the youth category.
I was really happy with the result especially with the fact that I was able to hold it together, while so many of the other competitors succumbed to the heat which was reaching 46 degrees in the shade in the feed zone and over 50 degrees on parts of the course.
The course was tough with the open veld single track, and a couple of rock gardens thrown in for fun. There were pallet crossings at the river and some really tricky technical bits.
Thank you to ˚the organizers who could unfortunately not order the weather, but were able to put together a great day’s racing.
˚C
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