My 2nd 5 lap provincial, and what a tough course to have it on. The brand new world cup course, scheduled for S.A. champs on the 16th of March, and the same course we hope to have a world cup event at, later on next year.
The course was extremely tough, with the first climb being a very steep on. The race was scheduled to take off at10:30 and it was off on time and it was going to be a tough one with the heat of the day approaching.
I managed to get to the front from the start but lost out badly as I lost my rhythm on the first climb and had to push the remainder of the hill resulting in me dropping down to third place at this early stage. By the time we had reached the second climb I had worked my way up to second place but lost touch with the leader as we ran into some back markers from the previous batch of racers as I got caught behind them in the singe track. When the leader saw his chance he put down the hammer and worked on opening the gap from an early stage.
Lap after lap I tried to close down the gap, but the gap just didn’t seem to close. In fact it grew bigger on the 4th lap, when I came into a single track section extremely fast and was caught out by a slower rider. We connected and I went down very hard, but was able to recover reasonably quickly, but just could not regain my rhythm.
To add injury to insult, I also started cramping in my upper arms, but I still pushed as hard as I could despite this new found and unfamiliar pain.
I managed to pull off a 2nd overall in the batch and a 2nd overall in my age group and I can only hope to have a better race at S.A. champs.
The organization was fantastic, a great course. It is evident that a lot more work has gone into the building of the course than one realizes at first glance. Well done Kim Phillips and his team of helpers.
The organizers deserve all the credit that is due!
A great day of racing and I look forward to the next one next weekend.
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