An extremely early and chilly morning, 5:30! Saw us leaving our house to make the 2hour trek down to Mtinzini. The trip in total went very quick for me as I managed to sleep some of the way.
We arrived at the venue and it was a completely different type of weather. It had already become really humid and hot, and it was only a little after 7:30!!! My race was only off at 9:00 so I decided to just chill. This was my first race over 45km and I knew it was going to be tough, a whole 57 kilometers!!! I learnt my lesson from Karkloof and decided to take 2 bottles f juice on the bike. The time came to warm up, so Jedson Tooms and I went out to check the start loop and as we arrived back at the start it was a mad dash to try get onto the front row, for we were a little late.
At 9:00 sharp we were off, and it seemed to be a neutral zone for the first 2 or so kilometers. As we hit the dirt the pace jumped greatly, as Rourke Croeser, and Sean Merridew took to the front. It was a bunch of 5 or 6 of us, but at the first climb Rourke, Andrew Warr, Andrew Hill, and Sean broke away. Carl Calvarly, Jedson Tooms and I all gave chase but we eventually settled into a good pace and sat at it. After the first big climb we were a couple of a hundred meters ahead of the next guys. We put in some attacks to give us a bit of a cushion.
We all really worked well together taking turns to do some work in the front. But towards the end Carl had a powerful surge and broke away. It was just myself and Jedson now. Another 10-20minutes after that, I managed to get away from Jedson, but he managed to close the gap again.
Coming up to the finish a big pack was coming towards us. It was a pack of about 4 or 5 riders. I knew then I had to start to up the pace. I went as hard as I could for the last 2km and came out of the bush onto the last 200mtar section in 5th place overall, but the big guys managed to catch and out sprint me, which gave me a 10th overall and 1st in youth category.
I was very pleased with result. It was a long race distance wise but we had covered the 57km in a shade over 2hrs which showed the pace was rather quick. The sandy sections and short sharp climbs made for a very interesting experience.
Well-done to the organizers who did a good job with the marking.
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