Saturday, June 14, 2008

Hazy view - Induna Drifter - 14 June 2008

Craig Paul, Willie Brink, my dad and I all traveled up to Hazy view, for the 3rd round of the Drifter series. We left late on Thursday evening and drove into our accommodation the next morning at around 08h00.

Craig, Willie and I got dressed and went for a ride to registration, while my dad drove. On our journey to the registration, Willie wanted to ride some single track that was in the race on Saturday. We eventually came to the Main tar road. We then ended up riding up and down to try find the single track. Eventually we came across it. After registration I caught a lift back to the accommodation with my dad as Craig and Willie wanted to do some more riding. I got back to the accommodation cleaned my bike and chilled the rest of the day.

Saturday came and I got up and started to get ready. Craig and Willie left a bit earlier for their race was earlier. I decided to ride to the venue as part of my warm up. It was absolutely freezing riding to the venue but I managed to find a nice warm sunny spot.

I went to the start at about 08:30, luckily from my good result at the last drifter I was seeded and went to the front. The start was off at just before nine o’clock. The first 1km or 2km was a neutral zone. But as the lead vehicle pulled off the racing went really hard, and straight into the first climb which was a real killer. Bryce Munro (riding in the colours of his new sponsor DCM-Chrome) went to the front and I tried to go with him. From sitting on the start for so long my muscles were cold and did not respond properly. But after about 1km my legs kicked in and I worked my way back to 2nd with James Gerber and his team mate just behind. On the second climb James fell and I managed to break away. I chased Bryce as hard as possible. 10km or so from the finish James and His team mate made contact with me again and they began attacking, with the elite team member pulling James along all the time. I tried to hang on but attack after attack they eventually wore me down and they opened a gap in the last 2km. In the end the gap separating 2nd and 4th place was 30seconds, with Bryce Munroe taking the win some 3:00minutes ahead.

Willie, Craig and I all chilled the rest of the day and recovered from a hard day in the saddle

The course was really awesome, a lot of technical stuff, some awesome river crossings and we even had a river ride (we actually rode in the river). The event was really well organized with MTN putting in huge backing. Well done to Theo and his crew.

That night we all went out for pizza and had a good time. We then packed up and left again at 0945pm to travel back… what a hectic Weekend!!!

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