well since the last post a lot has happened. On Friday I hit the course for the final practise and realised what punishment the race was going to be on the body. The bumps were really bad and the course was becoming more and more rutted. I did 2 very chilled laps finalising lines and then did a quick lap just to wake up the legs for Saturday.
Saturday came and I was able to lie in as the race was only at 12:30! Myself and my dad took a slow drive across to Saasveld to catch the tail end of the elite women's race, with Yolande Speedy taking the honours.
On the start the guys all sat anxiously, nervously waiting for the start of the next 90minutes of punishment... luckily I was seeded 2nd and had an awesome line to the first corner, but the pace off the start was relentless and I sat back and dropped to 4th. Into the first corner I made up a position and was desperately trying to pass 2nd. eventually I made the pass and the pursuit to catch, leader, Arno du Toit, began. After the first lap he had close on a 1min.gap on us but I managed to bridge the gap by the end of the second lap. After catching him I sat his wheel for the next couple of laps. But on the 4th lap my lower back began to cramp extremely badly and was forced to let up the pace. His gap began to stretch and going into the final lap he had a comfortable gap, I decided I had to hang it out and go as hard as I could in the final lap, but it wasn't enough and I had to settle for 2nd.
After the race Rourke Croeser (junior Champ) and I took a chilled ride back into George, recapping on the race.
On Sunday, Craig, Roan and I rode from Witfontein (DH Venue) and rode up the Montague pass, which was an awesome experience. After reaching the top, we found a really cool single track, but un fortunately after riding down part of it we realised that it was an almost vertical climb back up the other side... so we turned around and took a chilled ride back down the twisty pass.
All in all it was a super awesome week, A HUGE thanks to my coach, Allegra, with out her help this all would not have been possible.
Now I've got one or two local races and then it's the next SA XC Cup!
Until then
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