Cascades hosted the 4th round of the national cup series, and it was a huge turn out with most of the pro international riders racing in the elites. It was basically a mini world cup (WC), and it surely made for some insane racing!
But before the long awaited pro/elite race, were all the other age groups, including mine. With a much earlier start than the usual 13:30p.m, meant I had to get up way earlier than usual. But at least it meant we wouldn't be racing in the heat of the day.
The whistle was blown at 09:30 sharp, and right out the blocks the pace was relentless. Arno du Toit, Current S.A. champ, set the early pace up the first climb, with Michael Hughes closely behind. I managed to bridge the gap to Arno as we hit the very first technical climb of the course. I shifted gears and managed to ride around Arno and claim the lead, with Luke Roberts and Arno in tow. By the time we had covered the first 2km of the course, the gap to the chasing bunch was 10sec. and growing.
I slowed going through one feed zone to try force someone to come to the front but it didn't work. I decided then that I'd have to work off the front and try break up our small break away. Upon peaking the toughest and most demanding climb of the course we had managed to drop Arno and stretch the gap over the main field even more. By the end of the first lap, Luke and I had opened the gap to 51sec over Arno.
After settling down into a comfortable pace in the 2nd lap,Luke was still able to maintain the pace, this fuelled my decision to gradually up the tempo over the remaining two laps. During the 3rd lap I decided put in a surge on one of the climbs. This finally lead to the string snapping and I was able to break away. The last lap was the lap where I really had to make it count. I pushed really hard and managed to stretch the gap over Luke to claim my first National Series win of the season.
I really need to give a big thanks to Allegra, my coach,thanks for every thing , I really appreciate it!
The results of the youth men were :
1st - Brendon Davids (Team Jeep S.A) 01:13:37
2nd - Luke Roberts (Maverick) 01:14:59
3rd - Arno du Toit (Mr Price/Scott) 01:19:27
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