This past weekend was the Super Classic down at Mtunzini on the coast. We left early Sunday morning and arrived at the venue at around 07:30. This race being 50km was slightly longer than most of the races I have done this year, and I knew from the previous year, that it was not going to be very easy, mainly because of the very flat roads with no places to recover.
After a good breakfast, it was warm up time. A nice proper warm up got the legs ready for the long race ahead. On the start there were a couple of big names that would contend for overall honours, Dave Leiman,Shaun Peschl, Shan Wilson as well as James Reid.
The start was relatively chilled, but after the first little climb, Dave attacked and opened up a gap on the bunch. James Reid (Mr Price Scott) closed down the gap. The Bunch sat together for the next 5km or so, until we hit a really tough power climb. Dave once again attacked like a man possessed and opened a good gap on us. The energy sapping climb split up the race a chase bunch consisting of Shaun, James, Shan and myself formed.
As the race progressed, we slowly began to reel Leiman back in. As we approached the 25km mark He was within reach. As we caught we hit a very short yet steep climb, everyone pushed super hard, but Dave once again opened up a small gap with Shaun in tow. It was now up to James and I to closethe gap, as Shan would sit behind us. The gap stayed really consist ant. We raced super hard, and the pace just seemed to get quicker and quicker.
Unfortunately approaching the 40km mark James hit a stick, which in turn jumped up and ripped my brake hosing out the frame. I stopped abruptly to fix the problem. I straightened the hosing and popped it back into the housing brackets. I now had to race full tilt to close the gap on James and Shan. The chase through on the forest roads was super hard, as Both James and Shan Being good roadies, had a high tempo going. James tried to slow the pace as much as he could without losing time to the leaders. When I made contact with the I was seriously hurting. The brutal chase had drained my energy. We then hit the SSS climb which was unbelievably steep. I hung on as long as I could but James was just too strong.
With the final push to the finish I was right behind Shan. As we entered the final single track I got really caught up with some back markers and lost a lot of time. With a couple of km to go I pushed with all the energy I had left and managed to close the gap slightly on the guys. I ended up coming home with a 5th overall and 1st youth.
This next weekend is the Howick Super Classic, and is always a favourite of mine, So we'll see how it goes!
until next time
ciao
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