Hey Guys, haven't updated in a while. Not much racing apart from this weekend which was my first road race. Saturday I took a slow ride of the course just to check it out,and I knew that it was definitely not going to be a long race, but certainly intense!
The race was held in PMB this last weekend, and man o' man, are road races early! Even though we live in PMB we were still up at 5 am to leave and get to the start. although my race was only at around 08:00 we got there in time to see the pro's and Juniors head out on their 100km loop.
After a fairly intense warm up on the indoor trainer ( it was way too cold to try warm up on the tar) I made my way to the start. Dustin Kilpatrick, a good friend and one of the top u16 roadies in the country was present as well as Luke Roberts and Rhyno Beukes.
The start was really slow but as soon as we began to make our way up to the first major climb, Fox Hill, Luke and I came to the front to split up the race. A bunch of four of us rode most of Fox Hill until Dustin put in a hard attack. Rhyno dropped off and this left Luke, Dustin and I. We rode together until we crested Fox, now came a short flat section which had a sharp corner into a short steep climb. I pulled out to the back of the bunch to try launch an attack and see if I could create a gap on the guys. The guys stuck and the racing stayed unchanged. A couple of attacks followed but no one managed to break the gap. Eventually I timed one right and opened a pretty big gap, but after a couple minutes I realized it would be safer to tackle the next main climb in a bunch, so I eased up the pace.
Approaching Polly Shorts it became the calm before the storm, the chatting that had occurred on the previous climb was now gone. We hit the bottom of 'Pollies' pretty slow, but as soon as we hit the first harsh kick Luke jumped up onto his pedals, I stuck on and we managed to open up on Dustin. Luke eased up again for a slight moment but again accelerated near the top opening a gap of around 10sec. I chased hard going over the top and slowly reeled him in, unfortunately the lead car took us through the traffic but on the wrong road, this allowed me to close the gap straight away, this too allowed Dustin to catch us. Eventually we were back en route and were approaching the finish rapidly. With about 1km to go Dustin attacked and I lunged for his wheel. As soon as he began to slowly I gave everything. I opened up a gap of 2 or 3sec but misjudged the distance to the line. With about 150m to go the gap started closing, I slowly began to shut the door to try slow him down. I crossed the line a hair ahead of Luke, with Dustin bringing home 3rd. Unfortunately commisaires decided to penalise me one position as they saw the sprint as being dangerous.
I was thrilled to have finished where I did at my first race and a major thanks needs to go out to the people who made a huge effort to help me out, to Grant Dinkel (Adrenaline Cycles) who stayed open after hours to help with my set up and gearing on numerous occasions, Luke Dinkel who lent me a 52 chainring, and to Ollie and Clint Olsen who helped out with my restricted gearing, Thanks Guys!!!!
Now its an easy week before Eston, which should be a really exciting one.
keep it rubber side down
B
photos to follow
Monday, July 27, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
All Beat Up
Well this weekend was the African Continental Championship, which didn't exactly go according to plan.
After arriving at the Mankele Bike Park on Thursday morning, myself and Craig suited up and headed out onto the course. The course was very similar to the national held there earlier in the year, apart from the climb which had now been shortened. It was really technical and suited me down to a tee. After a good ride we retired to the lapa at Mankele to watch the final few km's of the Tour de France, and was later joined by a group of downhillers from PMB, which provided some good entertainment.
Friday morning came around, and man it was super cold! I lay in bed as long as possible and decided to suite up at around 9. I rode some really cool line sand practised a couple of sections just to get everything dialled before the big day. Luckily my ride was done nice and early and I was able to rest up for the rest of the day. In the afternoon I was joined by Craig and we had a couple games of slightly serious pool, and once again watched an exciting stage of TDF.
Race day dawned, and I was once again greated by an icey morning chill. I went out to try warm my legs up as much as possible and before I knew it, we were on the Start line. The turn out was not huge, but there were the usual SA riders as well as one or two foreigners. Straight out the blocks it was Arno du Toit, Luke Roberts and I who made a break. Up the first climb they made a small gap on me, and I was left to try find my legs. After the first lap the gap was a mere 20sec and I began to find my legs.
Going into the second lap, I began to feel better, but unfortunately, with the gap that had built up, it meant as soon as I hit the main climb, they were entering a long fast single track and the gap would begin to open. Despite knowing this I pushed hard all the time and rode on the absolute limit in the single track. Coming in from the lap the gap had stretched to between 30/40sec and I knew it was definitely make or break.
I gave it my all and slowly began to chew away at the gap. Coming into the most technical part of the course I had closed the gap down to around 5 or so seconds and could see them just a head. I pushed extremely hard to close the small gap that was left. The next thing I found my self heading straight for a huge rock. I smashed into the rock with my chest and arm. I felt an excruciating pain coming from my upper right chest. I had two deep cuts in my arm and I was unable to stand on my left foot. At this point adrenaline completely took over and I went into overdrive. I tried to locate my bike which had rolled down the mountain side. I jumped on and rode most of the final 2km with one arm to try and limit the bumping, and pain to my right side. I crossed the line in third and was immediately suspected of broken collarbone, broken ribs and cracked/sprained ankle as well as a pretty banged up arm.
I was whisked of to hospital and underwent x-rays. After the results came out we were told that I sustained Severe muscle and tissue trauma, which included some torn tissue in my chest as well as trauma to the inter costal muscles. I also suffered from a sprained ankle, and a deeply cut arm.
A huge thank you needs to be said to every one that helped me out after crossing the finish line. Especially Linda and Charles Roberts, Dellah Paul, Mike Bradley, the Medics, Carmen Neethling and my girlfriend Kirsten who really supported me through the whole thing. Congrats to Luke who pulled of a Awesome 2nd.
Craig managed an awesome 4th elite considering he's been off the bike after his incident with a car.Candy had a ding dong battle with Mariske Strauss, and ended up coming in 2nd just 5sec down.
This week is a chilled one, a sort of recovery week, I'll be taking it easy, and will be trying to recover from the set back
chillin with some of the funniest downhillers ever
After arriving at the Mankele Bike Park on Thursday morning, myself and Craig suited up and headed out onto the course. The course was very similar to the national held there earlier in the year, apart from the climb which had now been shortened. It was really technical and suited me down to a tee. After a good ride we retired to the lapa at Mankele to watch the final few km's of the Tour de France, and was later joined by a group of downhillers from PMB, which provided some good entertainment.
Friday morning came around, and man it was super cold! I lay in bed as long as possible and decided to suite up at around 9. I rode some really cool line sand practised a couple of sections just to get everything dialled before the big day. Luckily my ride was done nice and early and I was able to rest up for the rest of the day. In the afternoon I was joined by Craig and we had a couple games of slightly serious pool, and once again watched an exciting stage of TDF.
Race day dawned, and I was once again greated by an icey morning chill. I went out to try warm my legs up as much as possible and before I knew it, we were on the Start line. The turn out was not huge, but there were the usual SA riders as well as one or two foreigners. Straight out the blocks it was Arno du Toit, Luke Roberts and I who made a break. Up the first climb they made a small gap on me, and I was left to try find my legs. After the first lap the gap was a mere 20sec and I began to find my legs.
Going into the second lap, I began to feel better, but unfortunately, with the gap that had built up, it meant as soon as I hit the main climb, they were entering a long fast single track and the gap would begin to open. Despite knowing this I pushed hard all the time and rode on the absolute limit in the single track. Coming in from the lap the gap had stretched to between 30/40sec and I knew it was definitely make or break.
I gave it my all and slowly began to chew away at the gap. Coming into the most technical part of the course I had closed the gap down to around 5 or so seconds and could see them just a head. I pushed extremely hard to close the small gap that was left. The next thing I found my self heading straight for a huge rock. I smashed into the rock with my chest and arm. I felt an excruciating pain coming from my upper right chest. I had two deep cuts in my arm and I was unable to stand on my left foot. At this point adrenaline completely took over and I went into overdrive. I tried to locate my bike which had rolled down the mountain side. I jumped on and rode most of the final 2km with one arm to try and limit the bumping, and pain to my right side. I crossed the line in third and was immediately suspected of broken collarbone, broken ribs and cracked/sprained ankle as well as a pretty banged up arm.
I was whisked of to hospital and underwent x-rays. After the results came out we were told that I sustained Severe muscle and tissue trauma, which included some torn tissue in my chest as well as trauma to the inter costal muscles. I also suffered from a sprained ankle, and a deeply cut arm.
A huge thank you needs to be said to every one that helped me out after crossing the finish line. Especially Linda and Charles Roberts, Dellah Paul, Mike Bradley, the Medics, Carmen Neethling and my girlfriend Kirsten who really supported me through the whole thing. Congrats to Luke who pulled of a Awesome 2nd.
Craig managed an awesome 4th elite considering he's been off the bike after his incident with a car.Candy had a ding dong battle with Mariske Strauss, and ended up coming in 2nd just 5sec down.
This week is a chilled one, a sort of recovery week, I'll be taking it easy, and will be trying to recover from the set back
chillin with some of the funniest downhillers ever
Monday, July 6, 2009
Now on Twitter!
Hey guys
I'm now on twitter, just look me up
- Brendondavids
ALL ONE WORD:) follow my updates and training, as well as my prep leading up to Continental Champs this weekend.
This is definately crunch time! Its once off and I've gotta make it count. I'll keep you updated on everything for sure!
L8r
I'm now on twitter, just look me up
- Brendondavids
ALL ONE WORD:) follow my updates and training, as well as my prep leading up to Continental Champs this weekend.
This is definately crunch time! Its once off and I've gotta make it count. I'll keep you updated on everything for sure!
L8r
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