Can't believe that it's been a year since the first Urban Rage already!!
This year it was slightly different though, the course was shorter, with more obstacles and quite a bit more technical. The course was a mere 2km but was really energy sapping, and the miserable weather made it far more worse, as the obstacles began to get more and more slippery.
My first individual qualifying run of the day was fairly chilled as I was very unsure of the obstacles on the course. However, at the end of the lap I was quite confident on what would be needed to make the final of the Super Cats at the end of the day.
I then teamed up with my team manager, Clinton Morck, for the 2 man team event as good, fun, and layed back ride. I opted to go out first and do the first lap, while Clint would do the second and we would complete the course on the third lap together, as a team. I went out pretty hard on my first lap, just to see how the obstacles would be if it began to rain. After Clint's lap we went out on a reasonably chilled lap which allowed me to scope the lines even more, and it was great fun to do something like this with "the boss!"
It was then quite a long wait until our second qualifier so I took a nice long warm up on my road bike, while munching down on some sandwiches and pastas .I went to the start ramp and set my sights on making the final... I pushed super hard for most of the lap but backed off near the end as it got more technical, as I want to risk not making the top 10 for the final that was approaching. Afterwards I was super nervous as we awaited the news of our times as I thought I had perhaps slackened off a little too much towards the end...
The tension became quite intense, but then I received news that I'd qualified 9th!.
The top 10 men and top 5 ladies were then walked through the aquarium, which would be the last 1km or so of the final... And boy would it be tricky... it had super steep stair cases and polished concrete floors, but looked like it would be one heck of a race and a huge amount of fun!
I then went into full race mode trying to focus on getting a top 5 result or higher. I tried to get into the zone with just 15 or so minutes before the start of my race. I sat on the start ramp spinning my legs and then got called up to the gate... I chose my gate line and waited for the count down... As the gates dropped I sprinted as hard as possible down the ramp and attacked the first obstacle. I pushed as hard as I could, and was using up all the energy I had saved up from the previous rounds. I put in peddle strokes at every possible place on the course and pumped through a lot of the obstacles. I kept my lines into the corners as tight as possible trying to make sure that I took the shortest distance to each obstacle and corner. I sprinted down an alley way and sped into a 90 degree corner, but as I was exiting the corner I hit a lamp post and got myself horribly concussed and disorientated... I Stumbled to my feet, not knowing what happened looking past my bike a few times before I realised it was just ahead of me. I got onto my bike and pushed on towards the finish, as this was after all the final
From the entrance of Ushaka I cannot remember how I got to the finish. I can't even remember riding down the steps into the aquarium.... But after crossing the line I heard that I had still managed to some how get 7th overall... I was super surprised with the result!!!
Congrats to Craig Paul who managed to get 2nd overall just behind Phillip Buys, as well as Luke Roberts who managed to wrap up an awesome 3rd! To Max Cluer and his team!!! A fantastic day was had by all!!!
The Jeep Team
Clint Morck and I
No comments:
Post a Comment