Jowetts Super Classic

This weekend was the Jowetts super classic, which was held at the Cedara Agricultural College just outside Hilton. The course is renowned for the amazing single track that it follows in the hills of Hilton.

The start was slightly earlier than normal, around 08:30. We rode in a neutral zone for the first kilometer or two, the lead vehicle peeled off the front and the race took off! I tested the legs on the fist climb and put in a small attack to see how they were feeling. I opened a gap but knew it was far to early in the race to go on a solo break. I backed off an the main lead group caught up. But before we even hit the first single track I heard a loud "hiss" sound, and soon felt metal bouncing on the tar. I quickly stopped and bombed it. I didn't lose much time, but it was enough for me to lose touch of the lead group.

I raced hard and started to real back the riders one by one, but then disaster struck again, while pushing hard through one of the long grass sections, my rear derailleur got jammed up with grass. With the applied force of the pedaling, it caused my chain to snap. Fortunately it snapped just behind the 'quick-link.' I broke the chain and undid the quick-link and put the whole thing back together. I had lost a heck of a lot of time, and was now down in the 20's. I fought hard and managed to close up to 9 or so before catching James Reid and Trav Walker, who had both stopped due to mechanicals. I stopped helped James out with his mangled chain and waited while Trav took a natural break. We took off together, but at a very chilled pace. James had really hurt his nose and face in a heavy crash, and he soon backed off. Trav and I caught up to another group of 3 riders. We went past and started closing in on 8th position (team mate Matt Goetsch). After catching him, Trav soon dropped off, leaving myself to chase down the next guy in front of me which was Dave Leiman. With 5 or so km to go I caught Dave, and managed to bring Matt and youth rider, Evan van der Spuy with me. 2km from the finish I bit the bullet and opened the taps to get away and managed to put a gap between myself and the other riders.

Performance wise, it was definitely one of my best races so far. The race was super hard, and was a really good opportunity to get to test the legs before the national.