XCM #4 Clarens and Cumberland

hey guys, this past weekend was a pretty busy one for me. Drove up to Clarens on Friday, raced there Saturday, drove back that afternoon, and then went to Cumberland on Sunday!!!

Ryan, Craig, Hilton Frost and I, left Craig's place early on Friday morning, and drove up to Clarens in the awesome 3l Jeep Grand Cherokee! After what felt like a really quick trip, we were in Clarens. We eventually found our accommodation after driving the town flat! We suited up and hit a quick spin on the bikes, just to wake the legs up. Unfortunately, we got caught in the rain as we left the house, but it ended up being a pretty sweet ride.

Saturday dawned and one of the hardest days ever lay ahead of me. After a very good warm up we took our places on the line. All the big names were there, James Reid, Trav Walker, Ryan Ellis, Arno du Toit and a few others. Off the start we went fairly slow. James came to the front and the pace immediately increased. As we hit the first decent, I jumped onto James' wheel and followed him. Unfortunately, at the bottom was a very fast right corner. My front wheel hit James' rear wheel as he changed lines on the entrance, and all I could do, was tuck and roll..... I hit the deck super hard and slid along the road. I lay there until the entire bunch had ridden past. I jumped up and scoped out the damage. My pants were torn and I had a roastie on my hip, knee, and arm. I pushed the bike around the corner before trying to get going... Unfortunately, my chain was jammed and had dropped off the front chain ring. After sorting that out the toughest race ever, began. I began to Time Trial, flat-out, for the next 50km, slowly reeling in some positions. I eventually worked my way up to 3rd position, but threw it away when crossing a slick rock single track. I dropped back down to around 9th overall, and the hard work became even harder. With 2km or so to go, I caught the bunch of 5 riders that were ahead of me. I caught them by surprise and manage to drop them as I attacked. I ended up bringing the race home in 5th overall, and 5th Junior... Possibly the hardest day in the saddle ever! Well done to Ryan on a 2nd overall and 2nd Junior. Craig got 11th in the Ultra, after suffering mechanical.

Cumberland was the following morning, and followed a route very similar to that of previous years. I put in the first attack along with Dave Leiman (Thule). Andrew Hill bridged his gap, and this soon became the leading group. I had limited power most of the race, so I decided to try make my breaks in the technical sections. It worked a couple of times, but the gaps that I opened were soon closed down by the others. Approaching the final couple of kilometers I made a small mistake. Dave took this opportunity by the horns, and put in a furious attack! I couldn't react to the acceleration and soon found myself in 3rd overall... I pushed really hard down the technical sections near the end to try and close the gap that had been opened. In the end I had to settle for 3rd overall, and 1st Junior, around 1 minute behind David and Andrew.

All in all a really good weekend of racing!

Until next time
B

MTN SA XCO2 Cascades

Hey guys

Well this weekend was definitely a very big one for me. After having such a terrible first national, I had to try get myself back in contention for the championship at this round of the XCO National. I also decided to dedicate my race to my very good friend Adam Reyneke, who was a truly inspirational athlete, and awesome friend. He was tragically killed when struck by a car, while preparing for Junior tour.

Cascades in PMB played host to this round of the series, and man, Nick Floros put on an AWESOME course! Really one of the best courses I've ever ridden! A lot better than the WC track, mainly because of the more technical single track.

I slept in a little later than usual as the course is barely a 5minute ride away from my house, and my start was only at 12:15. I suited up around 10 o'clock and made my way down to the course by half past. I arrived to catch the tail end of the women's racing. The event looked really Professional, the feed zone was packed with Gazebo's, and really did look like it was straight out of Europe.

Our age group was bigger than normal, with 24 riders on the line. I was placed on the 2nd row, which wasn't a good thing as the first single track was just 200m from the start. All the big names were there, James Reid, Trav Walker, Luke Roberts, Arno du Toit and Ryan Ellis. From the gun Arno attacked really hard and took James with him. I avoided a few very close calls to get myself into the top 8 going into the first single track. As soon as we hit the first climb I reeled in 3 more positions and found myself a couple of meters off the leaders. I put the hammer down in the next single track and closed the gap. We then hit the longest climb on the course and I managed to get myself into the lead bunch of three. Going into the second lap a bunch of three had formed at the front, James Reid, Luke Roberts, and myself, with Trav walker 30 or so seconds down. However, Luke and I lost touch of James when he put in an unbelievable surge on one of the open roads. I waited until the entrance of the main climb before making a move on Luke. As I entered the single track I manage to catch Luke by surprise and got a slight gap on Luke. I began to try and close down on James which by this stage had a good 40+ seconds. I hit the technical sections as hard as I could but could only close it to around 20-30seconds. I held it there until the 4th lap but his endurance began to take hold and opened the Gap to just over a minute by the end of the last lap. Trav Walker had put in an insane last 2 laps and had passed me and managed to finish just 15 seconds down on James. Luke brought it home in 4th position, around 1 min 36 sec behind me.

All in all it was an insanely close race. Craig had a good race bringing it home in 8th Pro Elite. Ryan suffered a few mechanical but had a good race, performance wise




the black arm band was worn in memory of Adam.
R.I.P. Adam Reyneke