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
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