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
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