Hey guys...
WOW what a weekend at the Karkloof MTB festival! Night Race, XC, Sprint Shoot Out and Marathon!!! Such an awesome event!
Unfortunately I couldn't participate in all the events, as I am still nurturing my injured leg. I sat out everything except the 40km race, which took place today. But there was absolutely NO WAY i would miss out on seeing the top guns battle it out in the Sprint! It was really awesome to watch Burry Stander fight his way from the back of the field to win by half a lap!
Sunday morning dawned and we made our way to the Prestigious Polo Grounds that play hot to the Karkloof Classic every year. Our race was off at 09:00 sharp, this year, without a neutral zone. The pace was hot from the start, with James Reid making it hard where ever possible. I put in one acceleration to try split up the main field, and to my surprise it worked. 6 of us got away, and hit the first main climb of the day. The pace stayed relatively the same, but a few furious surges were thrown in the mix. About 10km or so into the race, my leg began to twitch, but didn't think much of it as it went away. I pushed on. The race pushed down and whittled down to 4 of us, James, Trav, Ryan and I. We hit the second, and hardest climb of the day, and James rode all out. The break was covered really quickly and didn't split the bunch up.
The race pushed on, as the race got more fierce, and the attacks became more frequent, I could feel my leg wasn't going to hold up. It was James who attacked again, I tried to come around the back of the pack, but my leg went into spasm. I slowed to see if it would let up but it just got worse. I dropped off the bunch like I was standing still and soon found myself in no mans land.
I eventually got to a water table and stopped, Luke Roberts caught and passed me, and by now I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to get to the finish inside the top 10. Luckily I had managed to open a big gap early on in the race, so I had a comfortable cussion to get to the finish. I rode super easy to the finish, so as to not do any major damage before George next weekend. I managed to bring it home in 5th overall and 5th junior.
Well done to Ryan who got a 3rd, and Craig who got an 11th in the marathon after puncturing 20km in! HUGE thanks to Jeep for the awesome vehicles we were able to make use of, and to Tropitone for the sun block! To the organisers, an awesome event as always!
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