MTN SA XCO3 - George

Hey guys

This past weekend was quite a disappointing race for me, but I managed to get a good result. The 3rd round of the MTN national XCO series took place on the beautiful campus of Saasveld just outside George.

With the race being so close to George, I decided to go down on the Monday straight after Karkloof to spend time with my family who live there. I met up with the young, up and coming, U23/Pro Elite lady, Mariske Strauss (MTN - Energade) throughout the week, and managed to get in some good laps of the new XCO course.

I took the week pretty easy to try and rest my leg which was still injured. I saw the physio right after my ride on Tuesday, and it re-strapped for the weekends racing. My leg was feeling pretty good, and I was hoping it would hold up for the entire race on Saturday. I met up with Kevin Evans and the MTN - Energade riders on the Thursday, which was a really cool experience!

Before I knew it, race day was there, and I felt super confident for the race that lay ahead. We made our way across to the race and I hopped onto the stationary trainer almost straight away. I had a really good warm up before heading to the start line. There was a really big field of juniors, fortunately my good result in PMB had moved me onto the front row of the start.

off the line Arno du Toit took off super hard. I followed his wheel with Team mate Ryan Ellis on my wheel. Unfortunately James Reid (Mr Price) snapped his chain off the start. We soon caught the Elite bunch as they came through to start their 2nd lap. This caused havoc with our race and let Arno get away in the traffic. I made a few costly mistakes and lost one or two positions, but was still with the lead bunch of 5. We eventually reeled Arno in and stayed together for the next few laps. The bunch began to split up on the 3rd and 4th lap with Travis dropping off. On the 4th lap I was sitting on the back of the bunch now, and stood up in a funny position on one of the climbs, sending my leg into spasm again. I rode through it but it happened again on one of the longer climbs, and I was forced to run it. This meant I lost touch of the lead group and dropped from the lead bunch to 5th. I tried to ride 'damage control' to the finish, but soon noticed I was losing huge amounts of ground. Going into the last lap (lap 6) my leg began to feel much better, I kicked down and rode as hard as I could. I began to reel in the time gaps. I caught and passed 4th and began to reel in the lead bunch. I then caught Ryan, who then snapped his chain. I was now riding out of pure determination, I ran into some hectic traffic near the end of the lap, but by the time I had passed them, it was too late. I brought it home in 3rd wih Luke Roberts in first, and Arno du Toit in Second.

I was quite disappointed, as it was the 2nd race that had been affected by my injury! But all in all, despite the mishap, I had a good race. Now time for some rest, and to sort my leg out for sure! Then Mankele! hopefully I'll bring home the gold!

Sunday morning dawned and Mariske Strauss and I decided to head up the Montagu Pass, which was ridden in the Cape Epic a few years back. It was a really awesome ride, with magnificent views, it was a real eye opener to see such beauty.

A HUGE thanks needs to go out to Allegra Wykerd, my coach, for all the hard work that she puts into my training program, and for lending me her bike bag, Johann Wykerd for packing my bike like an absolute machine! and of course Team Jeep South Africa, my sponsor, for all the backing and for the AWESOME Jeep Grand Cherokee which they gave us for the entire time we were down in George! You guys all rock!!!!

Ciao
B