I went a week early and stayed with some close family friends in Pretoria not to far from the event. The Steyn's were really welcoming and very helpful the entire week, taking me backwards and forwards to the track. A massive thanks needs to go out to them for their hospitality.
After a good week of prep race day dawned. I felt really good, and was super amped to hit the track. The early morning chill was still lingering in the air as we arrived at the venue. We got there just in time to catch the final few minutes of the womens racing! Well done to Candice Neethling, Mariske Strauss and Yolande Speedy for winning their races.
With around half an hour or so to go, I set up my station on the trainer, and began to warm up the legs. I warmed up until the absolute last minute before we were called up onto the start grid. The junior field was really big, and went 5 rows deep. Fortunately I was seeded on the font row and had a prime line into the first corner. Out the start blocks Arno du Toit lunged out front. I dived in for the 3rd wheel and had a really good position going into the first single track.
Arno began to open the gap almost instantly. I tried my best to get past the rider between Arno and myself, but unfortunately he would not let me through and this enabled Arno to destroy the race up front. We entered the toughest section of the race, and riders began to make mistakes. I made the most of the opportunity and began to try and close the gap back down to Arno. Going onto the 2nd lap I moved over and took on some fluids in the feed zone allowing James Reid and Ruan du Toit to come through to share the work load. Unfortunately Ruan then began to suffer stomach cramps, which then allowed the gap to open between James and I. I eventually got passed him, along with Travis Walker and Gert Heyns in tow.
We stayed like this until lap 4 where I made a couple of mistakes which allowed Trav and Gert to get through and Trav put down the hammer and slowly but surely started to get away. I chased hard over the final two laps but couldn't close back up to the top 3. I was really stoked with my form and my ride, even though I didn't end up on the podium as I had planned to do.
The biggest bummer of the day is the fact that my spare wheels went missing from the event , so if anybody has loaded them up by mistake or saw somebody take them from the KZN gazebo, please deop me an e mail. They are ZTR Olympic rims with American classic hubs, red KCNC skewers, Sram XX cluster and brand new Nokian NBT tyres.
Well the XC season is now over together with the long school holidays and it is back to school tomorrow. Once again a huge thank you to Sias and Nettie Steyn for all the help. I was also fortunate enough to spend quite a bit of time with the guys from MTN and particularly Paul Cordes who showed me some neat lines during practice. It was also great to get to know, Adrian, Justice, Yolande,Paul and Mariske a bit better. You guys rock.
I will now be turning my attention to the Classics and Marathon races as well as a few road events in preparation for the 2011 season.
Till later
No comments:
Post a Comment