SA XCO Championships 2011

OK this must've been one of the more disappointing races in my cycling career, hard due to the fact that the problems that occurred were out of my control. My preparation for the SA Championships went EXTREMELY well! At the High Performance Camp the previous week I had been able to see that my form was definitely good going into the race.

The week leading up to the race was a fairly chilled one, mainly trying to get used to the geometry of the 26inch bike again - unfortunately I am no longer on the Ellsworth Enlightenment29, but am awaiting my brand new Ellsworth Truth Race Machine!. The course slightly resembled a very short half marathon route... fast open dirt roads, with only two or three hundred meters of single track, and A LOT of climbing. Being out in the open, the course would definitely get hot during the course of the day, which would make for some interesting racing.

Race day eventually greeted us with some sunshine and good news, the chief comm. of the event had granted my new African Continental Champion kit legal to race in! Everything leading up to my race went off perfectly - my nutrition, my training.... everything.

At 12:15, during the heat of the day, the juniors began to line up. The race started off a little slower than usual. Maybe this was because of the mountain of a climb that we were about to throw ourselves into! After topping the climb, the race had completely blown apart with Arno du Toit, Gert Heyns, Luke Roberts and myself making the break. We then hit the second climb of the course, where Luke launched his attack. Gert and Arno sat up and decided to let Luke go, seeing an opportunity I rode across to Luke's wheel as we meandered our way to the top of the course, Gert managed to bridge the gap before the top, which now left 3 of us up front. The group stayed like this until half way through the third lap, when disaster struck, for me... having not being used to the geometry of the 26-inch bike, my back had begun to cramp, which meant I had to push harder just to maintain the same speed... As a result I slowly lost touch of Luke and Gert as they just began to ride away from. Things went from bad to worse as I cant even remember losing my third position to Dylan Hatting... Still thinking I was third I went into cruise control just to try and limit my losses and hopefully recover to try make some sort of come back. Unfortunately that didn't happen and upon crossing the finish line after lap five, I was told I was now in forth, which seriously erked me! Feeling very disappointed in myself as well as feeling I had let down the people who were supporting me, I decided to head on back to my accommodation in Table View, to look back on what had caused the problem during the race, before heading out to dinner with some friends in Stellenbosch.

Definitely a very upsetting race, but all very good experience. A HUGE thanks needs to go out to Craig and Cameron Wright for the use of their awesome race wheels! you guys are life savers!! This weekend is the SA Marathon and Junior/Half Marathon championships, I'm firing on all cylinders and raring to go! Wait for the post to see how it goes!!

until next time
B






Thanks to Mark Austin Photography for the awesome pics!