The hype leading up to the World cup was absolutely crazy! The Elite men and U23 racing was insane. It was unbelievable to watch the titans of our sport battle it out to see who would reign supreme at the end of the day. The South African riders put up a really good fight! Burry Stander did SUPER well to hold onto 11th after two HUGE crashes, one of which damaged his bike. Rourke Croeser rode really well to come from the back of the U23 field to finish 13th! A really classy ride by both riders!
Then on Sunday morning, it was the Juniors turn to take on the reconditioned XC course at Cascades. At 9:30 sharp we took our places on the start line. I had the privilege of being the number one ranked Junior, which allowed me to pick any start line I wanted. The gun went off, and the 250m dash down the start shoot began. I had a super bad start, dropping down to 8th, I kept calm and made my chase back on the long steep climb that lead us up into the hills of Cascades. I hit the front and went hard to try split the bunch up. A group of four or so riders made the break with me as we hit the first fast piece of singlet track. Andri Freschnecht made his move on one of the short steep climbs. I managed to latch on and this is where the racing began to take place. Heading onto the 2nd lap the bunch was very closely knit between the 4 riders, with Andri just off the front. We hit one of the open roads which allowed me to close back up to Andri before disaster struck me in one of the sections to follow. My pedal smacked a low lying stump, flicking me backwards down the single track. The shock of the crash took me a long time to shake off, and left me feeling dazed and slightly deflated. I tried hard to bounce back, but only managed to find my legs on the last lap, which had allowed 6more riders to pass me, leaving me in 8th. I chased hard, but unfortunately the last lap came to quickly. I had only managed to work my way back up to 6th.
Congrats to Andri on his win, a very well deserved result!
A very disappointing result for me, but its all part of the sport that I'm involved with. All in all it was one AMAZING experience! Huge thanks needs to go out to Max Cluer for the awesome job done in organising such a great event!
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