Not much has actually taken place these past few weeks, just one or two small classics, but the main event was definitely the PE National one week ago. After not having a National in PE for over 4 years, it was really great to be back and racing in the city for the second time this season. The new XCO track was a HUGE improvement on the one before, with it being one of my favourite courses of the season to date.
The course was definitely a true XCO one. Short, sharp, technical climbs. Fast, rocky and technical descents, good overtaking spots and of course, FLAT OUT all the time. I got my first ride in on the course on Thursday afternoon, and was quite frankly, blown away by the amazing track! Friday morning saw me at the track rather early in order to get my practice over and done with as well as to check any new lines which may have formed. Once satisfied it was time to chill hard with good friend and TJSA Team Mate-Trav Walker.
Race day..... I'd managed to fix a small problem which I had encountered during practice, with the tremendous help of Craig Wright. The weather took a turn in my favour, the heavens opened just before the start of our race, which would definitely make for an interesting race.
From the whistle I had a pretty crappy start to say the least. I was down in around 8th but managed to work my way to fourth as we entered the first single track. As we hit the first hard climb the bunch split up drastically, with only a few Juniors managing to make the gap. Arno du Toit, Gert Heyns, myself and Luke Roberts were now in the lead group. The bunch stayed really knit together until we crested a climb around halfway into the track. Luke went to the front while we steamed along the road leading to the fast switch back single track. I left my move pretty late, but managed to enter the single track in 2nd. Luke and I managed to open up a small gap over the remainder of the track, having around 20sec. on Gert as we entered the 2nd lap. We continued to push the pace, which in turn increased the time gap to 3rd. The muddy/gritty conditions began to take its toll on the bikes, with me losing all but 3 gears around 1,5km from the end of the 2nd lap. i began to struggle on the gradual uphill to the start/finish, and could only watch as Luke began to open a gap on me. I was forced to run 2 of the 3 steep climbs, which again meant I was conceeding time to the lead. On lap 4 I managed to force the shifter to give me 2 more gears, enabling to ride the climbs once again. Luke's bike had also begun to suffer, with his fork beginning to seize I was able to slightly close the gap, but the gap that he'd opened was just too big leaving me to settle for 2nd at the end of the day, a little over a minute behind.
thanks to Marc Sing Key for the imageA huge thank you needs to go out to Ellsworth Bikes for my amazing Truth SST.2 . Everytime I ride that bike it just feels better and better!
Congrats to the organisers on an unreal XC track! Really top notch! Now comes the final preparation before I head over to the States on a 2 month racing campaign internationally, where I'll be doing a number of the Pro XCT races, National Championships as well as the Windham World Cup!
Until next time
Ciao
B
No comments:
Post a Comment