Back on Track

Over the past few weeks, as you all know, I have been on the road with the team, with the last stop being in Missoula, MT. Home to recently crowned US National XCO Champion and Olympian, Sam Schultz.

The Missoula Pro XCT is renowned for its technical climbing and defending as well as the famous "A-Line" drop. Being one of my favorite courses on the circuit I was super amped on the race that lay ahead. The punchy, steep climbs are very well suited to my riding style on the mountain bike and the technical descents, again, play into my hands extremely well.

The week leading up to the race was perfect. I felt extremely dialed in on the course, although lacking a bit of the explosive power needed for the course, I felt fairly confident going into the weekend. Jordi, Specialized Factory, insured that my bike was absolutely perfect for the race. The rest was left up to me, and me alone.  Race day rolled around, and with the extremely late start around 6pm, it meant I was going to be getting in a lot of "chill time." It definitely provide some sort of new challenge for me. To remain focussed and concentrated on doing absolutely everything to ensure you do not waste any ounce of energy throughout the heat of the day was tough, but I felt I managed to do it well.

The race eventually rolled around, after what seemed like an eternity. There was just one thing that seemed to be bothering me. Having raced so many of the longer, marathon style races, I could definitely feel I was lacking a little of the "snap" I usually had. But, I was quietly confident in my descending and endurance to hold myself in a good position through the end. 

The whistle went, and we sped into the first climb. Somehow I found myself surfing through the bunch with ease, and soon was alongside Todd Wells, JHK, Sam Schultz, Russel Finsterwald and Howard Grotts as we punched our way up the mountain side. A dropped train, due to a bad shift, dropped me down the group a little, but was still inside the top 10. From there, things got very, very difficult for me.    I simply did not have the power to close the gaps back down, I made the only smart decision possible and that was to keep calm and try force mistakes from other rides on the descent back down the mountain each lap. It ended up working. Almost every lap I would make a pass on the descent, only to lose it on the climb, but by staying calm and loose, I was also making up ground of riders further ahead of me too.  On the final lap I was able to force a mistake from Ryan Woodall, and moved into a top 10 position. I ended up crossing the line for my second top 10 finish in a Cat 1. UCI Pro XCT race this season. Although the race was VERY far from good in my books, it was awesome to get a good result after not feeling that great on the bike during the race. A huge thank you needs to go out to Team Sho-Air for helping me get across the country and ensuring that I have a good support structure at the races. Another BIG thanks to Specialized bikes for the flawless machines I am lucky enough to race on! 

Now its a big build up to the final round of the Pro XCT series, at my personal favorite race course, Mt Morris, Wisconsin. I have very fond memories from my success there last year and hope to repeat it. For now though, its train, train, train back here in Cali. 

Until next time.

B

Hitting the drop in practice on Friday.

After two hours of sleep the night before, and a 4hour flight back to Cali. from Montana, I took part in the Pro Criterium in Domiguez Hills. I went on the attack from the word go, and didn't stop.

Road Trippin' and This&That

Well its been a while since I did my last blogpost. I apologize, as I'm sure you all know,  we've been on the road since Colorado Springs. So things have been really busy.

So, to pick up where I left off. We hit the road after an absolutely amazing stay in Park City, UT. and meandered our way to another mountain biking destination town, Sun Valley, Idaho. This picturesque little town, nestled in the mountains played host to both the 2011 and 2012 US National MTB Championships. As I'm sure, many of you are wondering why on earth I would be at the US national champs, since i couldn't race it, being South African. There were still other races that were part of the entire festival the the town of Sun Valley combines with the national champs. The Galena Grinder, the fourth stop of the Pro UET series, was one of the races that were part of the festival.

I was granted free reins for the Galena 50miler and decided to take the race by the horns. With me sitting in third in the series, and the #1 plate only a couple points away from my reach, a good result would leap frog me into the series lead with one round to go. The race went off perfectly. I managed to get a gap on the first climb, and never looked back. The only mishap I had was the need to go for a 'natural break' halfway into the first loop of the race. I ended up taking my first professional marathon win as well as the overall lead in the Pro UET series, ahead of Tinker Jaurez.

Brining it in for my first Pro UET win.

One thing I have to add to the topic of the Galena Grinder, is how well run and how perfectly manicured every detail of the race was. The course made great use of the mind-blowing trail network and balanced the race out with some brutal climbs only to be rewarded with some of the most amazing single track I've ever ridden. Well done to everyone who made such a big effort on this event!!!

Next up for me was the fat tire crit which was again, one of the many festivities put on at the Ride Sun Valley Bike Festival. After getting caught with my pants around my ankles last year, when most of the racers showed up with full road tires on their 29er race rigs, I decided I would do the same. So long story short, the organizers insisted that we race with 'fat tires' since it was a 'fat tire crit' right?? No problem, fortunately for me, team manager, Ty Kady, had thought ahead and brought along a set of super fast rolling Maxxis Maxlite tires.  We slapped them on and headed back to the start/finish area. As we arrived on the start line, to my surprise, there were some guys rolling up with road tires once again. I n act, there were only four of us with mountain bike tires on, Todd Wells, Tobin Ortenblad, Brady Kappius and I. So off the bat there were some very dangerous guys with skinny wheels, Carl Dekker and Brandon Gritters were to name a few. So from the get go, I tried attacking off the front to possibly get them while they were off guard, but I soon established that they had the same idea and within a couple of laps, the bunch had been whittled down to around 10 or so.  Then with around 10minutes (+2 laps) a dangerous attack came from Carl Dekker (Giant Factory Off-Road Racing). He opened up a huge gap on the hard chasing group, which now had been whittled down to 4. Todd and I took turns pulling at the front as hard as possible, but we simply couldn't close the gap. It had become a race for 2nd, and with two laps to go, I got in the perfect position to jump for the line. I came out of the final corner on the back of the group and began to wind up my sprint. Todd had managed to get the jump as we entered the corner, and was now barreling down the finish straight away. I began to come around the riders, but then Brandon Gritters started his sprint, punking all of us at the line.. Third went to Todd and I unfortunately came in 5th. Awesome thing was I got to race against one of the best World Cup XCO racers in the US, got to rub shoulders with him, attacked him, got attacked by him and was humbled by him. That to me was far more satisfying than the actual race.

Working with Todd to try bring back Carl.

I then took on the support roll at the US Nationals, helping out with feeds, moral support and some occasional heckling.

We're now in Missoula, MT. for the 4th stop of the Pro XCT series. Hopefully I can make up for the horrible race I had in Colorado Springs. The course is fun and technical. Should be fun.

Until then
 B

While in Park City I took the win at the Utah State Championship series, and took home a hefty check!