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!