Long Overdue Update

Hey guys

Sorry for the extremely long overdue post. After Wisconsin I was on my feet running around before heading back to South Africa.

The race in Wisconsin was very disappointing. I suffered major mechanicals from the start loop. My chain kept dropping off the big ring, down in between my bottom bracket (BB) and small chain ring. This resulted in my cranks locking up and me having to stop to try and pry the chain out of the gap. A suffered from this reoccurring problem, lap after lap, and eventually went down hard as a result of it. I popped my left shoulder, but determined to make it through the race I soldiered on, before it happened again with one lap to go. I ended up getting pulled off as a result of the 80% rule. Very disappointing to have trained so hard and to have a horrible day out due to mechanicals. The short track went better, although I was caught in a crash on the start line. I ran in 7/8th for the majority of the race before fading a little to finish just outside the top 10.  Still a result I was fairly happy with!

Then it was onward to Cali. After rushing around a couple days I was able to squeeze in an awesome little coffee stop with Steve Blick, Oakley Boss Man. Its always great to spend time with Blick and I appreciate him taking the time out of his busy schedule to hang out and talk with me.

Now came the crappy part of the last two weeks. 5am wake up call to make it to the airport before heading back to sunny SA. I arrived at the airport at around 7am, with a flight that was supposedly leaving around 9:45. To my disgust I found out that the flight had been cancelled weeks before, I had not been notified by anyone about the change of flights, which was now at 16:30. I no longer had my US phone, so I couldn't contact anyone about my dilemma, thus began my wait at LAX. I eventually boarded my plane to Dubai, slept some of the way, tried counting all the little lights that lit up the sealing to give the inside of the plane a "starry night" effect. Made it to Dubai, had a nine hour lay over before flying to Johnannesburg, then got to Johannesburg and had a further six hour delay, before flying to Durban. So to sum it up, my trip consisted of around 55hours of absolute hell. To top things off, I ended up becoming horribly sick after all the traveling. My system had taken an absolute beating and had succumb to a nasty cough that seemed to be worsening each day. I tried riding one of the days I returned, but it seemed to make things worse. So I took a rest in an attempt to be ready for the Stihl Umko Challenge that was just around the corner.

I felt I had recovered enough for the race, but once that had started, I realized that although I was recovered enough to do the race, I had been off my bike for over a week. I seemed to not have any power and felt pretty flat throughout the race. So to sum up the race... I started relatively well... I felt good but as soon as the pace was lifted I couldn't respond. I was able to get myself into third overall and was able to ride just hard enough to retain that position. I ended up taking a few more days off the bike and feel a lot better. Ive picked up my training again and hopefully I'll be back in top form for next weeks Hill2Hill.

Until Next time

B