I am fortunate enough to also be spending my holiday back in RSA with my girlfriend, Kendall Ryan. Yes, she's a California girl. Its been rather funny watching her do backflips at the very sight of a monkey or any other wild life that occasionally passes by us. Ive also managed to ween her off of her skinny wheeled race bike, and I've got her shredding on the dirt! Yup, she's quickly becoming beast on the mountain bike, always wanting to take the route with the MOST singe track/trails.
We've also been able to participate in one or two races since Ive been here. The last of which was the Kwambo Lion Classic in Zululand. After waking up at sparrows fart last Sunday morning, we made the three hour trip to Kwambonambi, a VERY small town on the North Coast of South Africa. Part of the MiWay Big 5 mountain bike series, the race was really well attended, with the three series contenders showing up to do battle. Still a little groggy from the trip, I zombied around the registration area, walking from table to table mindlessly. Before I knew it I was on the start line ready to go. A blazing fast 50km lay ahead of us, little did I know how muddy it was going to be.
Around 10km into the race I put in a small effort to test the waters and somehow found myself opening up a gap on one of the short steep climbs. From this position I was able to ride my own race and pick out the most accessible lines through the deep mud, that covered 60-70% of the race route. I rode at a steady tempo for the next 15-20km, managing to open the gap up to around a minute. As I approached the 35km mark, I decided to give it the absolute beans and try open up a bigger gap. The tactic definitely worked, I soon got word that I had opened my gap up to well over the two minute mark, and I was now in the final 8km of the race. I went into TT mode, I came in hot to a fork in the road, where a marshall stood with his back to me. Assuming that I was meant to carry on going straight, and bypass the swamp of thick, stinky peanut butter goop that went to my left, I put my head down and kept charging. At the last second the marshall yelled to me to make the turn, I mad a quick decision to turn left which resulted in me getting horribly cross-rutted, and sent me down like a home-sick mole. I came down hard on my left shoulder and leg, a sharp pain radiated from my just next to my shin bone. The adrenaline took over and I found myself lurching out the mud like some form of swamp monkey. I flung myself back onto the bike and carried on pushing through. Unfortunately, my leg was in excruciating pain, and I was forced to soft pedal the final few kilometers in. To top it all off, I got caught by two of the series contenders with around 600m to go. Although a little flustered, I though that I might be able to out wit them coming into the finish, as I had ridden it a couple times before the race. We came into the final 300m, one corner left, a tight ninety degree left and a short 50m burst to the line. I swung out really wide before the turn, after the other two got the jump on me. But the speed I was carrying when we hit the final straight allowed me to close the gap that they had on me. Sean Merridew and I crossed the line together, with Guylin van den Burg in 3rd. The win ended up going to Sean by the narrowest of margins. That was definitely the closest finish I've had in a VERY long time.
Kendall managed to destroy in the women's race. She won convincingly by over 5 minutes.
Since then things have been pretty mellow I'm about to take a short break before starting my prep for the 2013 season. A huge thanks needs to go out to Bobby Behan and the guys here at Specialized South Africa, for hooking me up with an awesome 2013 Specialized SL4. Took it for a spin and it is by far the best road bike I've had the opportunity to ride! Im excited to get in many happy miles as the base "season" approaches.
Until next time
B
