Hey Guys
Well Saturday was the end of the National XC Series. We Arrived at the track on Friday Morning and went straight on to check out the course. The course had changed a lot from the previous year. It was super tight in sections and the single track was really technical. It was a flat out powering course, with only one or two nasty short little climbs.
After practise we went straight to the accommodation and chilled. Back at accommodation I tried to stay as chilled as possible to get to the race well rested on Saturday Morning.
After a really good nights rest I felt good for the days race and slowly got ready for the race. With my race only being at 13:15 i took my time in getting ready. We pulled into the Fountains Nature reserve at around 11. We unpacked the car, set up our feeding zone and then began to get ready. The nerves really kicked in, as the reality of how much was riding on the race hit me.
I went for a warm up with 30min to go before the start, and started ride the course through my head. With 15min to go we got called onto the start shoot, luckily having had a good season I was called up 2nd and had the perfect line on the start.
As the whistle went,the pace was hot. It was a mad dash down to the first corner before hitting the single track. Arno (series Leader) was in the lead with myself sitting on his wheel. I sat his wheel through out the course. Luke Roberts made contact with us, and it soon became a major three way battle. The positions chopped and changed through the course of the 2nd and 3rd lap,however, as we caught a much slower rider, Arno managed to sneak past the rider, causing him to unclip and stop in front of us. This gave him a considerable lead and Luke and I were forced to chase down hard. We slowly began to eat away at the lead, but we were again slowed down by a slower rider that would not move. Arno jumped at the opportunity and really pushed the pace opening up a really big gap on us.
Going into lap 4 Luke opened up a gap of two or so bike lengths on me in the one single track, feeling very anxious I felt forced to push to close the gap. This proved to be costly, and caused a small slit in my tyre. I tried riding as much as I could, to try avoid stopping, but by the time I reached the first technical climb, my tyre was flat. I bombed it and pushed hard to close down the gap. But with only one lap left to go I had to settle for 3rd overall.
Unfortunately, the 3rd position didn't allow me to wrap up the championship, but I still managed to take 2nd overall for the season. Congrats to Luke who managed to get 3rd overall in the season. Arno rode an exceptional series this year, winning 4 out of the 5 races and placing 3rd at Cascades.
All that's left to do now is African-Continental Champs later on this year at Mankele in Nelspruit. This weekend is the Super Classic in mTunzini, we'll see how that one goes.
Until Then
Ciao
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Breakfast at Villiers
Hey guys!
Just a quick update, we left for Pretoria for the last round of the National MTB series this morning. Boy is it freezing in this part of the world, it was only 3 degrees when we climbed out the car here in Villiers. We're sitting at the Wimpy for a quick breakfast before the final leg of the trip.
I'll keep you guys up to date with what the course is like.
Ciao
B
Just a quick update, we left for Pretoria for the last round of the National MTB series this morning. Boy is it freezing in this part of the world, it was only 3 degrees when we climbed out the car here in Villiers. We're sitting at the Wimpy for a quick breakfast before the final leg of the trip.
I'll keep you guys up to date with what the course is like.
Ciao
B
Monday, May 11, 2009
Karkloof MTB Festival- 2009
Well this years Karkloof festival has come and gone, with some pleasing results for Team Jeep SA. I sat out the night relay and the XC on Saturday, as I had already won the KZN Championship, and thought it'd be a good idea to try and save my legs.
Then came the u16 Red Sprint Shoot out on Saturday afternoon. The course was set over a very short grass track on the polo fields, and was littered with different obstacles. The qualifying went off pretty well, and I was tied for first after a decent run. Then came the final. The start was really hot from the word go with Jac-Johan Steyn leading it up front, but unfortunately, nearing the end of lap #1 0f 6, Jac made a crucial mistake and bought a big piece of some Karkloof Property.
I jumped on the anchors really hard to avoid the accident and this gave Arno du Toit a really good opportunity to pass on the right and take the early lead. He Managed to open a couple of bike lengths on me, and I was forced to chase him down. Eventually after two laps of brutal sprinting I latched onto him, and managed to catch him off guard going into one corner on lap 4. On lap 5 I decided to really push, and managed to open a very slight gap. I came onto the last bridge really hard and made a bad mistake, jumping to the bottom and nearly crashing in the process, this really scrubbed off all my speed and I was even more surprised to find out that they had made the race 5 laps and it was now a print to the finish. I got my speed up as quick as possible, and Arno and I crossed the line together, a photo finish with the chief commasaire deciding the final result as it was such a close call. The win went to Arno and I was placed second. With that result in the bag, we headed for home , to return the next morning for the 40km race.
We arrived real early at the polo fields on Sunday morning for the main events of the weekend, the Karkloof Classic 75km and 45km. The temp was only 4 degrees and I really felt sorry for the marathon riders leaving at 8:00am!
At around 8:45 we were eventually let onto our start after what seemed like a really long wait. The start this year seemed way slower than the years before, with all the top junior and youth riders being there, as we were just waiting to see who'd brake the ice. As soon as we hit the district road, Adriaan Louw (DCM Chrome) attacked and the bunch split up really quickly, with about eight of us in total giving chase.
The bunch reduced to about seven of us as we climbed the first climb on Renee Stubbs' farm and to tell the truth my legs were feeling the hurt after the sprint shoot out the previous afternoon. But I hung in and at the top of the long, sluggishly slow climb I came to the front and pushed hard in an effort to try split the teams that were with us. The pace was heating up all the time and the attacks showed no signs of stopping.
Luke Roberts (maverick) and I needed to separate the teams before they really began to work with each other to drop the us. Luke rode the climbs really hard but the guys kept clawing their way onto the back of him.
On the really rough technical stuff, I would manage to brake up the line of riders but the teams would work together and catch back up on the open sections again and the pace remained relentless the entire time.
Unfortunately Luke dropped off just after Half way, and I was left to fend for myself against the two teams of DCM Chrome and Mr Price Scott, each consisting of 2 very capable riders. I countered every surge and attack that came, but as I would catch one rider, the others would attack from behind. As we hit the King of the Mountain (KOM) I dropped off from the bunch. I rode comfortably at a pretty fast pace, just to try find my legs and hopefully claw my way back into the bunch again at a later stage. Luckily there was a really long single track after the KOM and I slowly closed the guys down. With 5km to go I was totally border line outta control through the single track. This section rade so well and I let it all hang out but 2km or so to go,I was caught behind back markers from the 20km going through a mud puddle. Adriaan(DCM) and Arno(Mr Price Scott) opened up a gap of about 40sec gap on me at this stage.
When I got the chance I got passed the slower riders and I pushed myself to the absolute braking point and managed to finish in 5th place just under 20 seconds behind Arno. Travis Walker (DCM Chrome)claimed the honours on the day ahead of James Reid (Mr Price Scott) with Adriaan, Arno and I rounding up the top 5.
The race was absolutely brutal from start to finish, and the pace was blistering. The racing was also really tight, and the high quality of racing was certainly seen by all.
Congrats to Andrew Nicholson and his team for putting such an awesome event together and a special thanks to Rene Stubbs,Bruce Mackenzie, Blake Makenzie, Guy Solomon and Sappi for allowing us to ride on there farms.
Then came the u16 Red Sprint Shoot out on Saturday afternoon. The course was set over a very short grass track on the polo fields, and was littered with different obstacles. The qualifying went off pretty well, and I was tied for first after a decent run. Then came the final. The start was really hot from the word go with Jac-Johan Steyn leading it up front, but unfortunately, nearing the end of lap #1 0f 6, Jac made a crucial mistake and bought a big piece of some Karkloof Property.
I jumped on the anchors really hard to avoid the accident and this gave Arno du Toit a really good opportunity to pass on the right and take the early lead. He Managed to open a couple of bike lengths on me, and I was forced to chase him down. Eventually after two laps of brutal sprinting I latched onto him, and managed to catch him off guard going into one corner on lap 4. On lap 5 I decided to really push, and managed to open a very slight gap. I came onto the last bridge really hard and made a bad mistake, jumping to the bottom and nearly crashing in the process, this really scrubbed off all my speed and I was even more surprised to find out that they had made the race 5 laps and it was now a print to the finish. I got my speed up as quick as possible, and Arno and I crossed the line together, a photo finish with the chief commasaire deciding the final result as it was such a close call. The win went to Arno and I was placed second. With that result in the bag, we headed for home , to return the next morning for the 40km race.
We arrived real early at the polo fields on Sunday morning for the main events of the weekend, the Karkloof Classic 75km and 45km. The temp was only 4 degrees and I really felt sorry for the marathon riders leaving at 8:00am!
At around 8:45 we were eventually let onto our start after what seemed like a really long wait. The start this year seemed way slower than the years before, with all the top junior and youth riders being there, as we were just waiting to see who'd brake the ice. As soon as we hit the district road, Adriaan Louw (DCM Chrome) attacked and the bunch split up really quickly, with about eight of us in total giving chase.
The bunch reduced to about seven of us as we climbed the first climb on Renee Stubbs' farm and to tell the truth my legs were feeling the hurt after the sprint shoot out the previous afternoon. But I hung in and at the top of the long, sluggishly slow climb I came to the front and pushed hard in an effort to try split the teams that were with us. The pace was heating up all the time and the attacks showed no signs of stopping.
Luke Roberts (maverick) and I needed to separate the teams before they really began to work with each other to drop the us. Luke rode the climbs really hard but the guys kept clawing their way onto the back of him.
On the really rough technical stuff, I would manage to brake up the line of riders but the teams would work together and catch back up on the open sections again and the pace remained relentless the entire time.
Unfortunately Luke dropped off just after Half way, and I was left to fend for myself against the two teams of DCM Chrome and Mr Price Scott, each consisting of 2 very capable riders. I countered every surge and attack that came, but as I would catch one rider, the others would attack from behind. As we hit the King of the Mountain (KOM) I dropped off from the bunch. I rode comfortably at a pretty fast pace, just to try find my legs and hopefully claw my way back into the bunch again at a later stage. Luckily there was a really long single track after the KOM and I slowly closed the guys down. With 5km to go I was totally border line outta control through the single track. This section rade so well and I let it all hang out but 2km or so to go,I was caught behind back markers from the 20km going through a mud puddle. Adriaan(DCM) and Arno(Mr Price Scott) opened up a gap of about 40sec gap on me at this stage.
When I got the chance I got passed the slower riders and I pushed myself to the absolute braking point and managed to finish in 5th place just under 20 seconds behind Arno. Travis Walker (DCM Chrome)claimed the honours on the day ahead of James Reid (Mr Price Scott) with Adriaan, Arno and I rounding up the top 5.
The race was absolutely brutal from start to finish, and the pace was blistering. The racing was also really tight, and the high quality of racing was certainly seen by all.
Congrats to Andrew Nicholson and his team for putting such an awesome event together and a special thanks to Rene Stubbs,Bruce Mackenzie, Blake Makenzie, Guy Solomon and Sappi for allowing us to ride on there farms.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Maverick Super Classic - Cascades
Well today was the Maverick Super Classic, held at Cascades. I was pretty unsure of how the race would go today, as I did a pretty hard 4 hour ride yesterday down at the coast by doing the two gorges in the Lake Eland area down at Oribi Gorge to round off a week with some serious hours in the legs and as a result I was worried about having the legs to go the distance on the day.
Living about 1km from the venue I was able to sleep in, and only crawled out of bed at around 7am. At around 08:00 I took a chilled ride down to Cascades. I met up with good friend Trav Walker sporting his new colours of DCM Chrome, and we headed off for a good decent warm up before the 09:00 am start. There were one or two big names including Brandon Stewart and Craig Paul that were entered as well so I had to ensure the legs would be warm when the flag dropped.
At 9 sharp we were off and the pace was pretty quick and I tried to find a good rythm. But pretty soon Craig Paul ( Team Jeep)and Brandon Stewart came to the front and the pace really heated up. The bunch split up realy quickly and soon it was Craig, Brandon, Trav and I in the front.
Craig really pushed hard and it really made life on the bike hard as I had to dig deep to stay in touch. A couple of kilometers into the race I came to the front in one of the single tracks and pushed the pace as hard as I could to see if anyone in the group would drop off. Craig and Brandon stuck to me but we'd managed to get a small gap on Trav before the first major climb.
After the relatively short steep climb we'd opened up a bigger gap on Trav, but Brandon and Craig didn't let up the pace, it was relentless!!
The three of us hit the half way mark in 45 minutes flat and we were still all together, but pretty much as soon as we crested a steep sharp climb after the water point, Brandon launched his attack. At this point I was hurting and at first I had no legs to respond and neither did Craig, but it was a make or break situation and I decided to try push through the pain.
I slowly closed the gap and caught up to Brandon again after a really big effort. Brandon was now really on fire and I was struggling to stay with him and when we hit an open road, Brandon came into his own and just rode off the front. I gave chase and tried to catch up again but he was just far too strong.
I was hoping that Craig would come through again but had unfortunatly lost touch of us for a short while and then took a wrong turn and he got lost, so I was left to chase down Brandon by myself. We were now reaching the closing stages of the race and with Brandon having opened up just over a minute I had to crank it up a notch.
With 5km to go I hadn't closed the gap at all, but I kept pushing to open up the gap on 3rd as nI was unaware of who was behind me and how far behind they may be. I pushed down the technical single track and sprinted to the finish line, and crossed the line with just over a minute behind Brandon. I was super stoked with the result as I had improved my best result overall in a Super Classic to second place.
Congrats to Craig who worked his way back up to fourth position after taking his wrong turn. The organisers also deserve a shout out for an amazing coarse. It was a real mountain bikers event and despite not being the easiest race I thouroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Well done to all involved!
Results: Overall
1st- Brandon Stewart (DCM Chrome)
2nd- Brendon Davids (Team Jeep SA)
3rd- Travis Walker (DCM Chrome)
4th- Craig Paul (Team Jeep SA)
5th- David Louw
Living about 1km from the venue I was able to sleep in, and only crawled out of bed at around 7am. At around 08:00 I took a chilled ride down to Cascades. I met up with good friend Trav Walker sporting his new colours of DCM Chrome, and we headed off for a good decent warm up before the 09:00 am start. There were one or two big names including Brandon Stewart and Craig Paul that were entered as well so I had to ensure the legs would be warm when the flag dropped.
At 9 sharp we were off and the pace was pretty quick and I tried to find a good rythm. But pretty soon Craig Paul ( Team Jeep)and Brandon Stewart came to the front and the pace really heated up. The bunch split up realy quickly and soon it was Craig, Brandon, Trav and I in the front.
Craig really pushed hard and it really made life on the bike hard as I had to dig deep to stay in touch. A couple of kilometers into the race I came to the front in one of the single tracks and pushed the pace as hard as I could to see if anyone in the group would drop off. Craig and Brandon stuck to me but we'd managed to get a small gap on Trav before the first major climb.
After the relatively short steep climb we'd opened up a bigger gap on Trav, but Brandon and Craig didn't let up the pace, it was relentless!!
The three of us hit the half way mark in 45 minutes flat and we were still all together, but pretty much as soon as we crested a steep sharp climb after the water point, Brandon launched his attack. At this point I was hurting and at first I had no legs to respond and neither did Craig, but it was a make or break situation and I decided to try push through the pain.
I slowly closed the gap and caught up to Brandon again after a really big effort. Brandon was now really on fire and I was struggling to stay with him and when we hit an open road, Brandon came into his own and just rode off the front. I gave chase and tried to catch up again but he was just far too strong.
I was hoping that Craig would come through again but had unfortunatly lost touch of us for a short while and then took a wrong turn and he got lost, so I was left to chase down Brandon by myself. We were now reaching the closing stages of the race and with Brandon having opened up just over a minute I had to crank it up a notch.
With 5km to go I hadn't closed the gap at all, but I kept pushing to open up the gap on 3rd as nI was unaware of who was behind me and how far behind they may be. I pushed down the technical single track and sprinted to the finish line, and crossed the line with just over a minute behind Brandon. I was super stoked with the result as I had improved my best result overall in a Super Classic to second place.
Congrats to Craig who worked his way back up to fourth position after taking his wrong turn. The organisers also deserve a shout out for an amazing coarse. It was a real mountain bikers event and despite not being the easiest race I thouroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Well done to all involved!
Results: Overall
1st- Brandon Stewart (DCM Chrome)
2nd- Brendon Davids (Team Jeep SA)
3rd- Travis Walker (DCM Chrome)
4th- Craig Paul (Team Jeep SA)
5th- David Louw
Monday, April 27, 2009
Getting there - Juicy Lucy Classic
Well, this past weekend was the 2nd annual Juicy Lucy Classic, situated in the Mid-Illovo area near Eston. I was in major doubt of getting a good result because of the really hard weeks training I'd done, with a 3 hour MTB ride the day before the race. The 3 hour training session I am referring to on Saturday was rather eventful as my dad joined me on a quad and we spent most of the morning together in the mountains. It was great, but a ride that I could also forget quite easily as I was shocked by an electric fence and spent at least a good 20 minutes of my morning climbing over barbed wire fences, but in the end it was all good.
On Sunday morning we woke up to what seemed to be a clear sky. We honestly thought the weather man had got it wrong, but the weather soon turned REALLY cold. We arrived at the venue and were told that heavy rain had come through there during the night. Luckily, the soil in the area was really coarse, so it would only be muddy in a couple areas and we would not have the dust of the previous week to contend with.
We headed up to get registration done, and man were we lucky to be there early! We were one of the very first to get registered and it soon became really crowded with some 800 competitors. It was so bad that our race was delayed by nearly an hour. This delay had most of us a bit worried as we had all eaten our breakfast in anticipation of a prompt start and we were concerned whether our reserves would go the distance with us expected to finish an hour later than planned. Our fears were compounded by the fact that if the previous years route was anything to go by, we were in for a hard day of racing.
We were eventually off at 09:55 after numerous warmup's and toilet dashes while waiting for the people to enter and as usual, Jedson Tooms attacked straight out the blocks and went all out for the first km or so. But the bunch soon closed him down and the racing began. As we hit the first climb the pace heated up. Craig Paul and Andrew Hill came to the front and really put down the hammer opening a small gap on us. I continued to ride out of my skin to try catch up and eventually I managed to close the gap. It was now Andrew, Craig and myself out in front, with Travis Walker and Andrew Warr about 40 seconds back.
We kept the pace really high for the first 10km with Craig doing most of the work. But as Craig made a slight mistake going into a corner I ended up finding myself on the front with craig and Andrew hot on my heels. I managed to hold the pace in front nicely until the 15km mark, when Andrew came to the front and began to open up a gap.
At the same time Travis Walker had also closed up the gap and had latched onto Craig and I. Unfortunately, Craig began suffering from stomach cramps, which was obviously affecting his ride, but he is super strong and hung in with us regardless until we reached the big climb of the day.
Now it was Trav and I trying to close the 2 min gap to Andrew which he had managed to open on us. The wind on the mountain was really cold and it was made worse with the thick mist and icy drizzle that we were now riding into. With 10km to go we had barely made and dent into the time gap. We really had to push it if we wanted to close the gap. With 5km left to the finish, Craig had put in a huge effort and rejoined Trav and I.
As Craig arrived the pace was upped nearly instantly, but with only 2km left we knew we wouldn't close down the gap, so it became a three way battle for 2nd overall.
Craig pushed the pace even harder and I really had to dig deep to try and stay with him, but the effort paid off as we managed to open a slight gap on Trav, but then disaster struck.
All three of us were sent back onto the 40km loop by the resident marshall, instead of being sent to the finish. We rode around mid-illovo for close on 5 minutes and realised we had been sent in the wrong direction. Between the three of us we decided to ride into the finish in the positions we held when we reached the final road crossing, and then rode back against the flow of the race and found our own way back to the finish. We had lost 3 positions, but the organisers decided to award us with 2nd, 3rd and 4th overall, as it was the Marshall's fault for sending us in the wrong direction.
I was super stoked with getting third overall, my best result at a classic. Congrats to the organisers, the course was brilliantly marked and awesome to race.
Hard luck to my good mate and fellow competitor, Jedson Tooms who took a crash of note on the day. Take it easy Jedi and we look forward to seeing you on the start line again soon.
On Sunday morning we woke up to what seemed to be a clear sky. We honestly thought the weather man had got it wrong, but the weather soon turned REALLY cold. We arrived at the venue and were told that heavy rain had come through there during the night. Luckily, the soil in the area was really coarse, so it would only be muddy in a couple areas and we would not have the dust of the previous week to contend with.
We headed up to get registration done, and man were we lucky to be there early! We were one of the very first to get registered and it soon became really crowded with some 800 competitors. It was so bad that our race was delayed by nearly an hour. This delay had most of us a bit worried as we had all eaten our breakfast in anticipation of a prompt start and we were concerned whether our reserves would go the distance with us expected to finish an hour later than planned. Our fears were compounded by the fact that if the previous years route was anything to go by, we were in for a hard day of racing.
We were eventually off at 09:55 after numerous warmup's and toilet dashes while waiting for the people to enter and as usual, Jedson Tooms attacked straight out the blocks and went all out for the first km or so. But the bunch soon closed him down and the racing began. As we hit the first climb the pace heated up. Craig Paul and Andrew Hill came to the front and really put down the hammer opening a small gap on us. I continued to ride out of my skin to try catch up and eventually I managed to close the gap. It was now Andrew, Craig and myself out in front, with Travis Walker and Andrew Warr about 40 seconds back.
We kept the pace really high for the first 10km with Craig doing most of the work. But as Craig made a slight mistake going into a corner I ended up finding myself on the front with craig and Andrew hot on my heels. I managed to hold the pace in front nicely until the 15km mark, when Andrew came to the front and began to open up a gap.
At the same time Travis Walker had also closed up the gap and had latched onto Craig and I. Unfortunately, Craig began suffering from stomach cramps, which was obviously affecting his ride, but he is super strong and hung in with us regardless until we reached the big climb of the day.
Now it was Trav and I trying to close the 2 min gap to Andrew which he had managed to open on us. The wind on the mountain was really cold and it was made worse with the thick mist and icy drizzle that we were now riding into. With 10km to go we had barely made and dent into the time gap. We really had to push it if we wanted to close the gap. With 5km left to the finish, Craig had put in a huge effort and rejoined Trav and I.
As Craig arrived the pace was upped nearly instantly, but with only 2km left we knew we wouldn't close down the gap, so it became a three way battle for 2nd overall.
Craig pushed the pace even harder and I really had to dig deep to try and stay with him, but the effort paid off as we managed to open a slight gap on Trav, but then disaster struck.
All three of us were sent back onto the 40km loop by the resident marshall, instead of being sent to the finish. We rode around mid-illovo for close on 5 minutes and realised we had been sent in the wrong direction. Between the three of us we decided to ride into the finish in the positions we held when we reached the final road crossing, and then rode back against the flow of the race and found our own way back to the finish. We had lost 3 positions, but the organisers decided to award us with 2nd, 3rd and 4th overall, as it was the Marshall's fault for sending us in the wrong direction.
I was super stoked with getting third overall, my best result at a classic. Congrats to the organisers, the course was brilliantly marked and awesome to race.
Hard luck to my good mate and fellow competitor, Jedson Tooms who took a crash of note on the day. Take it easy Jedi and we look forward to seeing you on the start line again soon.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Cumberland Super Classic
Well it's been a while since I updated my blog, and a lot has happened with the World Cup and the Cumberland Super Classic which was held this weekend.
Having had the 2008 Team Jeep experience at Cumberland,and having ridden some of the track, I was really looking forward to the race. With nearly 1400 entrants on the day, the start was delayed by 15min,as people were still flowing through the gates of the reserve at 08:50
After a really good warm up we took our places on the start line. The vibe was really chilled on the start, and I noticed that we had an international rider on the front row. Adam Craig, the American National champ,had decided to stay after the world cup for a couple of weeks before heading off to Europe to race the World Cup Circuit.
The field was off at 09:15 and for once it was really chilled for the first couple of kilometres. But as soon as we turned off the district road the pace really heated up. Craig Paul ( Team Jeep)came to the front and really layed down the gauntlet. I managed to latch onto Pete Smith also from Team Jeep, but was soon dropped as the pace really became relentless. I pushed really hard to close the gap on the first climb of the day, a 3km gravel road climb which peaked onto a flat district road.
I pushed the pace harder and eventually caught back up to Pete Smith, 200m from the top. We were now sitting in 3rd and 4th overall, with Andrew Hill(Subaru) just ahead of us. The gap eventually closed and Pete and I closed up to Andrew Hill.
Andrew and Pete really began to push the pace and I was forced to drop off. I rode comfortably for 2min or so and suddenly found some legs again, But then came the dreaded sound of air leaking out of rubber. I looked down and discovered I had nailed a thorn through my rear tyre. I stopped to bomb it and luckily it sealed straight away and I was off again. The puncture had cost me some valuable time and I knew I really had to push it to the max in an effort to catch the two other riders to get back into contention and achieving the goal I had set for myself for the day since I had put in a couple of hours training with Craig Paul the day before, so I really needed to ride tactically.
I slowly began to claw back some time on Pete and Andrew, but they were still 2minutes ahead of me according to the spectators that were along the route encouraging us. Adam Craig and Andrew Warr had narrowed the gap and had started closing down on me and they were soon hot on my heals. Adam had also punctured earlier in the race and was riding like a wild man! I tried to jump on his wheel when he passed me but I couldn't hold it for very long and realised very quickly why he is the American National Champ.
Unluckily for me disaster struck again. As I tried to get out of the saddle and push the tempo up a rocky climb about 10 kilo's out, my back wheel slipped on a rock and opened up the seal from the previous puncture. I was really frustrated but I knew I needed to keep my cool and try stay as calm as possible. Unfortunately having had the second puncture where I had, it was the fastest part of the course,which would allow any chasing riders to close the gap in a very short space of time. Suddenly I found my self fighting it out for 7th overall with only 5km to go. David Louw and Luke Roberts were riding well together again.
I opened up the sprint 3 or 4km out with Dave ahead and Luke in very hot pursuit but Unfortunately Luke overcooked it into one corner,going down and I seized the chance to break, but he was soon up and back in the chase.
I still now don't even know how we got through all the slower riders from the 20km route, it was some really dodgy stuff! with David Louw Luke and I charging through the wall of riders constantly shouting for track in an effort not to loose any momentum in getting to the finish.
I finished in 7th place overall overall, but was still the first youth in with Luke in hot pursuit.
Well done to Craig and Pete, who claimed 1st and 4th overall. You guys are machines!!!!
After a hard days racing
Having had the 2008 Team Jeep experience at Cumberland,and having ridden some of the track, I was really looking forward to the race. With nearly 1400 entrants on the day, the start was delayed by 15min,as people were still flowing through the gates of the reserve at 08:50
After a really good warm up we took our places on the start line. The vibe was really chilled on the start, and I noticed that we had an international rider on the front row. Adam Craig, the American National champ,had decided to stay after the world cup for a couple of weeks before heading off to Europe to race the World Cup Circuit.
The field was off at 09:15 and for once it was really chilled for the first couple of kilometres. But as soon as we turned off the district road the pace really heated up. Craig Paul ( Team Jeep)came to the front and really layed down the gauntlet. I managed to latch onto Pete Smith also from Team Jeep, but was soon dropped as the pace really became relentless. I pushed really hard to close the gap on the first climb of the day, a 3km gravel road climb which peaked onto a flat district road.
I pushed the pace harder and eventually caught back up to Pete Smith, 200m from the top. We were now sitting in 3rd and 4th overall, with Andrew Hill(Subaru) just ahead of us. The gap eventually closed and Pete and I closed up to Andrew Hill.
Andrew and Pete really began to push the pace and I was forced to drop off. I rode comfortably for 2min or so and suddenly found some legs again, But then came the dreaded sound of air leaking out of rubber. I looked down and discovered I had nailed a thorn through my rear tyre. I stopped to bomb it and luckily it sealed straight away and I was off again. The puncture had cost me some valuable time and I knew I really had to push it to the max in an effort to catch the two other riders to get back into contention and achieving the goal I had set for myself for the day since I had put in a couple of hours training with Craig Paul the day before, so I really needed to ride tactically.
I slowly began to claw back some time on Pete and Andrew, but they were still 2minutes ahead of me according to the spectators that were along the route encouraging us. Adam Craig and Andrew Warr had narrowed the gap and had started closing down on me and they were soon hot on my heals. Adam had also punctured earlier in the race and was riding like a wild man! I tried to jump on his wheel when he passed me but I couldn't hold it for very long and realised very quickly why he is the American National Champ.
Unluckily for me disaster struck again. As I tried to get out of the saddle and push the tempo up a rocky climb about 10 kilo's out, my back wheel slipped on a rock and opened up the seal from the previous puncture. I was really frustrated but I knew I needed to keep my cool and try stay as calm as possible. Unfortunately having had the second puncture where I had, it was the fastest part of the course,which would allow any chasing riders to close the gap in a very short space of time. Suddenly I found my self fighting it out for 7th overall with only 5km to go. David Louw and Luke Roberts were riding well together again.
I opened up the sprint 3 or 4km out with Dave ahead and Luke in very hot pursuit but Unfortunately Luke overcooked it into one corner,going down and I seized the chance to break, but he was soon up and back in the chase.
I still now don't even know how we got through all the slower riders from the 20km route, it was some really dodgy stuff! with David Louw Luke and I charging through the wall of riders constantly shouting for track in an effort not to loose any momentum in getting to the finish.
I finished in 7th place overall overall, but was still the first youth in with Luke in hot pursuit.
Well done to Craig and Pete, who claimed 1st and 4th overall. You guys are machines!!!!
After a hard days racing
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