Trailseeker #1 - Tyger valley:

We all know the Nissan Trailseeker series is very popular amongst the Gauteng riders, so for me this was a good oppurtunity to test myself against some of the biggest names in SA marathon racing.

It was a rather chilly start so for once being from the Free State actualy helped a bit. However the racing was soon very hot at the front with a few guys constantly trying their luck. Somehow Gawie Combrink managed to get a gap and everyone thought it would be fine to let him hower infront for a little while.
Gawie had a different idea! While he rode a steady pace at the front, the racing in the chasing pack was a bit negative for mountainbiking. It was like a road race. There were a lot of furious attacks, but with the route being so flat, no one was able to get away.

Even though we didn't have the time to stop at the neutral tech zone, the support from the Epic Sports guys was really amazing! Sometime that extra motivation can really change the outcome of your race.

I must say I was irritated by the way the guys attacked and then sat up and looked at eachother so I went and tapped out a steady pace at the front of the chasing pack. I recon this is a nice way to gain some respect from the bigger names in the business. Unfortuanitly no one wanted to role through and help, but atleast the attacking sort of ended for a while.

In the last quarter of the race, things got pretty aggressive! They realized Gawie's gap was bigger than expected so once again the attacks began, but only this time there were no sitting up inbetween.
I felt really good on the day and even though the race was rather short for a marathon, it wasn't exactly short enough for me...
I got dropped from the chasing bunch of 6 with about 8k's to go. Don't know what happend, I just suddenly had nothing left. Luckily I had a USN Vooma gel so I could get my body over the line without losing to much time.

I was happy with 8th over all.  

Mid year update:)

During the past month or so, I had a couple of good races, but there where a few misfires aswell.. After joberg2c, 9days of breaking my legs, I had to take some time to recover with about half of the season still lying ahead. This is not an easy task to pull of if you want to race almost every weekend! Luckily I can depend on Paul to get this balance just right and if my legs doesn't pitch, I have someone to blame;)

So I did Mabalingwe, aka The Lion Man, and it went pretty well. I tried to make the racing hard after the first 10k's and I was suprized to see that only about 3 guys could follow. Then Lourens Luus destroyd everyone on Vodacom hill! Taking a few risks, I managed to pull him back on the decsent and from there on we rode together for most of the race.
With about 10k's to go he opened a gap on a portage section. Even thou my Giro shoes are really great and comfortable, walking isn't one of my talents... The gap opened a bit, but luckily we were close to the finish, or so we thought! At the last water table we sort of took a wrong turn and ended up doing almost 100km instead of the 70km as planned.
Must say I was happy with 2nd place and after a few USN Spikes, the extra 30k's didn't really seem that bad anymore.

Marathon podium; L-R: Myself, Lourens Luus, Jan Withaar

 
Back to XCO racing! I decided to do a CGC Provincial, thought it would be a good oppurtunity for some high intensity training, just to get back into aggressive race mode. I think it was the first time I ligned up at the start of a xco race without having done a practice lap.
Well let's just say it was pretty interesting. After some amature riding I was lucky enough to leave with minor injuries and a silver medal. Well done to Stephan Reyneke for taking the win.

The Epic Sports wolf pack

All and all it was a fun outing with the guys from Epic Sports!


After living out of a few bags for more than a month, I was happy to get home for a change, even though it was only about 3 days until the next road trip. This time the 3rd leg of the National XCO cup series at Addo Elephant park near PE.
The course had a couple of really nice sections. It was obvious that the organisers put a lot of effort into building most of those trails.
Race day came and everything was as ready as can be. I soon found out that my legs wasn't bad, but they were only going one speed, I couldn't follow the sharp attacks. This is a problem when you're racing xco...
After the first lap it was all still pretty much together, but then we ran into some juniors and the next lap some youth riders which made it hard to keep a steady pace.

Passing slower riders was also a mager problem on this course, espesially if you don't have that kick in your legs! At the end of the day looking at my lap times, the last lap was my second fastest lap which means there is nothing wrong with my fitness, just needs a bit of sharpening!



Gert Heyns leeding us into the first lap!