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.