SA XCO Champs 2013:

Thus far it's been a rather successful year for myself. I've managed a couple of podiums against some fierce competitors in our u/23 national cross country circuit. Consistent good performances rewarded me with 3rd pro-elite in the National Cup Series and being selected to represent South Africa at the XCO World Champs. 

However the fight for the stripes and the title of SA Champ was still on the line and with all the big boys out to hurt each other, it sure promised to be another exciting battle.  For the spectators...

As always the start was extremely fast and very painful. I managed to hang on to the tail end of the lead group for the first lap or so.

Uncomfortable to say the least and as we hit the steep stuff on lap 2, I just couldn't dig any deeper to stay on the wheels in front of me. After recovering a bit on the super fun downhill sections, I pushed hard to close the gap, but it just wouldn't happen.

Rolling onto lap 3 through the start/finish area I could see the lead group sitting and looking at each other for a moment, about 15 seconds in front of me. I thought this was a chance to regain contact so I put my head down and launched a big effort.

Stupid mistake. I came close, but then as they accelerated onto the climb I had nothing left and started going backwards. Travis Walker soon passed me like I was standing still just before we started coming down again. I took a High5 caffeine gel along with a few deep breaths and slowly but surely dragged myself back onto his wheel.

Now racing for 6th and 7th I started losing a bit of focus and never realised that the lead group was actually just around the corner, still only a few seconds in it. Yes, Travis hurt me on the first half of the lap, but then I found myself staring at his big legs on the fast flowing back section. Not ideal.

As we started the final lap I thought he would launch an attack somewhere on the first half which was mostly uphill, so I moved to the front to avoid this situation. I soon realised that I was suddenly feeling really good and started throwing mielies all over the place...

So after putting down the hammer on our last lap, I finished 5th. Exactly 17 seconds behind Luke Roberts in 4th and a minute and a half behind the Champion for 2013 - Rourke Croeser.

Once again I had no hassles with any of my equipment and the support from the ASG PYcycling Academy on and off the bike has been amazing this year. We are lucky to have coaches and mentors like Paul Cordes and Yolande Speedy standing behind us all the way and putting so much back into the sport.
Looking back I realised that none of this would have been possible if it wasn't for their help and motivation and I am truly thankful for that support.

Till next time!!

Mankele SA xco #4

So about two weeks ago we traveled down to the lowveld for a mountainous training camp in and around the Mankele area. Soon it was time to head back for the 4th and final SA xco Cup series and after a solid race last year on more or less the same course, I was looking forward to a proper dice with the big boys.

Thursday morning we loaded a couple of bicycles into our well rigged ASG PYcycling trailer and with Yolande behind the wheel we soon arrived. Knowing what was coming I wasn't too worried about course practice, but that ski jump drop was messing with my head after lap 2. Maybe entering way to hot with only 1.2bar in the tires was not such a good idea. I burped my front wheel. Guess it's a good thing to get a little wake up call from time to time. Needless to say I inflated the Conti's a bit more Friday morning and after two smooth laps with team mate steph, I was happy to get my legs up and relax. 

Early Saturday morning uncle Paul took the girls out to the track to get them ready for their race and to insure we had the perfect setup for the day. He allowed Steph and I to drive out later with his fancy little red car. My word! I pulled in at Mankele race ready and after mixing some High5 in my bottles it was time to line up between all the big guns.

The start was a drag race with everyone fighting for a good position before the first single track. I was happy with 5th wheel or so, but as we hit the open Climb the second drag race started. Plenty side by side elbow touching action as everyone tried to move up closer to the front. Once again I was happy with my position and up to this point everything went as planned.

With this being a fairly flat and fast course, we all knew the racing was going to be super close and jumping off the front would take a special effort and some really smooth riding through the technical sections without making any mistakes. For the first 3 laps or so I found myself hanging on to a solid group chasing Phil around. I experienced a strange emotion about half way through the race, some sort of panic and relief at the same time. Rourke had a problem with his cleat so he explained his situation and asked James for a multi tool, but they were almost chatting in full sentences while my legs and lungs were on the limit. I knew something was wrong and soon Rourke pulled over. 

The pace picked up properly and eventualy James went off the front. I couldn't follow any of the moves and was left alone with a ginger. Luke and I battled for a while, but towards the end fatigue, mechanicals and mistakes started taking it's toll, but with good legs and a bit of luck I finished 4th pro elite and 2nd u/23.   

After a nice celebration dinner with Melt, Yolandie and the Scott guys we left Nelspruit Sunday morning. Quick brekkie and hike around Kaapsehoop was something different and stunning to end of a pretty good weekend.

a[s]g Tyger Valley:

With the absence of team manager Paul Cordes, we arrived at the Tyger Valley College fairly early Saturday morning to organise and setup our base for the day.

The a[s]g Pinarello trailer with Epic Sports gazebos looked fantastic as always and it was soon time to line up for the 70km challenge.

I must admit I felt relaxed, but very eager to dish out some pain. It didn't take long for a select group to go off the front, with myself and a few senior riders like Andrew McClean and Julius Cobbet.

With no one willing to help me or contribute to the pace making the race turned into an uptempo training ride for me. On the flat fast gravel roads I couldn't keep my eyes off my beautiful CycleOps Joule head unit to measure my power and heart rate efforts to perfection.

After a frustrating first 40kms of negative riding, I managed to split the group with a rather negative tactical move in a single track section.

I knew riding off by myself would be super tough if they pulled together so I still just rode within myself. A while later only Andrew regained contact and then stuck to my wheel once again.

On the last rocky rise about 3km before the finish, I had enough left in the tank and with the help of great traction from my Continental rubber, I managed to ride him off and take the win. Julius finished 3rd.

All and all it was a good day out for us with team mates Amy and Jacques also winning their races.

Till next time!

African Continental Champs:

I've experienced some exciting xco races in the past, but this was definitely one of the best tussles I've ever had on a bicycle.

With some rain during the lady's race, there was a big question mark hanging over tire choice for most of the guys. I felt confident with a Continental X-King on the front and a Race King rear combo.

From the gun Brendon Davids went off the front, but the racing in the chase group was so close that our positions changed between 2nd and 6th all way through the race. I tried to ride my own pace and avoid the early attacks to save some energy, but still had to fight to stay in contact with the group.

Once again all the equipment worked 100% and after 5 slick laps with some serious 'vasbyt' and a bit of luck I managed to finish 3rd against a very competitive field. James Reid finished 2nd with Brendon hanging on to take the win.

SA XCO cup #1:

After a couple of smaller races to get the season rolling nicely, it was time for us to load our Dogma xc's into the trailer and hit the road down to the mother city, for the first leg of the national xco series.

We arrived at Willowbridge Thursday afternoon and after having lunch while staring at the very spectator friendly course, we went out for a couple of easy laps to find out what was in store for us. All round I enjoyed the course, nothing serious to stress about with  some really fun sections.

Saturday morning I woke up to the sound of raindrops on the roof. It didn't bother me, according to accuweather it would only be 2ml and stop at 9am. We were only racing at 12. Ofcourse the rain never stopped and conditions only got worse as the day went on. Luckily the continental X-King is a perfect all round tire so I had no worries to change equipment before the start.

Must say lining up behind  guys like Florian Vogel, Ralf Näf and a couple other international riders had my nerves going. The start was messy. Got to love sprinting full gas with elbows touching through mud for a single track. I got away nicely, but some favourites were caught napping.

My first lap felt good, but with the excitment I over cooked it slightly. I battled to settle down and couldn't get into a rhythm and lost some time. I got it back together and managed to regain focus and from there on it felt really comfortable. The longer Ritchey stem I decided to use worked like a bomb. My position on the bike and the handeling felt perfect.

I started catching riders from about the halfway mark. The combination of good coaching from PYcycling and the High5 supplements was definately working well. After a grueling 8laps, I finished 5th u23 men. Even though I was a little bit off the pace, I felt that I could maintain a steady pace all the way to the end. Always a good foundation to build on.

Looking forward to some good racing

Arno

Gauteng provincial #1:

After a very last minute bike build Friday and no real time for a test ride it was time to line up for my first xco race of the season. Not ideal, but very exciting! I couldn't wait to not only ride, but race the new Piarello Dogma XC machine. As usual the elite - u/23 men only started just before midday. Great performances from the rest of our team all round through the morning added some extra positive pressure before the start.

I started my warm up rather early just to try and get the hang of the new stallion. Tiaan checked the tire pressure of my Continental rubber and it all felt good! In the start chute I chose not to stand on the front row with the idea to fight my way through as the whistle blew. Some starting practice for bigger races to come. I went into the single track comfortably in the top 5. Soon I managed to get into 2nd spot, the pace was pretty easy but I was happy to sit there and get the hang of the bike first, before going cowboy. We came through after lap one in a group of 4 riders, with my biggest worry being Ben-Melt eventhough we were not racing in the same cat.

The first quarter of the track was mostly steep short climbing and about halfway up this section on the 2nd lap I made my move. I managed to open a fairly descent gap, but I was not suprized to see Melt following my move as I looked back. Over all I enjoyed the feel of the new bike, but there were some minor setup issues. I had about 10 seconds on Melt, till we hit lap 4. As we started the climb, my gears were jumping. At first I thought the gear cable slipped so I tried fine tuning it a little, not the easiest to do while climbing a 20% single track hill. I soon realised this wasn't the problem and that I had to stop and tighten my rear Ritchey wheel. Somehow it came loose, but unfortuanitly I only had myself to blame for this one.

The tables turned and suddenly I was under pressure chasing an old skinny guy. Unfortuanitly his diesel engin only got going at about that point in the race and he started pulling away slowly. My legs were dead. Sort of expected this after running around Epic Cycle Shop the whole of Friday building my bike. Never the less I took a High5 Energy gel, a big sip of their caffeine Sports drink and kept on fighting.

In the end it wasn't enough to close the gap, but I managed to hold onto second over all and 1st u/23. I also raced with the light weight powertap hub and gathered some interesting and usefull data with the CycleOps Joule.

Once again the support from the whole a[s]g PYcycling family was amazing and this made for a really fun day at Thabe trails.

Cheers

A

Diving into the season: USN cup #1

After some big hours in the saddle, it was time to ref up the engine at the first leg of the USN Cup, the season opener. The rain apparently put off some other team mates, but for some reason I was looking forward to getting wet and wild.

As the whistle blew, I worked my way straight to the front to avoid any mishaps in the peloton. I also prefer riding infront of a group in muddy conditions. The bunch soon split up and I continued riding a comfortable, but reasonable pace. As we hit the first single track I soon realized that the surface wasn't to bad and I put in a effort to test the other guys. Straight away they lost my line and Iopened a gap as we slid our way through some technical sections. I was happy.

I put my head down for a while to try and get out of sight, which I thought must be pretty far when you're wearing a fluo Rudy Project helmet. Keeping in mind that this was the first race of a long season and that it was wet and slippery, I tried not to do anything stupid or take any risks. Exactly the opposite of what youmg teammate Nicholas was thinking apparently. He crashed out after sitting in a solid top 5 position.

We had to do two laps of a 30km loop. Starting the second  I staight away felt sorry for the guys at the back, the weekend warriors. Traction and grip was just nowhere to be found. Even thou there were no one in sight for me I knew that guys like Ben-Melt would be chasing hard with some serious diesel power. Luckily the race was a lot like the cross country format which I prefer, so I knew I  just had to keep momentum and hold the bike upright all the way to the finish.

Happy with a solid start to the season.
A