UCI Marathon World Series.

Its not often that there is space in our schedule to race an ultra marathon and with the opportunity to qualify for world marathon champs later on in the year, I was pretty excited to race. Being a XCO racer the endurance would always be a factor. Trust me, 120km on a mountain bike at 2800m above sea level is tough.

The first 20km was fairly flat and fast, and the racing really started going up KOM. By the top, four of us had slipped of the front. The lead group slowly got bigger as riders clawed there way back. Things settled down and a group of ten riders made there way though the 50km water point. 

It wasn't long after that I felt my front tyre going flat which seemed strange as the marathon tyres we ride are pretty much puncture proof. I thought id ride it and hopefully the tyre would seal. It wasn’t long after that I lost all pressure. Thats when I realised the valve-core had come out. 

After removing a valve core from a spare valve I got going, I had lost the lead group and a fair bit of time. The race was far from over, surprisingly as the race went on I got stronger. Going through the 75km water point Renay Groustra and I started pushing on the pace. One by one we started catching riders. With 30km to go I was by myself and still pushing the pace, eventually I caught Arno in 6th. 

The last 5km we could see Andrew and Adriaan in 4th & 5th just up the road. Unfortunately I couldn’t close the gap and ended the day in 7th, most importantly qualifying for World Marathon Champs.