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.

KZN Champs.

This weekend saw the team racing KZN champs at Cascades and what a track KZN mtb had put together. Unfortunately I didn't have time to pre ride the course. I have ridden most of the trails in the area and Trav gave me a run down on the layout, so I had a good idea.

The start was nice and fast and Brendon and I slipped off the front early on.

I took the first few laps easy to get a good idea of the track, Brendon set a good pace and we opened a sizeable lead by the end of the lap.

I sat in for the next two laps waiting for the right time to make my move. I could see I was faster on the climbs and half way through lap three of seven I made my move, on one of the harder climbs on course. I opened a gap which gap grew lap by lap. By the end I had opened a 1min 30 lead.

I am really happy with my ride, my mind is fresh and I'm ready for another big block of training.

AFRISKI C1 LESOTHO.

You may think the team gets to spend a lot of time together, in fact its the opposite. Most of us are racing in different parts of the country on the same weekend. When we do, we make the most of it. Spending 7hrs in a van with a bunch of guys is always entertaining. We arrived late friday afternoon to lessen the effects of altitude. 

The vibe in the little ski village was awesome and the buffet dinner went down well.

For those of you who didn't know the race was held at 3273m above sea level. Yes, breathing was difficult and to think of racing up there was crazy.

After last weekends disappointing ride it was crucial to get a good result, not only for myself but for my commonwealth hopes. Its not easy coming back from such a poor performance, many unnecessary questions go unanswered. Losing is the easy part, bouncing back is really tough part.

The 7 lap race wasn't technical, altitude would take care everything. I didn't have the greatest of starts and got caught up behind a small crash. James got away early on lap two, leaving Philip and myself chasing hard. Phil dropped off at the end of lap three which left me in second. The race was far from over. A big chase group formed and all the riders chasing were capable of riding back. Racing at altitude is a massive psychological game, who ever can suffer most will win.

I am not in the best form of my life, I had to dig deep to hold off the chasers. David Fletcher (OMProteam) caught me with two laps to go. He wouldn’t work with me knowing it was important for me to come second South African. On the final climb he made his move. I tried to go with him but didn’t have it in the tank.

After having time to analyse the event, I am happy with my performance. 

You learn a lot when you overcome difficult times. I have worked hard to have the support structure I do and the people I have around me are really good at doing their part. Thank you all.

WORLD CUP #1

It’s difficult enough writing a race report of any worth, it gets even more tricky writing one without sounding like you making excuses.

I have had some time to reflect on the weekends race, and it has put things into perspective.

The race didn’t go according to plan. Its mind blowing how you can put months of hard work, hundreds of hours in on the bike and thousands of Rands into preparation and simply, you have a bad day. Most cyclists know from the very first pedal stroke what kind of day they having. So I won’t bore you with reasons as to why and blame it on some illness I didn’t have. I had a bad day, simple.

There were some great things to come out of this event. To see the first ever African team set up in the pits of a World Cup arena was awesome and what a privilege to be a part of it. The sponsors our team owner Shaun Peschl has put together are unbelievable.

Im sure you guys have seen the new bike Victor brought out especially for the WC and what a beautiful bike she is, it was really cool having Victor hang around the arena and give us some insight into his world. I’m sure he would agree, all of us learnt a lot. It was also a great privilege to have Stephen from QUICKROCK round for the weekend. To Warren and Shaun thanks for making sure everything was perfect and to all of you that support and follow me, I’ll be back.

Sugar Rush.....

This weekend saw the second running of the Sugar Rush classic. It's not often you get to roll out of bed an hour and half before go time, have breakfast and ride 15min to the start of a race.

It had been a CRAZY hard week of training , with the World Cup just a week away the focus was on high intensity training. I was using this event as my last quality session. I was given the go ahead by my coach to ride on how I feel. And that I did, I couldn’t believe how good I felt on the day, it was one of those days you wish you could bottle up and keep for the big day. 

It was awesome having Travis come down for the race, he added to a quality field and hats off to a few of the junior riders. There is some great talent coming though the ranks.

Trav got off the line and headed straight to the front, he didn’t let anyone come though for a solid 30min. Under instructions to give 200%, not a fun day out for others. It set things nicely up for me, I got to test my legs where it counted. On the major climb of the day I went to the front and set a hard tempo, with the goal to make my move on the final climb of the day, with less then 10km to go. 

It's not often things work out the way you plan but it sure is sweet when it does. On the final climb I opened the taps and put my head down not looking back until I hit the finish line. I must say this was one of the better tracks I have ridden on the North coast, well done to the Sugar Rush team.

Another great weekend for the KargoProMTB with 5 podiums, Paul Rodenbach in the Cape, Our youngster Marko in PE. Travis, James and myself on the North Coast. Again thank you to everyone who makes this happen.

HOME TOWN CAT1

Firstly, a shout out to Cycling South Africa. Not many understand the importance of having Cat1 events in our home country. Usually teams have to spend thousands getting us to these events around the world. South African XCO athletes are going to benefit tremendously from this. THANK YOU!

After spending much of the week on the indoor trainer, I finally managed to get in a lap on the Cascades track, and what a track Nick has put together. I think some people are going to be surprised come the first world cup :-)

I had the perfect start and got the hole-shot. I set a hard pace on lap one, I wanted to split the group as quickly as possible. After the first lap Phil, Brendon and myself had a 25second lead. All credit to them they threw everything at me on lap two and made me pay for my first lap efforts.

By the end of lap two, the three of us had split. Phil up front Brendon in second and myself in third. I could see them through out the lap. I didn't have the firepower to close them down and I was really slow on the descents. My hand and shoulder seemed to be holding up, with the thought of commonwealth selection in mind. Not much would stop me.

I managed to get a good rhythm on laps four and five. Consistency gets results. Even when you have guys breathing down your neck its important to keep consistent and stick to your game plan. I fought hard and ended the day in third.

It was a great day for the team with three Kargo athletes on the podium.

Not a lot has gone my way over the past couple weeks. To fight through some pain, did well for my confidence. The season is still so young and with the support of my team, support staff, manager and sponsors a lot is still possible.

Thanks to the guys from Momsen for getting me some awesome new bits before this weekend. The Stans VALORS turned some heads. Also thanks to Warren and Shaun for making sure the weekend ran smoothly.

REALITY CHECK.

Taking health and fitness for granted is one of the greatest sins. There is nothing worse then wanting to race your bike and not being able to ride due to injury. Never get complacent, always follow the steps you took to get you where you are today.

We arrived in mother City on Thursday afternoon and headed to the Argus EXPO. 

It was awesome being able to spend some time at the Momsen stand discussing some of the 2015 gear. Lets just say we have a lot to look forward to :-). After collecting some fresh rubber and bits from Nike we headed to our accommodation just out side Grabouw. Thanks to Paul Rodenbosch and his Parents for having us at there lovely hotel (Houw Hoek). 

I finished building my bike. 

And headed out for a short spin which turned out to be a terrible idea. Im not entirely sure what happened but the out come wasn’t great. I stumbled in to the accommodation a little worse for wear.

Shaun managed to put me back together that evening. The next morning we went to the pharmacy to get some more aid. Trav and Paul headed out for a few practice laps whilst I went out on the road. The track was the same as Conti champs, so it wasn’t a train smash that I didn’t do a few laps.

I had a false sense of hope that my hand would be ok ,come race day. I was going to give it my best no matter how sore. Race day came,we strapped up my hand pretty well.

I couldn’t t stand and sprint, so my start wasn't t great but I made the front group. The first half of the track was pretty much uphill and my hand wasn’t much of a problem. Going down was another story, its not often I feel out of control on my bike. For the first time it felt like I could really hurt myself, I couldn’t hold the bar. It didn’t matter how much of a death grip I gave the bar, the muscle was too torn and bruised to hold on.

Its never nice having to throw in the towel. Its times like this where your support staff become ever more important. It is easy to fall in a hole and feel sorry for yourself instead of doing everything in your power to fix the problem. 

Congrats to Trav and Paul for putting together some great results for the team.