This last weekend saw me achieving one of my year’s goals in cycling. I surprised myself and everybody who knew me by winning the Junior Men’s XC race at the second round of the National XC MTB series, held at Mankele MTB park, just outside Nelspruit. We arrived late on Friday afternoon and hit the track for a few practise laps to familiarise myself with the course again (I raced my first ever XC event here the same time last year) The course was a long 8.8km track that suited my style of riding, being very fast and flowing. I slept well on Friday and felt better prepared than I ever had before a MTB event. Our start was at 12:45 and the worst part was the long wait while the nerves built up. I was seeded second on the start grid, and ready for some pain.
We started relatively slowly and after a few hiccups in the first section of single track that I managed to avoid, I broke from the main pack with current SA champion, Rourke Croeser and we built a small lead. The course had one long power climb of about 700m and then it was pretty much sweet single track to the finish. On the singletrack on the way down, still on the first lap, Croeser cracked something in his seat and had to stop at the tech zone on the start of lap 2. I was very surprised to be leading on the start of lap 2, and decided to sit up and wait for the two chasers. They caught me on the power climb, previous winner Adriaan Louw and Ruan du Toit, and I joined them for some sweet group riding on an MTB. As the pace was not too hot (although the temperature was!), I decided to use my head a bit and think about what was going on, rather than just going flat out all the time.
For three more laps the three of us stuck together like glue, never letting each other out of sight. The race grew and grew into the race of the day with bets being placed by the spectators and some wild commentating. On the last lap I knew better than to not sit in line and take 2nd or 3rd, but I was almost at the end of my limits. I put in one final attack on the long power climb, realising long ago that if I was not first there, my race would be lost. I went at about 99% HR for 1 min and still Louw beat me to the top. He had ridden at the front for the most of the race, setting the tempo. I almost registered defeat but I saw a small gap almost immediatly afterwards, and then went flat out to try and pass. It was an attack on a recovery from the previous interval and I made it, and then took to the finishing singletrack like an energiser bunny (still 3 or 4 km). I did not once look back and came into the finish over a minute ahead, unbelievably happy to have come so far in such a short time. This was my fifth XC race ever, and I throughly enjoyed it.
The rest of the weekend was awesome, hanging out on Saturday night with friends and realxing by the fire. There was a live band, and it was the perfect icing on a perfect day. Although I realise that this result only comes once or twice a year, it was still awesome to have it so soon as a confidence booster before SA Champs.
A big thank you to the course organisers and the Johann Wykerd and Kim Phillips for an awesome weekend.
Me and Travis dicing throught the first lap
