Pretoria National XC # 5

Well this last weekend was that last of the National XC events for 2009. This race took place at Fountains Nature reserve, on the outskirts of Pretoria. As I am in the middle of exams, I flew up on Thursday night with my books for exams. One more week and then they're all over, so I guess that is a big positive. On Friday we went down to the track for a quick look and a test run and I was shocked. The track was unlike any other that I had seen (not that I've see that many:) comprising of 85% single track with little space to over take anywhere. It was very flat, a complete opposite from the world cup course. When it's very flat, it also means that there is no time to recover. 

Saturday was all too soon upon us and it was race time. Wearing my new colours, I got in a good warm up before our 15min delayed start time. I had a 3rd grid rank, which meant that I was the third rider to choose my place on the start line, but luckily still in the front row. Our start batch was larger than usual, with more than 40 juniors lining up. Then the gun went off and it was full speed ahead. The opening straight was a tar road and I was third into the first piece of single track, which in retrospect was not good. Rourke (Croeser, DCM Chrome) managed to pull away and I was caught behind his teammate, Adriaan Louw. After a bit of jostling for position, I managed to get my way past him and set off in pursuit of Croeser. Things were going well on the first lap, but I went out a little too hard and fell back a bit, conceding valuable time. I then crashed on the second lap in the most technical section and lost a bit more time. From then on I was a bit more careful managed to maintain the gap to third place. Up front Croeser had punctured and still his gap was big enough to stay ahead. 

Towards the end I realised that catching was a tall order and I stayed focused on keeping upright and maintaining position. I came in second, just under 2 minutes behind the winner, Rourke. I was super happy as it bodes well for selection for world cup in Australia in September. I'll put some photos up later. 

Official Results:

Junior – 6 laps
1 Rourke Croeser (DCM Chrome) 1:45:35
2 James Reid (Mr Price - SCOTT) 1:47:18
3 Ruan du Toit 1:49:38

On the brighter side, I forgot to mention that our team is sponsored by fast fuel, one of the best energy products out there. Check out their website at http://www.fastfuel.co.za/.

catch up later...