The first round of the SA DHI Cup series was held once again in Cape Town, this time in the picturesque valley of Jonkershoek, just outside Stellenbosch.
The track was awesome, it is wide open, flat out and has very little room for error! It is a venue with so much potential and I really look forward to racinf there in the future!
I arrived there on thursday and got my trackwalk out of the way, If an athlete could fall in love with a track... I would have married this one by now! its super fast, with little jumps all along the trail and has a couple tricky corners! I couldnt wait to hit the hill and get practice going!
Race Day arrived and I was super pumped to get on my bike and thrash out some practice runs! I nailed all my lines during practice and felt confident leading into the seeding/qualifying run. - out of the gate on my seeding run I was feeling like I was on a cracker of a run. I was hitting all my lines and about half way down the track I started to feel my back end of the bike start to drift around some of the corners, I straight away knew that I had punctured. I got off my bike and ran the rest of the track, getting to the bottom with the second slowest time of the day, I fixed my flat and got to the top ready to really show what I was able to do on the hill!
Out of the gate and quoted by almost everyone "dude, bro, you were hanging sooooo loose" a term used by downhillers to describe the riders style, its not my usual style of riding, but somehow I was hanging REAL loose! and maybe a little too loose, I hit the first corner and both feet blew off the bike and I was goon riding more than anything else haha. I quickly recovered but then into the next switchback corner I went off track and lost valuable time, still focussed and determined to do well, I regathered myself and pinned down the rest of the track, hitting all my lines and "hanging loose" I was pedalling as hard as I could, but I got to the bottom of the track but the damage was done... I was lying 3rd overall with still many fast riders to come down. I had a solid time of 02.34.60 but i knew it wouldnt' hold and slowly I saw my time slip down the ranks. I ended up 13th elite and 15th overall, all that I can do now is move on and forget about what happened this weekend.
The next race is African Continental Champs, training is going well and will leave updates on how it is going soon.
A big thanks to Andre from Rush Sports for getting my bike ready before this weekend, and too the race organisers for an awesome track.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Sunday, October 7, 2012
KZN Provincial #4 - Giba - 8 July 2012
It was the last provincial of the 2012 season and doing relatively well on the Giba track last year I was excited about racing! SA champs was the race to follow this one and I went there with a mindset of wanting to stay positive, regardless of my result and keep myself in one piece before SA champs!
All our prayers were answered on Saturday night when the heavens opened and soaked the desperate dry course with a lot of water, the perfect amount of water. I was feeling awkward on my bike... but was really enjoying myself after a couple of runs.
My first race run was safe but I wasnt very happy with the outcome. I was lying 4th junior and after a little rest I headed back up the mountain, knowing If I took some risks I could get a decent time and contest for the podium!
The second race run started off really well, but I made a rookie error and decided to take a risky line which cost me. I found myself skidding with one foot on the bike, and one off and really out of control. I finished my run a bit slower than my first and had to settle for 4th junior and 8th overall.
With the KZN DH series being over, a big thanks must go to Greg Minnaar Cycles and Mongoose and everyone else involved in this years series! It was awesome to see so many new people joining our downhill family!
All our prayers were answered on Saturday night when the heavens opened and soaked the desperate dry course with a lot of water, the perfect amount of water. I was feeling awkward on my bike... but was really enjoying myself after a couple of runs.
My first race run was safe but I wasnt very happy with the outcome. I was lying 4th junior and after a little rest I headed back up the mountain, knowing If I took some risks I could get a decent time and contest for the podium!
The second race run started off really well, but I made a rookie error and decided to take a risky line which cost me. I found myself skidding with one foot on the bike, and one off and really out of control. I finished my run a bit slower than my first and had to settle for 4th junior and 8th overall.
With the KZN DH series being over, a big thanks must go to Greg Minnaar Cycles and Mongoose and everyone else involved in this years series! It was awesome to see so many new people joining our downhill family!
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