No luck at Sabie

Friday morning my dad, Carlo and I loaded the car and set of with our journey to Sabie. We travelled down with 2 of the BMC Racing SA cars and Candice Neethling, Ashleigh P-M and Eszter was in the other one. We met up with the Vosloo's in Nelspruit and followed them to our lodge where we were going to stay. The house was big and had enough sleeping space for 14+ people! There was a squash court inside the house. The whole team except for Alan Hatherly was there and also lots of friends and family. At dinner that night we all had lots of laughs and discussed the planes for the next days racing.

Saturday morning came and it was time for the marathon riders to get ready and race prepped. From our team we had Candice, Ashleigh and Simone that took part in the World Cup Marathon #1 - Sabie. Candice finished the race in 5th place also coming in 2nd place at the KOM(King Of the Mountain). She is only 20 years old and said that she was very happy with her result! Ashleigh also had a great race and team mate Simone also.

On Sunday morning i woke up with a very sore and burning throat... It only meant one thing, I wasn't going to race that day for sure. I decided it be best if i rested my body for the next weekend coming up as it was a more important race. Carlo finished 6th overall and won his age group on the day. It was nice watching a bit of the racing for once instead of being the one on the track. However i still had an amazing weekend with the team and family. My team really is one big family!

Thank you all for a fun time.

Later

Momentum Health XCO International #1 - Giba Gorge

I woke up to the sound of water drops falling on leaves outside the window. I call that nature's alarm. I stayed at team mate Alan Hatherly's house the night before the race. Alan has been racing for a long time and every time I stay with him or train with him I learn something new. A big thank you to him and his  family for having me again and helping me.
As usual it was breakfast time and then off to the race venue. I met up with Kyle Dorkin(Ellsworth-SA) who would prove that he was the strongest of us all on the day for a warm-up session. The warm-up was quite funny with Kyle trying to take me on some of the other Giba Gorge tracks, but having to stop the whole time because he got spiderwebs stuck to his face. After the warm-up, I lined up on the start line next to Buck Norris (Evan van der Spuy) and about 13 other Junior riders.

The horn went and off we went. It was my best start ever and going up the first little hill I was lying in 5th place. Everybody was just trying to keep up with the pace of Kyle Dorkin. Lap 2 was a big tussle between Gareth Andrews and I, but on the 3rd lap he put in a little attack and managed to open a small gap. I gave it all, but my body started cramping and let me down on the hills. Meanwhile Kyle was setting a blistering pace and took the win ahead of Patrick Belton(Jeep). I finished in 6th place, 10 minutes behind Kyle.

I have decided that I need to take a different approach to what I am eating during the days and leading up to an event... I learnt that carbo-loading can't be done the night or two before a race.

This week-end I will be racing in Sabie.
Till next time.

Cape Town Trip

The trip all started on Thursday morning at about 3o'clock in the morning with my friend Corbin Mann and his dad. Our flight was at 6:30 and the drive to the airport about a hour and a half, our bicycles were checked in and all was ready for a relaxed breakfast at Wimpy. It was my first time flying with bicycles and I didn't know what to expect, but when we arrived in Cape Town the bikes were fine and didn't have a problem at all. At our guess house, Corbin and I built up the bikes and went to the track for our first practise day on the track with our coach Johann Wykerd and some teammates.

The coarse was different to what I am used to. It had no trees for shade and would make up for a hard days racing in the sun, secondly it was very dusty and dry, which isn't unusual for the Cape. It had some really technical loose rock sections that you couldn't practise, because it changed every time someone rode over it. I did about 3laps and felt good about the track. I had also just got my new BMC Fourstroke 01 with full SRAM X0 groupset and had to check it out, because it was the first time I rode it. It was the best bike for the track and especially over the loose rock sections. The full suspension helps a lot over the rocks, because you can still pedal without bouncing of the bike and loosing traction. First day in Cape Town came to an end. The next day we drove to the Airport again to pick up Christan Kirsten one of our racing friends. We then went to the track and did some more laps just for final assurance and to feel comfortable. The track also changes sometimes, because of tape being put up so riders can't take other lines or shortcuts on the track. After 3 laps I was ready and headed back home to our guest house for some lunch and a little nap before we would all have dinner together.

Corbin and I- feet up.

Race day arrived. We went to the track a little bit earlier so that I could support our teammates and I caught up with my very good friend Catherine Colyn. Our team had some great results and it was only the start of  the day. My race was at 12:15 and it was in the middle of the days heat. All the Juniors lined up, I was surprised to get a second row start. As the race started my chain came off and my feet unclipped, it was horrible start and not what I had imagined. We caught all the back markers of the Elites which made it harder to pass, I soon found myself in 17th place with fellow KZN mtbiker, Max Sullivan just behind me. I had to use my head in the race and up some places to get into my top 10 that I was aiming for. It was such an awesome spectator friendly coarse, but with there being 100+ riders on the track it was difficult to stay on the bike up the short little kicker climbs on the 4.7km long track. I had the best feeder also and that helped me a lot to stay hydrated with my Biogen Race Mix. I was surprised to cross the line in 9th place, 11minutes behind the winner. I can now go back to the drawing board and improve on that!

Thanks to Catherine and Johann for all the support and also to Team BMC Racing SA!

 I also celebrated my birthday and Corbin's with some of the Life In Motion athletes and friends!

Subaru Classic

On Sunday it was the first classic race of Kwa-Zulu Natal, which include a 40km, 20km and a 10km race. Carlo Marzoppi did the MTN Barberton race in Mpumalanga on the Saturday were he won the Youth age Category and 6th overall in the 45km, he then stayed at my house for the night after a long drive back. In the morning I got up checked my weight and had some breakfast with Carlo. As we got to the race venue at Cedara College it was filling up fast and a lot of top class riders was there, including Luke Roberts(RE:CM), Brandon Stewart and Jacques Rossouw(both Fed Group) and also some other juniors like Kyle Dorkin(Ellsworth-SA) and Patrick Belton(Jeep). It was going to be a super hard race from the start. This year i have moved up from the Youth age group into Juniors and in cycling it is a big difference when your at the bottom of the age group.
On the start line I was in the middle of the A Batch and off we went, I was caught up in the traffic up the first little hill where a rider crashed. Next to was Eszter Erdelyi(Ellsworth-SA) and that's when I realised I'll have to make a sprint and catch up to the brake away group of 6 riders who already had a big gap. I knew I had a team mate, Alan Hatherly,in the brake and made it my aim to catch up to him.. In the end I never made it to there and finished in 12th place overall. The form wasn't there on that day and I knew I would need to go back to the drawing board... However I ended in 3rd place in the Junior age category, but far behind Kyle Dorkin(2nd) and Patrick Belton(1st). Well done guys!

Thank you Gavin Ryan for the picture

I now have something to aim at and to improve on, and hope to keep on pushing for that Top 10!! Thanks to my team for all their support and my sponsors. BMC was design for pure mountain biking and handled the very bumpy race superbly!!