A hometown race is always super fun! The CH Classic is host by the Cowan House School in Hilton and always such a pleasure to be there and enjoy the wonderful Cedara Forest trails.
The day started of with lots of people meeting at Wsquared Cycling and riding to the race venue. It was very cold riding there and not ideal for a nice warmup. It didn't help warming up and then waiting for almost 9minutes on the start line, because your body gets cold again. As we started the race, the wind picked up and found myself dropping back to 25th position. It was very cold, but with the absolutely amazing singletrack and nice uphill everyone was warmed up. Slowly on i pushed forward and kept my own pace with Duane Stander on my wheel. The single tracks were super smooth and hard to keep up with Duane. Out of the single tracks and there he was, the photographer Darren Goddard on his single speed bicycle with only one gear. I knew i was in trouble and had to move somewhere... I just couldn't accept the fact that i was sucking a guy on a single speed's wheel. Slowly on i crept away from him on the flats where he couldn't keep up. At about 10km's to go i suddenly found my lost power and that second wind i was hoping for and pulled away from Duane and passed 3 more riders to finish in 17th place overall. Quite far down from the leaders but still a 3rd place in Junior men.
I enjoyed the race very much even though it was so hard, but wasn't happy with my overall result. You have to learn from mistakes and move on. Eating right the day before the race is very crutual!
New week, new changes & the right choices!
Jaco Pelser
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