It was a chilly morning as usual in Noodsberg just outside Pietermaritzburg and racing started of fairly comfortable with no real attacks going of or getting anywhere. Some junior cyclist tried to get off the front, but went at the wrong times and always on the downhills where they soon "ran" out of gears. For myself i am used to racing in the bunch now, but for Alan it was a little different to the cross country mountainbiking where he normaly is on his own. He managed to calm himself a bit and to stay put in the bunch and didn't try to cover every attack. I was very impressed with him for that reason. I didn't really warm up, so on one of the hills i jumped and went to the top alone where i was burning in the red zone. I sat up and let the peloton catch because i knew there was no point in going further on the downhill and i wasn't warm yet.
Still on the first lap of 3 Alan lost his one bottle on a bumpy section of the road which costed him a lot on the last lap where he bombed out and had no more energy. I caught up to him and asked him if he is coming but all he could say was: "do you have a GU for me please?" Unfortunately i didn't have any left and was running low on fuel too but pushed myself to the finish and got 8th in the 16-29 age category.
I can't say that i am happy with the result because we didn't get Alan where we wanted him, but looking back at that week where i was in study mode and resting and then doing the hardest road race of my live, i am satisfied.
I had a year with more ups than downs, the funny thing is that i didn't get faster with all the up's but that's life. I also loved the fact that my father did most of the races that i did and never quit or pulled out. I think he even did more races than myself this year. I thank him for allowing me to comete and the support!
A massive thanks to VELO life Racing Team for all the wonderful tours, trips and support in 2013! I'm happy to be in this family instead of it just being a team!
Thank you to the fans!
J. Pelser
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