CROSS COUNTRY MADNESS

Hi guys,

I had an interesting Saturday last week, I decided to try out my first ever xc race as a training exercise. It was round 2 of the provincial series and it was held at Paul Roos in Stellenbosch.

It was a last minute idea and thus we were running a bit late. We arrived 15 min prior to the start and had no time to waste! As soon as we unloaded we headed to the start and I was a bit confused as I had never done this before.

The race was 7 laps long at 5.4 km per lap. There was 165m of vertical climbing over the course and it had some nice fast downhill sections which I loved! I had no idea of what to expect because I train for a 2-5 min sprint, not a 1.5hr sprint. I knew I was fit but I had no clue of how I would feel running a fast pace for that amount of time. However I just went for it and pinned it for the first half a lap after having no warm up :p My legs took some strain but soon I settled into a good pace and was running around the 12th spot.

After 3 laps I was feeling it and my lower back was in a serious amount of pain due my bike setup being a disaster :) My reach was way too short which made me hunch over and yeah, it was not ideal.

Half way through lap 4 I got a flat right at the start of the downhill section which meant cruising down slowly and loosing so much time that there was no point in continuing. This was a great shame but possibly a blessing in disguise as my back was about to cave in!

 

So in the end I didn’t finish but it was a good experience and I am happy considering my terrible bike setup. I know now that I am pretty strong even at xc which I don’t train for so I will be sure to try another one soon!

 

Again thanks to all the great companies behind me, INVESTEC, Morewood, Seattle Coffee Co, Red Bull, Science 2 Sport, Virgin Active, Leatt, Bell, Csixx, Adidas eyewear, Spank, Cycles Africa(ODI/Sun Ringle/Hayes)

 

Until next time….

 

African Continental Championships 2013

So African Continental Champs is set and done for 2013. Here is how my weekend went up in Pietermaritzburg…

I arrived in PMB on the Wednesday prior to the race which gave me a few days to settle in and prepare for racing. The event started on the Friday afternoon with great weather and a perfect track. The Cascades world cup downhill track is extremely physical and  has some of the biggest jumps on the world cup circuit. I personally love riding there, it’s so much fun to ride as I love jumps, however racing there is tough due to lots of pedalling in the middle section.

On Friday I only did two practice runs as it started pouring with rain half way through the afternoon and we ran out of time. It was not so bad because I did not want to tire myself out too much for the weekend. On Saturday things had not gotten much better on the weather front. It was overcast and gloomy outside, never the less we headed down to the track and I squeezed 4 runs in which I was happy with. The track was slick after the rain but it did not rain much during the day which meant it dried up quite a bit and got really tacky towards the end of the afternoon.

Race day rolled around and it was even worse with rain and it was chilly out there! I was still positive and ready to rock and roll. I did one run in the morning to check out the track which was absolutely ridiculous, it was so slippery. The mud there is like nowhere else, it’s got so much clay in it and it causes your tyres to clog up which means NO GRIP period. So basically it’s like ice skating down the course J, its loads of fun to ride but very tricky to race so I was a bit tense heading into seeding. Finally I set off in seeding and about 30 seconds into the track I got to the Cloud 9 section which is the steepest on the course. I went in sideways and ended up on my chest sliding down which was not ideal! I got up and had to first get the mud out of my cleats before I could set off and clip into my pedals….

I managed to slide my way down the course to a time of 5:28 which had me in around 8^th spot. This was not great but I knew what I needed to do going into finals. After washing my bike and having a quick break we heading up for the final run. We got to the start and did not have much time as the schedule was tight which meant I only had 5 min to warm up which was a disaster because on a long track like Cascades you need to be warm and ready so you don’t shock your body. Anyway there was no choice for me and soon I had set off for my run.

I focused on staying smooth, not braking too hard in the corners and nailing the Cloud 9 section. I got through the top section perfectly, not too fast but I made sure I kept it on two wheels. I headed into the pedalling section after clearing both table tops which were 20+ meters long which was awesome to do in the muddy conditions. Due to the warm up issue I felt horrible on the pedal but I gave it my best and came down with a time of 4:47:98 which was 41 seconds faster than seeding! This put me into third spot for the day which was a bit disappointing but I am still happy considering the circumstances J

Top 3:

1.       Hayden Brown: 4:45:06

2.       Tiaan Odendaal: 4:47:12

3.       Stefan Garlicki: 4:47:98

 

I have had a great start to the season and I can’t wait for the next race!

A huge shout out to the awesome companies behind me, INVESTEC / Morewood / Seattle Coffee Co / Red Bull / ODI / Science 2 Sport / Virgin Active / Csixx / Sun Ringle / Spank / Leatt / Adidas eyewear / Bell helmets / Hayes, you all rock!

Lastly I would like to thank Sam Bull and Hayden Brown for the accommodation up there!

Until next time…..

 

WP Provincial Series rd.1 - Zevenwacht

So this past weekend saw the running of the first WP provincial race of the season which was held at Zevenwacht.

I was not originally going to race but on Friday afternoon I changed my mind and decided to go and have some fun as a good training exercise. The event was a one day only event which meant practice and racing on the same day. I already knew the track fairly well and did not need to do too many runs beforehand. However when I arrived on Sunday I was having so much fun I just carried on doing runs and did about 10 before the race run! Luckily the track is fairly short and you can save your energy in practice.

Before I knew it, it was race time and I was a little tense as always before a race run as I was determined to put down a good run. There was only one shot so you had to make it count. I set off pedalling, focused on being smooth and hitting all my lines. However the further into my run I got, the more excited I was getting and I ended up pushing it harder and harder which was so much fun. I smashed through the final section and whipped the big table top towards the end. I finished with a time of 1:54:51 which was good enough for the win J

Top 5:

1. Stefan Garlicki, 1:54:51

2. Adriaan Smit, 1:58:41

3. Adi VD Merwe, 1:58:87

4. Duran Van Eeden, 2:00:87

5. Dane Olsen, 2:01:87 

I am really happy with the way the event went for me and I am looking forward to African Champs this coming weekend in Pietermaritzburg!

Thanks so much to INVESTEC /Morewood / Seattle Coffee Co / Virgin Active / Science 2 Sport / Red Bull / Adidas eyewear / Leatt / Bell helmets / Sun Ringle / Spank / ODI / Csixx / Hayes for the awesome support!

Until next time....