WP Provincial round 2 2013

This past weekend we had the second round of the WP provincial race series which was held in Paarl. The event saw us racing on the same track as we raced earlier in the year at the AVR DH challenge.

The event was not really on my calendar but I thought I might as well use it as another training day :P The race was a one day event which meant practice in the morning and racing started at 2:30pm. The weather was great apart from really strong winds. I was not feeling as comfy as normal for some reason, my runs were a bit scratchy with some mistakes which you can’t afford on that track. In the last run of practice I nailed it which gave me some confidence heading into the race runs. I knew that I would have to be perfect in order to take the win with multi time national champ, Johann Potgieter there. The track was breaking up slightly with made a few of the corners really loose just to make things a bit more interesting J

Finally it was time for race runs and I was heading off second to last. The start of the track was altered slightly from the previous event which I didn’t realise and did not have a chance to ride the section before the race run. It was not a big change however it meant you came into the first corner quite bit faster and I would need to get on the brakes slightly earlier.

I set off in my run and entered the first corner slightly too fast which meant overshooting slightly and having to brake hard in order to stay on the track. I was really bummed about this as I knew that no matter what I did from then on, it would be hard to lay down a good time after the mistake. I also made a few more mistakes in the next few turns as I was a bit rattled, but after that I had a great run down to the bottom. I came across the line in first place with Johann last on track. However I knew that unless he also made a mistake that he would take the win because on a short track like this you have no room for error. As I suspected he came across 1.7 sec faster than me to take the win.

I am still happy considering the mistake and this is downhill, you can’t have a perfect run every time.

Top 3:

1.       Johann Potgieter: 1:44:21

2.       Stefan Garlicki: 1:45:91

3.       Adi Van Der Merwe: 1:50:29

This was a good exercise and I am excited heading into the national next weekend in Pietermaritzburg. Thanks again to all who have helped me thus far and my awesome sponsors:

INVESTEC, morewood, Seattle coffee co, virgin active, John Wakefield @ science2sport, Adidas eyewear, Bell helmets, Leatt protectives, Odi, Sun ringle, Hayes, Cycles Africa, Red Bull ZA, Spank and Csixx

Until next time….,