RockyRoads.Net UCI Mountain Bike Worldcup, Pietermaritzburg, RSA

The past weekend I raced my first xc worldcup. Racing in the elite men's category means you are lining up with best and fastest xc racers in the world. This year saw the biggest field in the past 3 years at this venue with 118 starters and being an Olympic year all the top guys are fighting hard to get Olympic qualification so they can be on the starting line in London.

Have a look at a small preview of some of the technical features that were included this year.

photo Mike Smith

This was a really fun section to ride with the drop, a left turn and a jump to the right. Here the top 3 guys Stander, Schurter and Fumic.

photo Mike Smith

This is the steep log chute,more of a mental obstacle to ride and is not as bad as it appears once ridden.

This is looking up the main rock garden the longest technical section of the track. Spectators love this area.

So onto the race now. Given the fact I didn't have enough UCI points to ride a few of us were offered wild card starts through the National federation. This meant I couldn't ride in my World of Sport gear but got to ride in the South African colours.

Lining up with low ranking on the last row is not the most ideal place in a world cup start especially with 117 other racers that have the same idea as you and that is to ride fast and at almost every worldcup this happens if you are not in the top 20.

photo CSharp Photography

Riding from the back is really tough at this level once you get a chance to get onto the bike you are riding at the limit the whole race and a group ahead that looks so close is actually far at the speed of this race.

Once all the chaos at the back subsided I pushed hard and managed to get past maybe 10 riders and was almost getting across to another group when I made a silly error in a simple right turn and totally lost the group. At this level of the sport a tiny error costs you big time that is tough to make up again.

photo Mike Smith

photo Mike Smith

Fighting to hang in the race was all I really wanted to do and eventually I ended up -1 lap down in 101st place far down but not last. Despite the result I learnt a huge amount to help me moving forward and took alot away from this first worldcup experience. My Sram equiped Volcan xc29 went 100% perfect with no problems that says alot for this bicycle due to the terain and nature of the race. I got to thank Shaun Peschle and the World of Sport team for making this ride possible as well as my dad who did a great job in the crazy feed zones.



Here is a link to the full results check it out

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/uci-world-cup-xco-dhi-1-2012/elite-men-cross-country/results

Man these last 3 weeks have been rough! Though it is hard to swallow I have learned from what has seemed to be series of errors and loss of focus. After having a good ride at the first round of the Momentum series it was on to the 2nd round in 2weeks time in Karlkloof. Training was going good and I could feel I was getting better each week, the first mistake I made was not focusing on the event on hand. I decided the week before the karlkloof race to go and visit the revamped xc world cup track for the first time I was overwelmed by one technical section, my mind was consumed that entire week by something that was not important and I ended up crashing on that section in training, instead of focusing on the current event and taking each weekend as it comes I was caught up in the hype and lost focus a valuble lesson learned wright there. Going into the Karlkloof xc race with a bruised body was not ideal I felt frustrated as well as I new that my current form was not bad and could feel my level getting better each week. 

I had a decent start for the race, lined up 2nd row with a field of around 40 riders including some euro's who had arrived for the world cup early. I had an average kick off the line but I could feel my legs were feeling snappy I managed to stay smooth keep out of trouble until the first forest section where my race ended abruptly. In the line sitting top 10 on a straight piece of trail my back wheel scrubbed a rock and got kicked to the right straight into a tree stump I crashed from the impact and got up to find my rim absolutley shattered into pieces. Race over. The consistancy I had built seemed to be tainted at this moment.

Karkloof cat 2 xco

1. Phillip Buys (contego/giant)
2. James reid (360life)
3. Cedric Ravanel (Gt-Chamoix)

The next race on the cards was the following weekend. Round 3 of the Momentum series and a test run for the XC world cup the following weekend. I was probally in worse physical condition than last week after 2 crashes, the legs still felt good but the cascades track is so steep and physical that just having good legs is not gonna cut it. By wednesday I felt alot better and spent the next 2 days training on the course for the race, again it was not the best decision as my body needed alot more rest and was not fit for that sort of riding. By friday night it was obvious to me I had gone backwards in terms of recovery. Though I lined up
saturday afternoon which was to be my first race with a full international/world class field. 72 starters. My goal was to finish and not to take any risks. Straight away as we started I could feel I was not my self on the bike I felt saw and stiff I manged to push on despite the pain and made a decision that week to ride one of the chicken runs in order to be safer. Fighting it out in 40th place with nothing but determination was tough and by lap 4 the pain had become to much as I struggled to hold on to my bike in the rocky sections. At the end of that lap I decided I had enough and felt I was doing more harm than good.

Cacades cat 2 xco

1. Nino Schurter (scott-swisspower)
2. Burry Stander (specialized)
3. Florian Vogal (scott-swisspower)
4. Moritz Milatz (bmc)
5. Patrick Galati (bmc)

With less than a week till round 1 of the xc worldcup its now a case of resting this battered body. I'd rather sacricfice the training that I would have done in order to get my entire body back to normal its frustrating but will hopefully be the best thing to do as I really want to have fun and enjoy my first world cup!

Momentum international uci cat 2-Giba Gorge

So straight on to the next race! After the trip to Capetown last weekend I travelled back home to get ready for the 1st of 3 Momentum uci cat 2 xc races. Training has gone pretty good the past  2 weeks and my body has responded well to the higher intensity and I came out of the week confident I will be in better shape for the weekend. I'm also becoming more adapt to the Volcan xc 29 hardtail as it  handles so differently to a 26 inch bike. It is incredibly light around 8.9 kg and rolls so fast that it allows me to save energy when I need to. I'm really happy this machine.

On thursday afternoon I went to ride a few laps of the course 5.6km lap with I think around 130m of climbing a lap, so not brutal but tough enough. Conditions were dry and hot the ground very loose over hard pack trail that made slowing down on the decents tough, so speed control was vital going into the turns. The climbs at giba suit me well and having local knowledge of the trails helped alot. Some of my favourite sections of the park were included in the race.

Friday morning early I did some final preparation out on the road luckily I had just finished my session when the rain that had been forcasted arrived for the weekend. That afternoon we returned to the venue to register and ride 2 laps of the course. Riding in full on wet conditions was good as it allowed me to prepair mentally for what we could be expecting on race day.

Race day morning and I woke up to rain which I was super comfortable with but it was still a while till the start of the race at 12h30. I had a good early breakfast, my dad afforded me some down time by taking on the mechanic roll (which he is world class at!) and did some final tuning on the Volcan to help in the muddy conditions. At 10 I had another meal to load up for the race and slotted a double espresso an hour before by now the rain had diffenitley settled in for the day.

The competition on the day was solid, last weekends 2nd and 3rd place riders were on the line as well as SA's number 1 and 2 ranked u23's. A couple of riders from the UK were also lined up.

going in the the first lap I was a bit down the field in 8th, something I need to develop over the next few weeks but I could feel I had better legs already I kept consistant and worked my way up the field I was decending really well in the mud and had good power on the climbs and this helped me seperate my self from the chasers. A the end of 7 laps I crossed the line 4th overall and 2nd elite my best performance to date I'd have to say and one that gives me confidence as I don't feel I'm near my best yet.

 

staying hydrated

mud

more mud

Thanks to all my sponsors, friends, folks and kzn mountainbiking for putting together a great event.

Elite men

1. Phillip Buys (Contego-Giant)
2. Andrew Warr (World of Sport)
3. Mark Bassingthwaight (Namibia-Merida)

Pro-Elite

1. Phillip Buys (Contego-Giant)
2. Rourke Croeser (Orange Monkey-Cannondale) u23
3. James Reid (360life) u23
4. Andrew Warr (World of Sport)
5. Ben Roff  (Orange Monkey-Cannondale) u23

 

 podium

2 in the bag!

Wright so race season has officially got underway and so far things have been a little rough around the edges but there is allot of room for improvement and more speed to come from these legs over the next few weeks.

XCOSA series Fountains-Pretoria

The race season kicked off 2 weekends ago in Pretoria for the 1st round of the XCOSA.CO.ZA series. Travelling up with the team as a unit was really cool as most of last year I travelled on my own. On arrival in Pretoria the first thing we did was check in to our accommodation we then took a ride through to the race venue to do some laps on the track. Fountains xc circuits are known for being pretty rocky and technical but the organisers decided they were going to stick to a less challenging layout in order to gain the interest of xc racing by making the lap suitable for almost any level of rider. The lap was 5.6km with 30m of vertical climbing. A flat course never makes things any easier all it means is you peddaling hard almost the entire time.

The compitition was solid on the day and having most of the top ranked xc racers we got could give everyone a fair idea of where there level is at.

I honestly did'nt know what to expect. I had not even started doing short and sharp high intensity work on the bike yet and knew I was not 100 percent up to full speed and opened up but my overall physical condition is the best I've ever been in. Starting the race I was in the lead group but I put myself in the red zone to early, Burry Stander and Phillip Buys were impressive the other competitors also had good speed
but they got unlucky with punctures this saw me move up to 3rd. I held this until about 2 and a half laps to go but I sarted to fade off the pace as fatigue set in, Brendan Davids and Louis Bresler Knipe rode me in and I could just try and limit my loses and hung on for 5th and a finish.

I took allot out of this race and identified some things that need work..its what love about this sport your always learning and always looking for that edge!

1. Burry Stander (Specialized Factory Racing)
2. Phillip Buys (Contego-Giant)
3. Louis Bresler Knipe (Contego-Giant)
4. Brendan Davids (Specialized-Sho Air)
5. Andrew Warr (World of Sport)
6. James Reid (360 Life)

With a 2 weeks until the next race there was time to build on what took from Pretoria and going into the week leading up to the first national I felt ready and understood my current strengths and weaknesses alot better.

SA XC CUP Round 1 Durbanville-Capetown

We flew into Cape town thursday late morning assembled our bikes at our home for the weekend in Constancia and did light ride that afternoon to get the flight out the legs. Our hosts for the weekend Liezelle and Jonathan Parton were awesome and really made it feel like a home away from home.

Transport

Friday morning we drove out to the venue about a 40min drive from Constantia to Durbanville with no traffic. Conditions were very dry, the lap had some solid climbing and loose terain. After riding and learning the track I was able to get an idea of consistent lap time to peg on race day.

Volcan ready to go

With this being the first National of the year the level of competition is high and being an olympic year certain riders are out to prove a point. We had a combined start with elites and u23's together. I had a shocking start off the line battling to get my shoe into the pedal saw me mid packing it down the start straight from a second row start. While funneling down into the first narrow section I got pushed wide and had a silly collision with some bushes off the path I went down got up had to align my stem as it shifted on impact. I lost alot of time and was now in last position down maybe 30-40 sec already with in 500m. I was like 'this is how it is-nothing you can do but push on' giving up is not an option here!

I took it lap by lap I focused on being as consistant as possible and concentrating till the finish. I worked up to 8th position in the elite men cat and 12th overall. Not the result I was after but I'm satisfied with how I handled the situation and carried on fighting till the finish, yesterdays ride gave me great motivation for the upcoming races.

Elite Men

1. Burry Stander  (Specialized Factory Racing)
2. Phillip Buys  (Contego-Giant)
3. Marc Bassingthwaight (Namibia)
4. Mathys Beukes
5. Renay Goustra (RSAWEB-Rocky Mountain)
6. Louis Bresler Knipe  (Contego-Giant)
7. Oliver Munnik
8. Andrew Warr  (World of Sport)

Riders ready

Start of our race

Dead Last

keeping on the pressure

Thanks to my sponsors and everybody for the support and affording me the oppurtunity to race!

False Bay

Jonno took us for a great scenic drive on our way home after the race along chapmans peak drive.

Peace!

KZN MTB 8hr team relay

This past weekend included a lot of firsts. First time in the new colours, first time doing a 8hr relay with just one other rider being my team mate and first “unofficial” race of the year. I got to say it was a lot of fun coming to cascades and riding the trails full gas “some laps” it make you feel alive.

We got to appreciate the fact we have a dedicated and passionate group of people involved in KZN-mtb. They are pushing hard to make sure we get international level races to our province and this event being a fund raiser for the bike park at cascades felt like a good time to show some support for the time they are putting in.

Although a pretty un-serious event Hilton (team mate) and I had some serious decisions to make at around lunch time…like how many laps it will take each of us so we can each get in some decent food? Ha-ha. But it all worked out pretty well. What I really liked about the day is that we had all the members of the new team together joking around and having a good time and it felt like good way to start the year.

At the end of the day 8hrs is long I think between the two of us we logged up around 85km’s each with close to 1800 meters of climbing on a 5km XC track.   

A great day!

The next few weeks is going to be back to racing with the first real test in Pretoria next weekend at the first round xcosouthafrica.com cup after that its down to Capetown and then back to KZN for the momentum xc series.

 thanks Gavin Ryan for the photos

cheers.