Andrew Warr: 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.