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!