as you guys prob. know the african continental champs were held last weekend at mankele, nelspruit.
i left my home in hillcrest early (0315 hrs) to leave for mankele as the trip is about 8hrs, and i wanted to ride the course on thursday afternoon. we had to go into nelspruit before i went for my laps as my bike needed a few last minute adjustments. i then headed off for some laps.
we arrived at mankele at brendon david's cottage to see what was happening there. i then went off into the trail for two easy laps. the course was much easier than earlier in the year at nationals with the long grass climb being made even shorter. nonetheless the course was awesome with a knarley rock garden and fast smooth singletrack.
friday i woke up late and chilled through the morning and then went down to the track at about 1230hrs. i did one super chilled lap and when i had finished the lap i met up with my coach, johann wykerd. i then did two more laps and flew home to watch the end of the tour on tv.
race day dawned with the track and weather holding up. i raced at 0920hrs so it was much earlier than normal (1330hrs). i took in all my liquids and started warming up at 0830hrs on my trainer. we were called to the line at 0900hrs. i was feeling confident, knowing the course well.
the whistle blew(i think it was a whistle . . . or gun???) and we flew down the dirt road into the first section of singletrack about 800m from the start. arno, brendon and me hit the single track flying a short climb in the first few kms. arno managed to open a gap between myself and brendon but i chased hard and caught him in the rock garden near the middle of the course. when we exited the singletrack onto the field it was arno then myself with brendon chasing us down.
we onld did 3 laps so it was pretty much a sprint the whole way. i entered the singletrack at the end of the long grass climb 1st. when we hit the rock garden (which claimed many crashes) i pushed it too hard and couldn't control the bike and smashed into a rock on the left giving the lead back to arno. i chased as hard as i could through out the rest of lap with arno just in sight.
the 3rd lap was tough with arno sustaining his 15 or so sec lead till the finish. which left me in 2nd and brendon in 3rd.
brendon crashed hard on the 3rd and final lap and had to be taken to hospital. i wish him a speedy recovery.
the following day james reid and myself went out on the road with burry stander for a 2hr recovery ride which was absolutely awesome. i learnt alot from burry and he was just awesome to ride with.
james stayed overnight with me on sunday and we left at about 0515hrs on monday morning . . . long and boring drive definately.
over n out . . .
