Monday, May 3, 2010

KZN cross country champs

On Sunday 2nd May I decided to enter the KZN cross country champs at Cascades in PMB. Wasn’t really sure what too expect, first reason being I was riding my Morewood Ndiza ST, which is a 14kg 4X race bike, secondly I entered under23 men which was a highly competitive category, thirdly I hadn’t done a lap race in around 3 years or so and finally we had to do 8 laps of a course I had never seen before. So Hayds and I started the race aiming to finish at least four of the laps before getting pulled off coz we were expecting the racing snakes to pass us soon after that. First lap went well, used it as a sighting lap to see what we were in for. Second lap I left Hayds behind and tried to push it hard focusing on keeping it consistent in the next few laps. I got to lap 4 and still hadn’t been passed by the front runners so I was stoked I reached one of my goals. I was surprised that I managed to pass a few guys in my age group, evan got to shout track on some uphill single track to a guy that had calves bigger than my thighs. Lap six was really tough for me, my back and wrists were hurting big time and I was just starting to cramp. My dad told me that the race organisers had shortened the event from 8 laps to 7 as I started the sixth lap. The mind is a powerful and amazing thing, as soon as I heard this I pushed through the hurt and managed to pass a few more dudes. So I finished my seven laps placing me in 3rd position for the under23 men. Was a big surprise but well worth the 150 minutes of pain. Looking forward to doing some more XC races in the future, next one being the Karkloof classic and sprint shoot out.

Ride safe,
TB

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