RED sprint shoot out

On Saturday 8th of May I headed out to Karkloof to take part in the sprint shoot out sponsored by RED and Mr price. The format was a timed qualifying lap around the course, then top 12 elite times would go through to the final where everyone would race together for top honours and take home the prize money. The track was pretty short, around 300metres or so. It had loads of metal scaffolding obstacles thrown in to make it interesting and a few tight turns. I rode my Ndiza for the qualifying lap, it suited the course well because of the buck jumps, felt really comfortable on it. The course was a lot more tiring than I thought, it was basically a flat out sprint from beginning to end, I did two qualifying runs and ended up 8th so I was happy to have my place in the final. For the mains Andre hooked me up with a Zula marathon bike, which I was really stoked to ride, was way lighter and accelerated a lot faster than the Ndiza! We started in two rows of six, the racing snakes were in front and I was representing for the DH boys in the back row. As the final started the pace was super hot, I knew straight away this was gonna hurt. I fought my way from the back after a bad start and banging bars with James Reid. Passed two more guys so I was sitting in 9th and tried to hang onto Travis Walker for 8th, but after the 6th lap of sprinting (there was still 4 more to go) I started seeing stars and knew I wasn’t going to make it. So I pulled out along with Roan and had a long sit down at the finish until I could breath properly. I have loads of respect for those XC guys, Burry cleaned up and took the win, he was pinned!

Thanks to Andre for the Zula, didn’t really wanna give it back, that was loads of fun to ride! And to Mr price for putting on an awesome event. And of course all my friends and family for the amazing support, wish I could have made it past lap 6!

Congrats to the Morewood/Adrenaline cycles team, they all took part in the event and looked factory on there pimped out rides and awesome kit.

Ride safe,
TB