it wasnt long ago that i stood next to the track in amzament staring at the pro riders flying by at the world champs...this years world championships has been a very exciting proposition for me ever since an after winning the u/23 world championships in canberra last year i set two optomistic goals for the 2010 season.i wanted to win a medal at both the marathon world championships and the xco world champs a month later.

last month i managed to achieve my first goal,however i knew i wasnt going to be as lucky at the xco champs with that sort of form.i went home,got re-focused and set about making it happen.after last weeks dissapointment in windham i knew i had some good shape and the motivation was sky high.

i have raced at mont st anne for a couple of years now and i think they did a great job of the course for this years worlds.the loop was shortened somewhat which meant we would do the two big climbs more often than before.the course also had the sweetest bridges ive ever ridden over.it was like a skatepark out there!

the specialized team did an awesome job again this week.our bikes had to be race ready not once,but twice this week as we had team realy on wednesday.i had a pretty solid lap in some traffic as sa had a third row call up.the rest of our sa team did a good job and we just missed the top 10 and ended 11th.

for bike setup this week i went for a single ring in the front.a 34tooth rotor ring mounted to a specialized carbon road spider did the job perfectly.i was again aboard my 2010 stumpjumper 29er.i ran a new prototype mud tire on the front dubbed "winston" by the team.on the rear i ha my fast rolling renegade setup.sram hooked us up with some new xx world cup edition black box brake last week which rounds of the package superbly.the bike weighed in at 8.2kg and handled the rough and technical track like a dream.

in the morning of the race it had rained quite heavily but it was drying out alittle whilst the women were fighting it out on the course.we started at 2pm and the clouds were threatening.i had a great jump of the line and got through the first turn in the lead.i held onto the the front until the first climb where i settled into the lead group before dropping into the first single track.we did two start laps which comprised the half of the full lap with the most climbing.after the two laps i was in third trailing by around 10 sec.i had settled into my own pace on a track that offered very little drafting.with riders positions swapping for most of the race i just tried to stay relaxed as i knew it was going to be very tough at the end.by midway through the full laps of which we did 6 i hit the front of the race again.on my heels tho was jose hermida from spain and jaroslav kulhavy from check republic.it was indeed a tough battle at the end in which i had to settle for second bronze medal of the year!it was an incredible feeling to end the season by achieving the goal i wanted most!

heres some pics from the race courtesy of gary perkin at http://www.flipper.co.za/. rights reserved.

the race got off to a flyer as always...








our soineur doing a great job as always.thanks claire!!!!

the most techincal section on course...

psyched to get third....


sharing the podium with czech specialized rider jarosalv and the king of spain "mr meximoustache" jose hermida!!!


thanks to everyone for the support,i look forward to some time off now before racing roc d'azur in october...

ciao
burry