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dalby forrest,uk played host to the 2nd round of the uci mtb world cup this weekend.specialized racing was there in full force and after a smooth trip from sa on tuesday evening i met up with the team.

the weather was typically uk in that it was pretty freezing for a kzn boy.i also soon developed a head cold wich wasnt fun.luckily for me we got some great winter gear from specialized so was keeping warm during training.the team worked hard all week and our bikes were dialed on race day.i chose a 7.2kg specialized stumpjumper on renegade tread for the weekends battle and felt good on the track leading into the race.

on sunday we kicked off in what felt like gale force winds.team mate jaroslav kulhavy piloted his 29er s-works epic off the front off the lead group immidiately while the rest of team specialized were hanging around 10-15th.suzie ,todd and i soon moved up and found ourselves in the group fighting for third place.i was feeling pretty solid but felt i lacked max breathing capacity.on the courses many technical descent kulhavy kept stretching his gap while we kept fighting hard in the group.

on the last lap i started to feel the pace alittle and lost the group.i dug deep and manged to hold onto 7th.it wasnt a great day for me but it wasnt the worst.for our team however it was an awesome day!thanks goes to benno,dylan,peter,sandy,jhonny,claire and myron for supporting us althrough these tough weeks.the moral in the team is quite incredible and were all pumped for this weeks upcomin wc in offenberg,germany.

after the race,todd and i drove down to the olympic mtb course in essex.i wasnt expecting much from the videos i had seen before but was pleasantly surprised and with a bit more natural deterioration of the surface,its going to be a great olympic course.once we were done training we caught three trains to heathrow,a flight to frankfurt and then a 2hr train to offenburg before finaly ending the roadtrip at around 12pm.it was a day to remember...

cheers

burry