chamery wc
on tuesday evening i rolled up to the jhb airport with an expired schengen visa,needless to say i didnt make it to europe on wednesday.instead i was camped outside the swiss embassy on a freezing morning by 8am.i had a stack of papers and letters as i needed a visa...fast! luckily for me they do express visas but even this procedure takes 5 days.i only had one day!i managed to wangle it somehow and flew out on thursday night.the trip actualy turned out fine,i got to do some easy road rides with a few intervals and hang out with cherise alittle longer.i got to zurich very early on friday and was met by the ever friendly benno willeit(manager) even though he had to get up at 4am and drive 3 hours to come and get me.
it rained most of the way to champery and when i wanted to take my new 2011 epic out for a burn it was bucketing down.i rode on the rollers for a few minutes until it subsided,fit a storm mud tire on the front and headed onto the most technical course we race all year.i worked my way around slowly but managed to ride most of the course.the specialized storm tire is incredible when the weather forces its use.the course didnt dry much on saturday and practice along with a few hundred other riders was pretty crazy.in the evening the organizers layed down some gravel as the course had become too unrideable.
perfect blue skies greeted us for our race on sunday.the course was still mucky but not nearly as bad as it had been.we were onto intermediate tires(fasttrack lk) and very excited to race.i had my best start of the year from the second row and along with florian vogel lead the first start lap.on the second lap we were joined by vogel's scott team mate nino schurter and julien absalon (orbea).after the first full lap the group satyed the same with riders just gapping off when making mistakes in the difficult conditions.on the second lap nino dropped off with just before the start finish.on the third lap i started lacking some consentration and had my first crash on the last downhill section.i got going pretty quick but the gap was afew seconds to the front.i chased back at the star of lap 4 but made some more mistakes shortly after and ended up crashing about 4 times!somehow i got it together over the last two laps and held on to finish in 6th place 1min 23 seconds down on winner florian vogel.it was a satisfying performance for me as my last two world cups havent gone my way at all.
this week we are racing in val de sol so yesterday was a long road trip.as if the drive wasnt long enough we extended our trip by getting rear-ended in suzi's ne multivan.after a lengthy visit to the carbinerri and a cheese and wine picnic outside,we made it to val di sol in one piece.
till next week...happy trails
burry
it rained most of the way to champery and when i wanted to take my new 2011 epic out for a burn it was bucketing down.i rode on the rollers for a few minutes until it subsided,fit a storm mud tire on the front and headed onto the most technical course we race all year.i worked my way around slowly but managed to ride most of the course.the specialized storm tire is incredible when the weather forces its use.the course didnt dry much on saturday and practice along with a few hundred other riders was pretty crazy.in the evening the organizers layed down some gravel as the course had become too unrideable.
perfect blue skies greeted us for our race on sunday.the course was still mucky but not nearly as bad as it had been.we were onto intermediate tires(fasttrack lk) and very excited to race.i had my best start of the year from the second row and along with florian vogel lead the first start lap.on the second lap we were joined by vogel's scott team mate nino schurter and julien absalon (orbea).after the first full lap the group satyed the same with riders just gapping off when making mistakes in the difficult conditions.on the second lap nino dropped off with just before the start finish.on the third lap i started lacking some consentration and had my first crash on the last downhill section.i got going pretty quick but the gap was afew seconds to the front.i chased back at the star of lap 4 but made some more mistakes shortly after and ended up crashing about 4 times!somehow i got it together over the last two laps and held on to finish in 6th place 1min 23 seconds down on winner florian vogel.it was a satisfying performance for me as my last two world cups havent gone my way at all.
this week we are racing in val de sol so yesterday was a long road trip.as if the drive wasnt long enough we extended our trip by getting rear-ended in suzi's ne multivan.after a lengthy visit to the carbinerri and a cheese and wine picnic outside,we made it to val di sol in one piece.
till next week...happy trails
burry
sa championships
shew what a week its been!cherise and i drove to pretoria on monday with a brief stop at usn's warehouse in durban to stock up for the coming weeks.we got to our destination pretty late and by then it was realy cold.it was a rather unwelcomed surprise after enjoyin the warmth at home for the last few weeks.
we checked out the course on tuesday after it warmed up to a reasonable temp which was only around mid day.the combined cold with the thin air made going tough for the first few practice sessions.the course was pretty standard for a fountains course with loads of tecnical sections and not alot of ascent.i was on my 29er stumpy for most of the week and only tested the epic out once or twice.as the course was short,quite sandy with minimal climbing. the 29er felt good.it was a bit bumpy at the start of each lap but once in the wooded sand sections and tight turns the bike came alive.i was also on some beefier pedals this weekend.i usualy run with the eggbeater 11 pedal from crankbrothers but since they have an awesome new candy with loads of platform ive been swapping back and forth between training sessions.i finaly decided on the candy 11 as it has more power transfer and only a 40gr weight penalty over the eggbeaters.
on thursday we checked out "the big 5" at the barnyard theatre.it was a musical production featuring mj,rod stewardt,elton john,maddona and tina turner.it was a great show with a cool vibe.the singers played the roles perfectly so it was rather funny.
race day dawned pretty quick as the course was fun to ride and i was having a good time in pretoria.cherise had a good race on saturday morning ending up 3rd in u/23 and 5th overall in the womens race.our race started at 12 45 which suited me as i could use the hour ride to the track from cherises' house as a warm up without er... cooling down.the crownd that came out was the biggest ive seen at a sa xc for years.that got me psyced for sure.as the gun went phillip buys moved into the lead with his trademark kick off the line closely followed by matthys beaukes with me riding in third.after the first singletrack i moved past matthys as he slowed and i moved onto phillip's wheel.i stayed there as passing on this track was tough and settled in before making a move at the end of the first lap.i got a small gap and then set about keeping those big wheels turning.once i was off the front i could ride much smoother and limit the big accelerations which is realy the best way to ride a 29er.i felt strong all race and i sense that all the xc specific training paid off in the last laps as the course was very demanding on the upper body.
i took my 8th national title on the trot infront of many friends and family including my grandma who got to see me race for the first time ever.it was very special and i cant wait to rock the national jersey at next weekends world cup in switzerland
team mate todd wells did a stellar job in the us champs to win the xc title for the first time in his carreer which is about time as he is no spring chicken,ha!
cherises' aim has realy improved...till next time...
burry
conclusion to a great time at home...
the past few eeks have been incredible on the south coast.the weather is magnificent even though its the middel of winter and the soccer world cup vibe that swallowed the whole of sa was so intense.
last week was a realy hard week for me training wise,i had to start turning the screws to get my body in shape for the most important time of my season.i start of this weekend with the sa championships in pretoria and then i leave for europe to race two wolrd cups and the world marathon championships all on back to back weekends.
as a good leg opener i decided to race the toti 69'er road race in amanzimtoti.the club there does a great job at hosting the event and the route is a mostly coastal route that goes all the way down to pennington and back.i had some tired legs leading into the race but when the racing started felt pretty good and very excited.a group of 8 riders got away early with the house of paint pro team represented well with 4 riders.in the end it came down to a sprint which i managed to win ahead of dean edwards with some smart menouvring rather than all out power.
i write this as im already up in pta for the race this weekend.it is absolutely freezing.we definitely have it good on the coast!for all those close to pretoria on the weekend,stop in and check out the racing at the fountains nature reserve.
happy trails
burry
the past few eeks have been incredible on the south coast.the weather is magnificent even though its the middel of winter and the soccer world cup vibe that swallowed the whole of sa was so intense.
last week was a realy hard week for me training wise,i had to start turning the screws to get my body in shape for the most important time of my season.i start of this weekend with the sa championships in pretoria and then i leave for europe to race two wolrd cups and the world marathon championships all on back to back weekends.
as a good leg opener i decided to race the toti 69'er road race in amanzimtoti.the club there does a great job at hosting the event and the route is a mostly coastal route that goes all the way down to pennington and back.i had some tired legs leading into the race but when the racing started felt pretty good and very excited.a group of 8 riders got away early with the house of paint pro team represented well with 4 riders.in the end it came down to a sprint which i managed to win ahead of dean edwards with some smart menouvring rather than all out power.
i write this as im already up in pta for the race this weekend.it is absolutely freezing.we definitely have it good on the coast!for all those close to pretoria on the weekend,stop in and check out the racing at the fountains nature reserve.
happy trails
burry
shaping up
theres only one spot to get reception at the s/lesotho border post...it feels like forever since i last borded a plane to europe and im not complaining.over the last few weeks ive done some of my best mid season training ever and after three hard weeks of long hours i even got to take alittle holiday.cherise and i joined some good friends for a stay in underberg last week.we left the bikes at home and decided to explore lesotho by 4x4 instead.the weather was great and we got to hike in the snow when we got to the top of black mountain.
this is the pub at the top of sani pass 2973m absl
this was cherises' first time in the white stuff
the pass was pretty icyafter returning on thursday ive been shaping up my form for the next few world cups coming up.this is the more painful part of training as i start pushing way above my lactic threshold.basically it means im doing efforts where i ride in the "burn" zone for most of the time.atleast i get to ride less and have more time to watch the tour de france which started on the weekend.the prologue was interesting with mr amstrong sending a strong message to contador.fabian cancellara did his normal thing and rode his specialized time trial bike straight to the top of the podium.i think we are set up for some awesome racing over the next three weeks.
this weekend ill take part in the toti 69er road race before heading to pta for the sa cross-country championships next weekend...
happy trails
burry
happy trails
burry
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