back on the road...

its only been two weeks since i arrives home from a month long european campaign and im already on the road again...after another good week at home with mild weather and good training i caught my best friends wedding on the weekend.i was honoured to be craig pauls best man as he wed meghan.his childhood sweetheart!

on sunday i caught a flight to the usa and then onwards to canada on monday.the total trip was 33 hours and i was pretty shattered as i arrived on monday night.atleast the team spirit was high as christoph and jaroslav went 1 and 2 at sundays world marathon championships in italy.well done boys!

thsi weekend is the 4th round of the uci world cup xc series and the reason for all our serious travel.my season has been improving all the time and im looking forward to some good suffering on saturday...

cheers

burry

sa xco finals,jhb

this weekend saw the rounding up of the sa xco series that started back in february this year.it was a good way for me to stay racing sharp admist all the hard training ive been logging recently.

jhb greeted us with some cool weather on thursday evening and things didnt seem to hear up much over the weekend.i got to ride the course abit on friday afternoon and it was one with many turns.it wasnt the hardest track but with so many blind corners you realy had to know what was coming up.on one section we even had to dodge "cane-rat-like" creatures running all over the course.as the course wasnt the toughest i knew it would be close racing and with my tired legs,very testing.

on saturday we kicked of at 12 and i had a great start.it wasnt long before marc bassingthwaite set the tempo with garmin-addidas team-mate hot on his heels.on the first single track climb phillip snuck by marc and i had to watch as he slowly pulled away.after the first tight descent i got around marc and used my swork 29ers big wheels to roll up to phillip on a fast bumpy section.towards the end of the lap james reid (mr price-bmc) joined us for a brief period.phillip and i took turns in leading and on a flattish course i knew it was going to be hard to get away from the ever improving garmin rider.the altitude was hurting aswell so i decide to make a move around midway through the race once i had found some comfort in my pedal strokes.at the start of lap 4 i surged on the climb and with some good pressure i got a small gap on phillip.i had to push realy hard all the way around to make sure it stuck.once the elastic snapped on the 5th lap i could get back to enjoying some hard training on the twisty singeltracks.

the event was well run and id like to send a big thank you to wendell,usn and all the sponsors,spectators and riders for turning up and making the event possible.

after the race we headed home as i love sleeping in my own bed mid-season.we got to listen to the sharks winning and i got to rub it in my bulls-supporting fathers face.speaking of which,i hope all the dads out there had a great day,mine was looking for his golf ball most of the day!

ciao

burry

stairs of prague

http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/10110938667-cyklistika/21147129184-prazske-schody/last week i made my first trip to prague and i have to say it was very much worth it.its an amazing city and a the race course they set up for us was very cool.we raced down the stairs infront of the prague castle and then up the cobbled street through the old town.



the race kicked of realy fast on monday evening and it wasnt long before we were a group of 5 racing around the 3minute circuit.the race comprised 60minutes plus one lap of maimal effort.after half way it was down to myslef,jaroslav kulhavy and jan skarntzl.in the end it came down to a long sprint in which i just got the better of specialized team mate jarosav and czech specialized rider jan.


on thursday cherise and i got to check out prague properly and we were joined by dylan and peter our team mechanic and soigneur.we hit all the tourist sights and lunch at the hard rock cafe.it was a serously good day and a nice way to take a day off.


on friday we were back on the road and started our journey back to sa.first a 5hr drive to frankfurt and then an 11hour flight which was delayed by 2hrs.once back in sa,we boarded our last flight to durban and made it home by 3pm on sat.


on sunday we lined up at the sardine mtb classic in port edward.it was super muddy but the weather on the day was great.the only thing better was the course.awesome job done by the bundu bashers.everyone had a blast.i had fairly decent legs and managed a comfortable ride to take the win ahead of james reed(bmc) and andrew hill.


this week is a big training one for me.im also hoping to have some legs left for saturdays sa xco leg at rietvlei,jhb.


cheers for now


burry

swiss cup,granichen













i decided to stay in europe after the world cups to race in the stairs of prague race coming up this week.as it was near the last world cup cherise and i made the trip to granishen in switzerland aswell.ive always heard great things about the swiss cup so i was excited to give one a go.

we stayed in a town called aarau and wow the riding around there was incredible.after a few days of cold and wet conditions the skies cleared up and our stay became even more comfortable.

the course in granichen was harder than i expected.definitely on a much higher level than our national cup series back home.it was 4.5km long with 170m altitude gain per lap.we had 9 laps on the cards so that meant alot of steep climbing and alot of good tecnical descending mostly characterized by tight turns,drops and roots.

we kicked off at 2pm on sunday and i got of to a great start,heading into the single trail first at the top of a long pavement climb.soon we were four riders at the front,florian vogel(scott),balz webber(bmc),mathias stirneman(thomus).i was happy to try and lead all the dh sections and vogel paced alot on the climbs with me.at the end of the second lap we dropped balz but i had a small problem with my saddle coming loose.it kept moving forwards and backwards.at the end of the second lap i stopped to tighten it somewhat in the tech zone.i dropped 30sec behind and had a hard chase for three laps which included a tumble whilst taking some risks on the descents.i got back with less than three laps to go and vogel started testing us on the steep ascents in his home town race.mathias cracked first while i held on alittle longer.with a lap and a half to go i couldnt follow florians pace and settled in to my own rythm.on the last lap i closed back up to him and started the last half lap just 8 sec down,before having more trouble with the seat sliding the whole way back.i settled for 2nd and was happy with another solid result in europe.thanks to all the organisers and fans of the swiss cup who were so helpfull over the weekend.

on monday cherise and i drove 750km to prague and upon arrival walked around for about 4hours.a realy interesting city on which ill elaborate more later.im realy looking forward to the stairs race on wednesday before flying home to do the sardine classic back home on sunday!

till next week...

burry
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