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