Well the first races of the year finally arrived and we were heading off to Pietermaritzburg, South Africa for the first round of the MTB World Cup. It was an exciting time as I have never been to Africa before and we headed out there on the Wednesday 10days before the World Cup, it was a long couple of days of travel with three flights but we got there midday on Thursday. Once we arrived we had an easy spin before getting on the course Friday. We had a race on Saturday which was part of the Momentum Health Series a South African National round and it was on the same course as the World Cup would be in a week so there were about 80 top elites racing, It was a hard race and I eventually crossed the line in 37th after 2 hours of racing but it was good preparation for the World Cup in a week’s time. The course was quality with lots of technical features, dusty trails and a fair bit of climbing.
The next week was spent doing some easier rides and plenty of course practice so we were ready for the race on Saturday morning. I lined up for the World Cup on the Saturday with the second last gridding because I had no UCI points so it was going to be a hard race from the back. It was a hot day about 30 degrees and we had 5 laps of the course. I was a bit nervous before the start because it was my first Under 23 World cup after moving up from juniors last year but also fairly excited to get racing after lots of training in the winter. We soon started and the first half lap was a big fight for me to get past people and try and move up the race with a lot of running and some sly overtaking manoeuvres, but I soon settled down and started getting past people and found myself in the top 10 after lap 1. I then got into a bit of a rhythm and was feeling rather good on my bike and stayed inside the top 10 for the next for next couple of laps with the leading group not too far ahead. Going into the final lap I was in 9th place in a race with a Belgium for 8th place, I was feeling good and it was going to be a close finish with us still together with less than half a lap to go. Then some bad news, my race turned for the worst with a puncture that I somehow got on the final climb. I first thought that it could be okay as there was a good gap of about a minute to the next person behind me but it was all downhill to the finish and people soon started to go catch and go past. I started to run with my main aim to try and get some UCI points which you get if you finish inside the top 25 but I eventually crossed the line in 27th. So it turned into a bad day on the bike even if my legs felt good. Unfortunately looks like I am going to be starting on the back of the grid for a bit longer until I manage to get myself some points.
My Next race is the first round of the national series this weekend at Sherwood Pines.
Thanks for reading
Grant
