SA National #2 - Cascades WC Track

Cascades was once again the venue for my next race. This time however, we raced the full WC track which is definitely one of my favourite tracks around - its very fast and the jumps are massive. On top of that, the weather for the weekend was absolutely perfect, with the track being in the best condition its been in for a while. On top of all of that, I was riding my new Morewood Makulu, which is a size bigger than my previous one. This set the benchmark for an awesome weekend.

I walked the track, late Thursday, with Adi Van der Merwe and Stefan Garlicki, both of who were staying with me. After walking, I decided that Fridays practice couldn't come any sooner.

My first run on the new bike during Fridays practice felt amazing. As the day progressed, I just kept having more fun. Saturdays practice went pretty much the same and I was confident that I was up to speed on the track, and that I would be ready come race day.

We woke up on Sunday to a beaut of a day. The sun was out early, and I could barely contain my excitement. I smashed out a quick practice run as I arrived, and then put my feet up and waited for my seeding run. At the top while waiting for my seeding run, I decided that I would tuck through most of the pedal section and try and conserve as much energy as possible. This tactic clearly was faster than expected and I ended up being seeded 3rd with a time of 4min:03sec behind Tim Bentley and Stefan Garlicki who both sat with times in the same second on 4mins:00sec.

I knew that I could post a competitive time if I put together a good top section, combined with a big effort on the pedal, for my race run. I managed to have a good warm up before my race run, and I got into the start gate feeling warm and ready to go. Things seemed to go according to plan in my run and I felt good on the technical section up top. I entered the pedal after getting a good drive over the N3 tabletops and pedalled as much as I could from then on. I finished strong, feeling happy with the effort that I had put in and was really stoked to see that I ended up in 6th overall.

The weekend went a lot better than expected and I am really glad to feel like I am back into the full swing of racing, with both my mental and physical aspects of my riding coming along nicely. Huge thanks to Morewood bikes and Spank Industries for kitting out the new bike, and to the race organisers for putting on a great event. Looking forward to the next one and to the European season ahead.


Results:
1 EM Jonty Neethling 03.56.34
2 EM Stefan Garlicki 03.56.59
3 EM Tiaan Odendaal 03.59.38
4 EM Alasdair Fey 03.59.56
5 EM Hayden Brown 03.59.81
6 EM Samuel Bull 04.01.84

2013 KZN DH Provincial #2 - Cascades

My first provincial race of the year went just the way provincials should. I had a ton of fun, had some good laughs and spent some quality time, talking rubbish, with the other KZN downhillers. The track was very short with the majority of it being on the bottom section of the World Cup track. Up top was a short, flowy section with a really cool loose, steep section that led into the World Cup track.

I didn't go into this race with many expectations. I wanted to ease back into racing, have some fun and make sure I was on track for the SA National the following weekend. I was also testing out some new Spank stuff which added a great new feeling to my bike.

The event organisers decided to use a 2 race run format. Both of my race runs went well and I finished 7th Overall, a few seconds off the winner, in a pretty competitive field. My mental side of my riding and race head wasn't up to scratch yet, and I battled with it slightly at the beginning of the race. With that being said, it feels amazing to back into the full swing of racing again. Overall it was an awesome weekend of racing, with current World Champ, Greg Minnaar, taking top honours on the day.