SA DHI National Championships - Mankele - 22 July 2012

With Mankele being steep, technical, and rocky all tied together with lots of tight turns, I had set my sights on this race since the beginning of the year.

There was a mad scramble to get my bike sorted out the night before we left, with my practice wheelset only being built up the day before we left. However we managed to hit the road very early on Thursday, and we got to the track at around lunchtime. Track walk really got me amped to ride. The track was everything I had hoped for and more! 

Fridays practice was full of surprises - first of all I was surprised with how loose it was and secondly I was surprised at how sore my arms were at the bottom. Saturdays practice was even harder with the corners getting more blown out. The track was shredding tires as well as riders elbows with lots of guys getting some mean roasties from the loose gravel.

 I felt good on race day and was looking forward to seeing how my time stacked up against the other riders. I was on a good one in seeding until I came into a 180 degree corner too hot and I went down. I hopped straight back onto my bike and finished the run well. I was stoked to see that I was seeded 5th.

A luck would have it, as I got into the start gate for my race run, my nose began to bleed. I was putting pressure on it right until the last few seconds. If anything, this got me more pumped up. I cranked it out the start gate. The next thing I knew I was on the ground, covered in roasties and dust. As I looked back at the wooden berm, I saw the big hole where my front wheel had disappeared into after it broke as I hit it. The picture speaks for itself. I carried on my run but my head was out of it and I had a few more incidents on the way down. I ran the last part of the course and and managed to at least cross the line. I was offered a re run due to the course giving way under me, but with the state of my body, and World Champs to look forward to, I decided against it. I was super disappointed as I was hoping for a good result to end off the SA season. 

I have moved on from it though, and am focused on preparing for World Champs in Austria in September. Big thanks to the guys from Jeep who helped out! Very lucky to have such awesome people behind me.

A closer look