After Barberton last week I did what I
always do when I come out to somewhere sunny, have all the free time in the
world and get given a nice new bike … overtrain! Despite Barberton knocking me for six I then did 5 hours on
Sunday and so on. Using our new
brytongps at least I was able to see my heart rate on a ‘tempo’ ride not go
above 140 and backed off before the weekend.
Saturday was the mountain bike event, 80km
from Addo out into the mountains.
A huge amount has gone into creating some fantastic single track where
this year’s XC course will be held. By then though I’d been hanging on for grim
death along the gravel road yo yoing at the back. Hitting the sharp steep hills in the single track I couldn’t
muster up any power and watched the front 3 girls ride away. I recovered a bit and started pulling
back a few riders up the pass.
Riding into a water point I heard a marshal shout ‘don’t turn right’ so
continued along the track. After a
while I had a de ja vu, the tracks looked very familiar and soon I was back on
the XC course. With no one around
I realized I’d gone wrong and eventually came out back onto the pass. Back tracking down the road I finally
spotted some markers so went up and joined the route again. Not overly impressed with myself for
not confirming I was going right I got my head down and rode onto the
finish. I kept the pace high just
to get to the end whereas in hindsight I should have just backed off and
enjoyed the fantastic water points especially the last one, which even had a
paddle pool!! Finally I crossed
the line, I had been lying in 4th not too far behind Marissca but
now all the girls looked liked they’d been in hours so I figured my detour had
been a pretty big one!
Sunday and we had a lie in till all of
4.30, an extra hour on yesterday!
The 6.10 am start saw just the elite ladies roll away in our own
batch. With a strong head wind the
pace was really slow which for once I really appreciated. Soon Toyota started attacking sending
some youngsters up the road. The
counterattacks sped the whole race up a bit and soon Sharon Laws was away up an
early climb while no one else could hold her wheel. ‘5km climb’ came next and I surprised myself by been able to
respond to Ashleigh’s attacks.
Finally the 4th dig by her was enough to crack us and she
rode off while we regrouped into a fairly small chasing group of 6 or 7. With the men gradually coming back it
was no surprise to see girls tagging back into our group though at least a
number of them were disqualified at the end. After a fast tailwind home our group sprinted for 3rd
place and I was quite content with a 7th place. Not the results I wanted from the
weekend but I now know I must be more patient and let my legs come when they
are ready!!
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