I was supposed to go to Uniondale today to race Karoo2coast tomorrow but since I have been sick all week I had to decide to stay at home, nothing one can do if the body says no… I am a bit sad about it since K2C quickly became one of my favorite races after I came 2nd there last year. Instead I have to stay at home and fight this cold, which is also the reason to why this update comes so late.
Only a few days after I came back to South Africa I flew up to Johannesburg to travel on to Sabie for the first edition of the York Timbers Enduro adventure. A 3 day event with a new format of racing. Pro riders were going to team up with some corporate teams.
The first day was a downhill race for the pro’s, it reminded me of when I was a skier , we were taken up in a car only to ride the downhill course on our test runs, seeding run and finally the race! The course was not a proper DH like a UCI standard DH course, even though still tricky at places, a full suspension bike would have been great!:-). I finished 3rd behind the 2 XC girls Sam and Amy.
Last part of the DH course
The tent that we spent most of the Friday in:-)
At the gala dinner on Friday evening the corportate teams had a silent auction to choose one pro to have in their teams for the Saturdays enduro race. I must admit that I was a bit nervous sitting there waiting to see who (if anyone) had chosen me. I was happy to hear I got chosen by the Stellenbosch team TF Design with Sarel, Gerhard, Gideon and Ivan.
7.45am on Saturday morning we set off from the Floreat in Sabie on our 60km long Enduro race. The point of this race is that we can take our time to ride up and also enjoy the stops since we are only timed on the downhills. I had a fun day out there with the guys and enjoyed not having to race just ride and enjoy the view and the company! After almost 8 hours we came back to the Country club in Sabie after 5 timed downhill sections and lots of fun:-), thanks guys for having me in your team!
Team TF Design: Ivan, Gerhard, Sarel, Gideon and me
Tired after a long day:-)
On Sunday morning we had a 40km fun ride, it was not a race for us so once again we could just ride and enjoy the scenery and the great single tracks, we did a few that we had done the day before, they are absolutely awesome!!
After that ride we had some time to rest before our cross country race of one lap on a 3km course around the golf course. It was short and super hard! I came away in 3rd over the rock garden and had a gap of about 20-30 meters up to Ariane and Sam. I closed the gap to them as we approched the hill, then Ariane attacked and left us. I sat on Sam’s wheel up the hill and could pass her on the way down to finish 2nd in the race. It was hard but fun!
start of the XC race:-)
It had been a really nice weekend and nice to get to know some new people! I am really sorry for Darren and Yolandi who crashed during the Enduro event, speedy recover to both of you!
Thank you to York Timber for a very well organized event and thanks a lot for inviting me!