The trip back to South Africa felt really long after just having one day at home after my last race in Sweden. I was very tired after all the travelling in the last weeks, to change continents and almost changing life’s takes energy. There was the Trailseeker on the Saturday which I wanted to do, I did that race 2 years ago so I knew how nice the route was, at the same time as I was not sure I would have the energy for another race. Craig decided to enter for the race and since we could just drive there in the morning I also decided on Friday afternoon to enter for the race. At 04.05 on Saturday morning I was not so convinced that it was such a great idea to go and race…

It was cold when we got there but it warmed up quickly after the start. We had a ladies only start at 07.35, 5 minutes behind the men and we started to pass lots of guys on the early single tracks. I turned around after a few minutes of racing and saw that it was only Carmen and I at the front. We rode together for about 5 km when I heard that she was struggling on a climb, I pushed a little harder to get a gap and I could get away. I relaxed a bit and a few kilometres later I could see her behind me. I thought “shit I must get my act together and push a bit harder”. I managed to get away again and started to feel safe. I just kept a consistent pace and pushed a bit extra on the uphills to take it extra carefully on the downhills not to puncture on the sharp rocks. I constantly looked back to make sure Carmen did not catch me and I was very happy that I made the decision to race since I managed to win by 3 min 12 seconds ahead of Carmen.

Craig had bad luck and took a wrong turn and got a DNF…

It is really nice to be back in SA! We had +34 degrees in Stellenbosch yesterday, I like that more than the -2 degrees we had in the mornings at Swiss Epic;)