SA XCO Championships 2015- Stellenbosch, Western Cape
No excuses, I believe as an athlete you always have to bring your A-game to each and every event. Although realistically, due to uncontrollable factors that one can't control, this might not always be the case.
I really wanted to race this and was prepared to let nothing hold me back. I mean just racing in Stellenbosch alone is amazing and it being the National Championships made it even better.
I did almost a third of the same XCO course 3 weeks before at the USSA tournament, but it didn't include all the "A" lines, so it was great to be back on familiar ground and now doing the A lines as well.
The lines were checked and I felt pretty comfortable that I actually practiced on the rainy day. Now the day was here and time to race, but first it was breakfast with the team and had a few laughs to kill the nerves. Got ready to go to the course, did a warm up (really felt like the skinny hulk in the cold haha)and then off to the starting line. I think this is the worst part of the race-the nerves, which the count down makes worse! But this is also where I close my eyes, imagine how I want my start to be and familiarize myself with the course.
Gun shot! Off we go, I was almost where I wanted to be; this was probably my best start this season. But unfortunately my race ended on the 2nd lap when I tried bridging over to Stuart, it's like my body suddenly went super hot and super cold at the same time- as if it went into shock and then it just shut down. I literally had nothing in me, I just hung on to finish. This is when I realized what I believe and said on the first paragraph is not actually true. For the first time I didn't know what to do or to say when people asked what happened.
I was demotivated and very disappointed. Just as I was going through a lot of emotions, I got a call from Shaun (Kargo Team Manager) telling me I made the SA selection to the UCI MTB World Championships and you could start seeing the smile on my face again.
Now I'm off the bike till I'm 100% healthy and hopefully that's soon! Well done to everyone who was selected for world championships and to the newly crowned SA champions James Reid and Cherie Vale - well deserved.
Well that's the end of the South African cross country season and it wouldn't be possible for me without the support of Kargo Pro MTB Team , Kargo National , Momsen bike and all the amazing sponsors supporting this team.
No excuses, I believe as an athlete you always have to bring your A-game to each and every event. Although realistically, due to uncontrollable factors that one can't control, this might not always be the case.
I really wanted to race this and was prepared to let nothing hold me back. I mean just racing in Stellenbosch alone is amazing and it being the National Championships made it even better.
I did almost a third of the same XCO course 3 weeks before at the USSA tournament, but it didn't include all the "A" lines, so it was great to be back on familiar ground and now doing the A lines as well.
The lines were checked and I felt pretty comfortable that I actually practiced on the rainy day. Now the day was here and time to race, but first it was breakfast with the team and had a few laughs to kill the nerves. Got ready to go to the course, did a warm up (really felt like the skinny hulk in the cold haha)and then off to the starting line. I think this is the worst part of the race-the nerves, which the count down makes worse! But this is also where I close my eyes, imagine how I want my start to be and familiarize myself with the course.
Gun shot! Off we go, I was almost where I wanted to be; this was probably my best start this season. But unfortunately my race ended on the 2nd lap when I tried bridging over to Stuart, it's like my body suddenly went super hot and super cold at the same time- as if it went into shock and then it just shut down. I literally had nothing in me, I just hung on to finish. This is when I realized what I believe and said on the first paragraph is not actually true. For the first time I didn't know what to do or to say when people asked what happened.
I was demotivated and very disappointed. Just as I was going through a lot of emotions, I got a call from Shaun (Kargo Team Manager) telling me I made the SA selection to the UCI MTB World Championships and you could start seeing the smile on my face again.
Now I'm off the bike till I'm 100% healthy and hopefully that's soon! Well done to everyone who was selected for world championships and to the newly crowned SA champions James Reid and Cherie Vale - well deserved.
Well that's the end of the South African cross country season and it wouldn't be possible for me without the support of Kargo Pro MTB Team , Kargo National , Momsen bike and all the amazing sponsors supporting this team.