A lot has happened in the past two weeks, from the Gauteng Sports Awards - which was one of my personal highlights of the year and thank you all for the support (the feedback I got from the organizers surely proved that even though I didn't win it was pretty close), to being listed among The Beyond Sport™ Inspirational 50- what an honour!
And then there was the University Student Protest for #feesmustfall which I strongly support. Being a student myself I know how hard it is to pay for fees and how the huge increase would have made it even more difficult. I think it’s about time that the ‘powers that be’ realised how serious the situation is and the collective power of the youth of South Africa when fighting for the right to education.
Anyway, back to the racing! I’ve raced myself into two 3rd places overall. First was the Momentum Oatwell DualX where I had to dust off my running shoes and get ready for some Usain Bolt action! My first 5km run wasn’t that bad and I got into the transition area in 5th place, just over a minute behind the leader Brand du Plessis. At first I didn’t remember where my bike was so I went passed it 3 times haha! I finally got onto the bike just behind Triathlon World Championship silver medalist and friend, Michael Ferreira. At the first hill I rode away from Mike, caught up to 3rd place and at about 10km to go I caught up to 2nd place Bradley Weiss – man I just couldn’t lose him at all and I knew then that the final 2.5km run was going to be hard. I ended up finishing 3rd overall after a painful run, but I really enjoyed the whole experience as always.
Now this past weekend I took on my first USN MTB Cup race held at the Big Red Barn in Pretoria. It was some ‘raodie’- style riding with the average speed of 27.6km/h- a hectic speed for an MTB race and with less than 500m of climbing in 50km… I can say that I’m really getting better at riding flat races.
Stuart Marais and Guylin van den Berg were on a mission from the start while I was trying to find my legs. Every minute they pushed further away and I decided to hide myself in a group. Halfway in my legs came back and it was time to leave the group, which was really hard because every time I opened a gap it got closed quickly and I had to sprint on every small incline to try keep ahead. I managed to get away two other riders which I couldn’t lose until the last drag to the finish line with 500w+ effort haha! I finished 3rd behind Stuart and Guylin in 1st and 2nd respectively.
Thanks for the much needed support for everyone.
Until next time.
#TheWILL
And then there was the University Student Protest for #feesmustfall which I strongly support. Being a student myself I know how hard it is to pay for fees and how the huge increase would have made it even more difficult. I think it’s about time that the ‘powers that be’ realised how serious the situation is and the collective power of the youth of South Africa when fighting for the right to education.
Anyway, back to the racing! I’ve raced myself into two 3rd places overall. First was the Momentum Oatwell DualX where I had to dust off my running shoes and get ready for some Usain Bolt action! My first 5km run wasn’t that bad and I got into the transition area in 5th place, just over a minute behind the leader Brand du Plessis. At first I didn’t remember where my bike was so I went passed it 3 times haha! I finally got onto the bike just behind Triathlon World Championship silver medalist and friend, Michael Ferreira. At the first hill I rode away from Mike, caught up to 3rd place and at about 10km to go I caught up to 2nd place Bradley Weiss – man I just couldn’t lose him at all and I knew then that the final 2.5km run was going to be hard. I ended up finishing 3rd overall after a painful run, but I really enjoyed the whole experience as always.
Now this past weekend I took on my first USN MTB Cup race held at the Big Red Barn in Pretoria. It was some ‘raodie’- style riding with the average speed of 27.6km/h- a hectic speed for an MTB race and with less than 500m of climbing in 50km… I can say that I’m really getting better at riding flat races.
Stuart Marais and Guylin van den Berg were on a mission from the start while I was trying to find my legs. Every minute they pushed further away and I decided to hide myself in a group. Halfway in my legs came back and it was time to leave the group, which was really hard because every time I opened a gap it got closed quickly and I had to sprint on every small incline to try keep ahead. I managed to get away two other riders which I couldn’t lose until the last drag to the finish line with 500w+ effort haha! I finished 3rd behind Stuart and Guylin in 1st and 2nd respectively.
Thanks for the much needed support for everyone.
Until next time.
#TheWILL