South African National Round - Pietermaritzburg

Yoorr! Howzit?!?

As you can see I have been picking up a bit of the local lingo, they talk so funny over here. I have also worked out a few nice training rides so now I can avoid going through the slightly not so pleasant areas of town. Oh and I had my first “Braai” (pronounced like the women’s undergarment) the other day. It is just a BBQ, pretty much the same as we have back home, except the sausages here are all coiled up like a snake.

On to the racing. Today was a South African national round and because of the World Cup here next week there was a big field with heaps of hitters present including Sauser, Hermida, Stander, Schurter and Vogel (sorry if that doesn’t mean anything to you). Thankfully the rain stayed away, but downside was that it was really hot. I had a pretty good start and up the first climb I was really happy to see some really good riders (Kashi and Liam Kileen) around me so I was content to settle into a rhythm. I think I was just out of the top 20. I lost a couple of spots through the first lap or two, but then I started to move slowly through the field a bit. In the end I finished the 7 lap race in 13th, I haven’t had a good look at the results but I was about 13.5min down. Still a bit of work to do but I was able to keep my lap times and heart rates really consistent throughout the whole race, which is a really good sign.

Until next time.