It was nice to see a familiar face on the start line with his POC kit named Dan Fowler. I had no idea how my body would respond after last weekends Ultra Marathon at Meerendal so I was a bit unsure how to approach it. The first 20km was tough and my legs felt heavy as I tried to lift the pace upfront. A Group of 4 riders settled up front and shared the pace making up to the 20km mark where we had a change of environment. We entered a wild reserve and it got rocky with some technical climbs. I went to the front and gave it a shot trying to reduce the group and I succeeded in my plan. As we left the reserve again at about 30km it was only myself and Dan left at the front.
We chased each other around the course for the next 25km testing and trying stuff to get away. Soon we entered a technical section on a island with some hand build bridges through a forest section and nice single tracks and knowing Dan he has some proper skill I had my hands full trying to stay with him as we hammered it to the finish. as we finished the section he had a gap of about 15 secs on me and the chase started. It took me about 2km to close the gap again and games started again. about 5km to we got to a very rocky steep technical climb and I saw the opportunity to get away, and I did. I went downhill like a mad man and just tried to maintain the gap to the finish line. It was a big relieve to see the finish line after a few kilometers knowing someone is chasing me for 1st place. I took the win in 2H 16mins about 2mins ahead of second place rider Dan Fowler.
I am very happy with the win and thank you for all the support out there I really appreciate it. Next stop is Sabie for the second leg of the Ashburton Investment National series.
Train safe Train hard
cheers
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