RESULT: 2nd in MultiX event
My nerves were running wild before the 1st event in the Time Freight Multisport series at Albert Falls. I wasn’t quite where I had hoped to be with my running after having sprained my ankle 2 weeks ago and with the field being as strong as it was I knew I was going to be in for a lot of suffering.
I arrived at the picturesque Albert Falls to be greeted by an extremely cold morning with the cars temp gauge reading just 1ºC. Thankfully the sun warmed things up before the start.
The 1st run consisted of 2 loops. The 1st loop was fast and flattish with the 2nd loop being technical with a steep climb and descent. We started out into the 1st faster loop and immediately the pace was extremely fast. JP Ten Napel being the top runner he is broke away early and began opening a large gap. I settled into the 2nd bunch and tried to hang on for as long as I could. I came into transition in 7th place just behind Gareth Harrington and around 1m40s behind a flying Ten Napel.
After a quick transition I set off in 4th and set my sights on trying to catch the leader. It turned out to be an extremely fast bike course so I knew this was going to make the task of getting into the lead even tougher. 5km’s into the bike I caught a glimpse of JP and knew I was catching.
At the end of the 1st 10km loop of the bike the gap was down to 30secs. After making the catch about 3kms later I sat behind and waited for the climb to start to make an attack. I managed to get a gap on JP and worked hard to build up a lead that I could defend on the run.
Starting the final run I could feel straight away that I had over done it on the bike and the small 30sec gap I had built was not going to be enough to hold Ten Napel off and I jogged through the final run enjoying the magic terrain we were getting to race on, ending in 2nd behind a very strong JP Ten Napel. Gareth Harrington had a great race to end in 3rd.
All in all I wasn’t happy with my performance and still have a lot of work to do. But a big congrats has to go out to Max and his team for putting on yet another great event. Was also great to have the Powasol guys at the event to get all the bikes clean after the race. Looking forward to the next race at Shongweni on 21 August and hope to see you all there.
