Result: 1st Overall
The 2013 season is coming to a close and with it the number of races to choose from dwindling. After hearing the BestMed Expedition was moving to Ballito and no longer in the Inanda Valley I decided it was a must do event for me. We have such great riding in the Ballito areas and not many races taking advantage of it.
In the end I met with the organizers and was asked to help scout out a route for the event starting from the new Sugar Rush Adventures. I was more than happy to help out with what ended up being a tall order to get new trails made in the 5 weeks left till the event. But I was extremely impressed with the professionalism of the event organizers from ASG Events.
Race day arrived, the route was marked and I was ready to go. The field was quite strong with the Kargo Pro MTB Team, Tyron Bird, Tim Stark and Werner Moolman all braving the early morning rain storm.
The race started off at an easy pace with everyone having a bit of fun in the muddy conditions. About 6km in the pace lifted and the lead bunch was down to 4 riders, up the first climb I lifted the pace again and it was down to just Tyron Bird and myself. I was happy with this as it was a VERY tough 50km course and riding with someone would definitely help. This was short lived however as about 1km further on Tyron punctured on one of the river crossings. I decided not to sit up and wait for Tim Stark who was chasing and rather go alone.
At the half way mark with most of the climbing done my lead was up to 5min. I was confident I could hold onto this for the remainder of the ride.
I crossed the line taking the win just over 4mins ahead of Tim Stark in 2nd and Werner Moolman in 3rd. I was surprised by how good I felt after putting so much work into getting the course ready for race day.
Need to say a huge thank you to Richard Downey from THULE South Africa for their continuous support over the last few years and always believing in my abilities through the ups and downs, also thanks to Tony from the SFERA Group for the support this year. Chasing my dreams wouldnt be possible without the backing from great people.
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