XTERRA GRABOUW
Grabouw, juicy apples, friendly people, amazing landscapes, and a XTERRA for only the rock hard racers!! Xterra Grabouw had been the focuspoint of a few months of training, in the back of my mind, silently adding a bit of pressure and suspense with every training week passing by, training with a clear goal in mind, winning Xterra SA Championships in Grabouw. Well, as it turned out, I did not win, but I came as close as I have ever been to the title, achieved a podium finish, and had a good day of racing in the bag. It was a good test of my ability and strength at THIS point in time. Could I have done a few things differently, yes definitly, have I learnt a lot, absolutely!!
Waking up in the Elgin Valley Saturday morning, the sun already seeping through the clouds(Tropitone packed), the tone was set for a hard day of racing. Arriving at the transition area quite early,it was already packed with participants of the LITE event. The usual hustle and bustle of the transition is always a nice way to calm the nerves, focusing just on getting your meter of rack perfectly packed. I racked my bike and tried to hide the nerves away while chatting to a few of my fellow tri warriors, but today the butterflies just kept on flapping their wings!
Grabouw, juicy apples, friendly people, amazing landscapes, and a XTERRA for only the rock hard racers!! Xterra Grabouw had been the focuspoint of a few months of training, in the back of my mind, silently adding a bit of pressure and suspense with every training week passing by, training with a clear goal in mind, winning Xterra SA Championships in Grabouw. Well, as it turned out, I did not win, but I came as close as I have ever been to the title, achieved a podium finish, and had a good day of racing in the bag. It was a good test of my ability and strength at THIS point in time. Could I have done a few things differently, yes definitly, have I learnt a lot, absolutely!!
Waking up in the Elgin Valley Saturday morning, the sun already seeping through the clouds(Tropitone packed), the tone was set for a hard day of racing. Arriving at the transition area quite early,it was already packed with participants of the LITE event. The usual hustle and bustle of the transition is always a nice way to calm the nerves, focusing just on getting your meter of rack perfectly packed. I racked my bike and tried to hide the nerves away while chatting to a few of my fellow tri warriors, but today the butterflies just kept on flapping their wings!
(photographer: Chris Hitchcock) So nervously I caught myself fiddling too much with my bike in the transition area, adjusting my seat and at the end stripping my seat clamp!EEEK! ,just stressing myself out about small things, until I just had to say to myself “chill out!!” its just another race, I am going to go out as hard as in any other race, but it wasn't just another race, this is the one I wanted to win!
As I stood beside the waters edge, soaking up the vibe, I noticed a familiar scene; one by one participants entering the water for a last warm up swim, nervous laughter, “macho” talk between some group of guys, pulling and tugging at wetsuits that feels a bit tighter than last year (my SAILFISH G-Range wetsuit luckely fitting like a glove) the upbeat tunes coming from the speaker and the announcer going through the motions of race briefing. All so familiar, but always a sure way of getting the heart rate up. My nerves totally went away when I saw Justin Porteous, one of the top racers, standing with his wetsuit in hand, trying to fix a broken zip 10 min before race start, I tried to help,tugging and pulling at the zip, with no luck, as he ran back to transition, desperately trying to borrow a wetsuit I realized, things can always go wrong,but for now,I was ready.
We were cued to line the waters edge with 60 seconds till race start. As it was a mass start, finding the right crowd around you at the start of the swim was critical, for they’re either going to pull you down with their own attempt at staying afloat or if you are lucky pull you along easing the turmoil of the first few hundred meters of the swim. I got a bit of both! Found myself being pushed way out to the side of the stream,felt like I swam a few hundred meters further than the rest, but got into a good rhythm and just kept swimming steady. A 1 lap 1.5km swim always feels never ending, but I exited the water leading the ladies race and knew now the real work starts!
The bike route was tough as usual, very hot and sandy. It had good selection of sandy straights, rocky climbs, flowing and technical single track!I tried to stay in the lead for as long as possible, but Carina Wasle from Austria caught me quite early and I had to keep fighting not to let the gap open up too much. I knew Michelle Lombardi was chasing me down. Usually, she passes me quite early on in the bike, but my bike strength have improved quite a bit and she only managed to catch me right at the end opening up a 1 min gap on me. In and out of transition, I could see Michelle in the distance, I ran hard to close the gap, succeeded, but it was a cat and mouse run from there on.
In hindsight I could have ran a bit smarter, not chasing as hard at the beginning but that all comes with experience.Michelle is a brialliant, strong runner and she passed me on one of the long climbs to the top of the mountain. I ran as hard as I could, my INOV-8 F-Lite 195’s gripping well on the loose gravel and rocky descends. I crossd the finish line in a hard fought for 3rd spot. Satisfied with the race.
(photographer:Chris Hitchcock)I think anyone could see the relief on my face that the battle was done, with no real hickups, just hard racing!
(photographer: Chris Hitchcock)Thank you to my sponsers that supported me leading upto this race! Thanx Stillwatersports for hosting such an world class event!
Support:REBEL ELITE FITNESS
Footwear: INOV-8
Eyewear and Helmet:RUDY PROJECT
Swimwear: SAILFISH WETSUITS
Skinwear: Tropitone
Hydration: 32Gi
Excited about the upcoming season!!
A last BIG THANKS to my MOM & DAD!! geez what a weekend! thanks for your support, i really enjoyed having you guys there every step of the way, patiently giving me space when i was stressing and acting a bit crazy:), getting burnt while waiting for me to get my post race massage!! You must really love me:) LOVE you guys LOTS!!
Another day of racing done, lots learnt and experience gained. Now back to the drawing board, few months of training and then hopefully I hit Xterra Europe!
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