Pretoria Fountains National 2012

After two weeks of no racing my mind was eager to get out there and fight, however my body was a little bit confused as it was forced to take a week off the bike due to illness.

My legs however felt more than ready and I drove up to Pretoria on the day before my race and went and rode three laps, at the time I felt as if the course was brilliant and perfect.

On the morning of the race it was the usual dragged out few hours before my race.  With a quick warm up it was time to start lining up. With a horrific world cup I was seeded 4th, which meant I was on the front line so this didn't bother me at all. With a fast start I was in second position going into the first piece of single track, little did I know that the course that I thought was tremendous had absolutely no overtaking space. The lead group consisted of Patrick Belton, Paul Rodenbach, Dylan Hattingh, Richardt Fereirra and myself.

After the first few laps I realized that there was no place to pass and this left me in a panic, I tried my luck a few times and almost caused a couple of crashes but in the end the result was the same, Patrick first and me second with no room for a sprint finish either which left patrick with the deserved win.

Rather unfortunate course but the man with the right tactics won, learnt a lesson and will hopefully correct my few little mistakes.

My net race will be an elimination race at cascades and there after I will be off to Mauritius to race in the African Continental champs.

Photos above were taken by Zoon Cronje and Lee ann Cantrell
Until next time
ride safe