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Hi team,
This weekend we travelled down to the Central Drakensberg for the 4th leg of the National Marathon. Arriving on Thursday afternoon it gave us time to settle in and prepare for the race on Saturday. Also a big thank you to Hilton Frost and family for welcoming us into their home and the great hospitality. Philip Buys - 2nd Race number 4 of the Ashburton national mtb series took us to the picturesque Champagne Valley in the Drakensberg. The route and technical trails suited our riding style and tactics on day one was to take control of the race right from the start. Matthys bolted up the first and longest climb of the day, putting everyone in the hurt. I would just sit in the chasing bunch and cover any moves if Matthys did not get away. Before we crested the KOM climb, Brendon Davids had a slight lead and I knew that I could close the gap going down the mountain again, we rode this section the previous day. I made contact with Brandon but could not stick with him up the next major hill. Brendon lead the race all the way with me trailing about 30s behind him, hoping for a long and technical enough downhill to close the gap, but with 15km to go he just pulled away and ended up beating me with just over 3min. Going into day 2 Matthys and I sat in 2nd and 3rd positions. Tactics today was to go flat out from the start to put Brendon under pressure, forcing him to pop or make a mistake. We saw this tactic as the only way we would have a chance to make up that 3 min deficit. There were a few moments where it seemed that our tactic was working, but Brendon rode strong and covered everything we through at him. I was quite spent with about 10km to go and had to settle for 2nd again and also ended up 2nd on the overall standings. Im staying in KZN for the week to do the next XCO cup race at Cascades in PMB. Hopefully the intense racing will ad that extra edge for World Champs the following weekend in Germany.
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March 2024
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