The Soapbox | Where South Africans Speak Out

BY RENAY GROUSTRA

This past weekend, countries all around the world crowned new national cross country champions. For South Africa it was no different and team GT Mr Price were in attendance to try retain the title in the team, as Erik Kleinhans was the defending National Champion in the green and gold.

As has been  the case in the past the course at the Pretoria Fountains was dry, technical and rocky, with little ascent in the lap. This made for fast and furious racing and it was great to see that we were all in for an 8 lap race instead of the usual 6 to due the high level that has emerged in the last few years. Having arrived early on the Thursday morning we had ample time to get to grips with the twisty and technical course as well as get some much needed rest before out 12 30pm start on the Saturday afternoon.

Race day soon arrived and I was finding it hard to get psyched. I was feeling a little dry in the throat from the thin dry air, and was also quite bruised and battered after having two hard crashes on Thursday and Friday. So it was understandable that I was feeling a little neutral. I was determined however not to let this sabotage my race as I was very hungry for those green and gold stripes on my jersey!

After a long drawn out morning it was finally time for call up to the race start and I had done a good job of getting myself into race mode and was the picture of focus. The start line was packed with quality riders such as u23 World Champion Burry Stander, Matthys Beukes, Philip Buys, Ben melt Swanepoel, Dominic Calitz and Adriaan Louw. Erik unfortunately had chose to sit the race out as he had not recovered from a cold.

The race got off to a very fast start as always and I fought hard to get into the trail in 4th spot. It is always important at this venue as time can easily be lost. Setting the pace on the front was Philip Buys on his home course with Burry Stander glued to his rear wheel. Matthys Beukes was slightly off the pace with me seconds behind him. By the end of lap 1  it was more or less the same situation with the time gaps slightly inflated. Over the duration of the race the u23 World Champion managed to expand on his lead steadily minus Philip who had to settle into a more sane race pace. Philip was a minute ahead of Matthys, with me never more than 30 seconds back on him in 4th. The conditions were making things tough with the thin air and the dust, and at times I could even taste blood in my mouth, which was my body’s cry for more oxygen!

On lap 4 Philip paid for his risky riding on the rough course and suffered a puncture. No matter how hard he tried he could not close the gap again. By the end of lap 5 I noticed that I was starting to close the gap on Matthys bit by bit, but it was a short while after that that he too suffered a mechanical in the form of a broken front mech. This meant I was up to 2nd overall! From then on I focused on keeping the pace consistent and not making any mistakes, as there was no point in chasing Burry’s lead as it was now up to 7 minutes! The remaining 2 laps passed quickly and I crossed the line safely with my 2nd place still in tact. What a great feeling it was coming back from illness and coming home second to the u23 World Champion! Behind me Matthys held on for 3rd followed by Ben Melt Swanepoel and Paul Cordes.

The upset of the day though was when my team mate Dominic Calitz rose to the occasion and showed everyone his class by clinching the u23 National Champions title away from a disappointed Philip Buys! Well done Dom! So at least GT Mr Price kept one title in our trophy cabinet. Adriaan Louw finished in 3rd.

There was not much time to hang around however as after the race I had a meeting with Drug Free Sport who were keen for some samples. This left us with just enough time for prize giving before rushing to the airport to catch our flight back to Cape Town where we all got to celebrate with our friends. What a relief it was to get home and sleep  in my own bed.

I am very happy with how my comeback is going, although I think top form is still a long way off, and might only return next year after doing a proper build up. The long break off the bike seems to have hampered my ability to train hard and recovery quickly, which is having a definite effect on my training capabilities.

Here is a list of other National Champions crowned over the weekend that I could find:

South Africa- Burry Stander

SA- Todd Wells

Canada- Geoff Kabush

Namibia- Marc Bassinthwaight

Cyprus- ??Mario Athanasidias

Germany- Moritz Milatz

Russia- Maxim Gogolev

Switzerland- Nino Shurter

Netherlands- Rudi van Houts

Thank you Lord for your amazing grace, as well as to my great sponsors for getting me there and the amazing products that I am so privileged  to use.

Next up in the Die Burger MTB Challenge!

Keep those pedals turning!

Photo’s courtesy Zoon Cronje

Renay is a professional mountain biker. Follow his blog Life of a Mountain Biker