Bryton
Voriberg #1 02/Feb/2013
So the
Bryton Voriberg series was this past weekend, second race of the year
for me.
I've
been very keen to head out to Voriberg for some time now, especially
after checking the profile for the race and hearing from fellow
riders who have taken part in it. All I can say is, awesome track.
This is a proper mountain bike race/course, it had everything,
grassland then some thick sand, then bamboo tunnel, rocky single
track, flowing single track, steep climbing, technical descends, fast
open dirt road. I'm super impressed with the course layout of this
event and for all those looking for a challenge, or call themselves
mountain bikers, mark April 13 on your calender for Bryton Voriberg
#2.
The
race: I rolled out with the 70km start quietly confident in winning
the day, little did I know how hard and deep I'd have to dig to get
the result I wanted. The pace was steady and within the first 2km the
field was spread and I found myself sitting in 2nd
position trailing Angus Alexander (cycle lab) by a few seconds. I
wasn't familiar with the course so I figured let me shadow Angus and
wait for the second lap before I go hard, but within a few kms I had
lost site of him through the winding single track. I knew there were
climbs coming and all I was trying to do was keep it as smooth and
fast as possible so that when the climbs came I could hopefully catch
back up. So as I hoped I managed to get back to within 10 seconds of
Angus by the top of the climbs and figured I'd be good for the rest
of the lap just shadowing him again. But as Murphy would have it took
fall on a very badly rutted and muddy part of the course and then
shortly after had to stop to remove a part of plastic packet that had
got stuck in the dérailleur. With all this happening Angus had
managed to put a considerable amount of space between me and him and
I now had a lot of hard riding ahead.
I was
on the gas, full tilt down the now open dirt road, trying to claw my
way back to the rider in front. Missed a arrow, slam on brakes and
turn around and get back on course, again full tilt and looking ahead
to see if I can spot him to give some hope that I'm closing this gap.
Start of the second lap and still now sight of him, I'm starting feel
like I've lost this one but I don't allow myself to give up and keep
hammering on the pedals, burning up the energy levels. As I get to
the bottom of the first climb I spot Angus at the top and figure he's
got about 1 minute on me so I dig deep and push hard, I need to keep
him in sight. Approaching the second climb which is a lot longer, I
lose sight of him through the bushes but as it opens up and the climb
gets steeper I manage to close in on him, with one more hard kick
over the top I get onto the back wheel and hang on through the
technical rocking descent.
I've
caught up to him but I've spent huge amounts of energy to catch up,
now I had to get my tactics right. I decided to attack him, first
attack he managed to follow so I then had to focus on where my next
attack would be. As we neared the finish with 5kms to go there was a
slight rise up over a bridge, which I figured I would have to attack
there and attack HARD, so I attacked and managed to put some space
between us. Now it was full gas, everything I had left was going
into this effort, legs were screaming, energy levels running low,
fatigue setting in, but I wanted to win this one!! I managed to hold
Angus off and with one last big burst take the win by a couple of
seconds.
Race
number two for the year : 1st place
Big
thank you to my sponsors @Ballisticbike, Jason Theunissen (Ballistic
bike) and to the supporters @clubbrytonusn, a very big thank you for
your support. Hope to see you all at the next one.
Henry
Uys
@met_uys
Team
BrytonUSN
