Yolande Speedy, Elite Womans African Continental Champ

Another successful road trip with a[s]g PYCycling this time with a little XCO lap racing sandwiched in between... At least that's how it felt with preparation and build up for XC playing such an important role.

Amy, Paul and I travelled to PMB Thursday morning and met the rest of our team mates at Cascades for a few practice laps.

The 5.4km course, a tamed down version of the World Cup course still held plenty challenges with 170m ascent per lap, the main rock garden and loads of technical single track.

By the end of our practice on Friday I was starting to feel 'in control' of my line through the rock garden and feeling confident on the rest of the course. Great to have @pcordesracing and @arnodutoit to help with lines!!

We spent the rest of Friday afternoon focusing on recovery and getting our feet up safe in the knowledge that our Pinarello Dogma XC’s were in @pcordesracing's capable hands as he prepared them for race day.

Rain was on the cards for Saturday and as Murphy would have it it started to pelt down just before our start...

15sec countdown and bang we were off, we sprinted up the start straight and into the first steep climb.

With the now pretty slippery surface and the mud packing on our tires Sam Sanders lost traction in front of me letting Aurelie Halbwachs(Mauritius) get an early lead.  I chased after her taking the lead about halfway through the first lap gaining a few seconds on through the technical single track.

Reaching the rock garden I didn't hesitate to take the chicken run not having the confidence to tackle it with muddy tires :(, skills to be worked on!!

The course was super slippery and despite being quite cautious had some close calls my back tire trying to overtake me around a few corners.

I made it through the start finish and headed into our 2nd lap. The U23's had a separate start 2minutes after us and Candice and Mariske caught and passed me in the first half.  I pushed hard to try and minimize the time gap but after the rock garden managed to get a 'tree' caught in my rear cassette losing all but about three gears. Knowing Paul had a spare rear wheel with a Conti X-King on in the tech-zone and having already decided to swop out my Race-King wheel for more grip I nursed the gears for the next 2kms not wanting to stop twice. In retrospect not such a great idea as I lost quite a bit of time and it would take Paul and several helpers valuable time to prize the 'tree' out of the cassette in preparation for Arno's race. 

Reaching the tech-zone Paul was ready with the wheel and quickly and calmly (not an easy feat) made the exchange for me. I got going just before Aurelie came through and managed to hang on to a small lead.

The X-King gripped up much better on the course allowing me to keep rubber side down and my speed up :) 
Going through for my last 2 laps I gratefully grabbed my 2nd HIGH5 bottle and gel from Paul and maintained fairly consistent laps slowly increasing my lead to the finish.

I crossed the finish very happy to take the Elite African Champ title for a[s]g PYCycling, Aurelie took 2nd place, Sam Sanders 3rd and Amy 4th.

 I feel however that the true Champs of the day were Mariske and Candice who had a fantastic race finishing 1st and 2nd overall on time. well done!!

Well done to my team mates; Amy for her 4th place, Arno taking 3rd U23 in a very exciting and break through race, Joel racing despite not being hundreds and Michelle for her 7th place in the junior ladies!

A big thanks to @pcordesracing for all the expert support throughout the weekend, all very much appreciated!!

And to all my sponsors @asg_PYCycling @EpicSports @asgsport @Conti_SA @Bicicletta_ZA @CycleOpsJHB @SquirtLube_SA for making elite level racing possible.

Next up Epic...

Take care,

Yolande Speedy