USN Cup #1, the first race of the season

I knew that this race would be a challenging and very tactical race like usual because of the flat terrain and endless single track. Knowing the terrain I fitted my bike with the grippy continental X king tyre in the front and the fast rolling race king at the back.

On the start line I took a High5 energy gel to help me stay fuelled throughout the race. I saw some familiar faces on the start line but I was confident that I could take the win. Straight from the start I immediately went to the front of the bunch to avoid congestion, crashing and losing speed. I tried to make the racing hard before we hit all the traffic from the slower riders for the other distances. It gave me a bit of confidence and encouragement when I saw some good power and low heart rate on my CycleOps, this meant that I could go even harder.

Still early on in the race and when I was still pushing hard at the front Murphy snuck in with a technical issue from my drive-train forcing me off my bike.  This was very disappointing and I knew that it would be very hard to chase back to the leading riders after losing a lot of places and being stuck behind tale markers in the single-tracks. The kilometers flew by very quickly and I couldn't catch up with fast enough while negotiating the traffic.

I learned a lot from this race and I hope not to make the same mistakes again in the future. Physically I feel very strong and I'm ready for a proper and exciting season of racing in the colours of Asg-PYcycling with support from Epic Sport cycle shop and a lot of other great brands.

I hope to see you all at the first leg of the MTN national series :)

Jacques Pretorius