Professional mountain biker and Garmin Brand Ambassador Yolandi du Toit writes about her experience at the first leg of the National MTB Series at Meerendal.
Over its twelve years of existence the National MTB Series has grown into the biggest and most prestigious mountain bike race series in South Africa. In 2015 the series took on a new title sponsor with Ashburton Investments taking over from MTN in the seven-round series.
The first leg of this year’s series took place at Meerendal Wine Estate on the outskirts of Cape Town on Saturday, January 31. This event along with two others (round two at Sabie and round three at Clarens) are UCI-sanctioned events with valuable UCI points up for grabs.
With acclimatisation in mind I flew to Cape Town three days prior to the race, arriving just in time to experience a bout of the region’s searing heat and humidity, which is the norm during the summer months.
There is no denying that Cape Town and its surrounds are beautiful but the warm weather gave me an appreciation for the milder climates we have at home on the Highveld. Fortunately, on race day fine rain during the early morning hours made for much cooler and enjoyable weather conditions.
At UCI-sanctioned events there are a lot more rules and regulations that event organisers have to adhere to and one of them was calling out the licensed riders individually to line up for the start 15 minutes prior to departure.
After a tense wait, the gates finally opened and the girls set off like racehorses to cover the 70km distance that lay ahead.
If I had packed different legs for the race, the start might have felt more like the beginning of a mountain bike race rather than a never-ending sprint.
I pushed hard on the pedals in an attempt to stay with the leading ladies but my heavy legs would have nothing of it and I was dispatched from the lead group despite my best efforts.
I told myself it was only the opening kilometres and I just had to keep on riding so that my legs would loosen up and I could make up some lost ground.
Unfortunately, my poor state only regressed and, instead of improving, I was left fighting a deep inner battle. My heart wanted to put an end to it all by stopping but my head was telling me to continue and that learning the route and getting in the training hours will be beneficial sometime in the near future.
After a four-hour slog, I crossed the finish line relieved to get the race over and done with.
If I managed to escape my predators at the USN Cup event the week before, this time around I was served on a platter.
We all have our good days and our bad days but what matters more is what we make of it; so I am doing my best to see the positive lessons learned from a less than ideal outcome.
