Sarah Hill believes Trailseeker series should be a taller order

Trailseeker series winner Sarah Hill is hoping to see steeper and more interesting challenges introduced at next year’s events.

The Galileo Risk rider, who was also named women’s champion earlier this month, said riders needed to do more climbing in 2019.

“The marathon world championships had nearly 3 000m [of ascent]. I know the general public would hate this, but we need to somehow incorporate events that have 2 600m. The cross-country marathon champs in Grabouw were the closest.

“We need more of this to grow, not only as professionals but as a country.”

She felt 900m of climbing over 70km “was nothing” and was essentially a flat race.

“We love these challenges and to enter races that make us better. Now that we’ve done one full year of the series we can grow from that and add more technical climbs, single-track and challenging river crossings.

“Things like that spark us inside and have us wanting to come back.”

Hill felt the most challenging part this year had been showing up at as many events as she did. Being a professional on the South African circuit meant they had to compete in numerous individual and stage races.

“These [stage races] are getting longer and kind of over-running the one-day events. Not having the National MTB Series has resulted in the Trailseeker becoming of great importance as it’s now our only and biggest one-day series in the country.”

The 25-year-old, who won the final Trailseeker race in Cullinan, felt this series was much needed as local riders were training for the world marathon champs and it was ideal preparation.

“The big stage race is obviously [the Cape] Epic, which luckily we host, so that’s easy to qualify for. If we want to do really well, SA is the perfect environment to grow in as we can compete in so many stage-race options.”

As the Trailseeker series had continued, she said, her desire to win the overall title saw her push herself to compete in the final race.

“It was a hidden objective at the beginning of the year and then it became more realistic. I’ve been fully professional for a year and I’m always looking for results for that résumé.

“It was something I wanted to achieve and it’s cool to tick it off the list.”

In terms of the field, Hill wished more women would show up.

“A great way to see more women competing is to not only have our own start, but allow more time between the men’s and women’s batches so we don’t get caught behind them. This changes our racing significantly.”