Frankie du Toit won her first national elite downhill title at the SA championships in Stellenbosch on Sunday.
This was Du Toit’s eighth national title in her sixth discipline. She is also an XCO, road, time-trial, marathon and enduro title holder.
“It’s so great. I’m beyond stoked about it,” she said.
“This was my first national downhill champs so I came into the weekend with an open mindset. Obviously I wanted to try as hard as I could and do my best, but I didn’t really know where that would put me.”
The 22-year-old said they had practiced on the Saturday in perfect conditions. There was no wind and it was not too hot.
“Race day was on Sunday. The track opened at 8am for practice and at 10 we started with seeding runs. The event was running 40 minutes late due to a bad crash that required an ambulance evacuation.
“We went up for seeding. Sunday was super different to Saturday as it was windy and really hot. Once everyone had gone for seeding, there was a bit of a break before we went up for race runs. It was about 2pm when the first race runs started.
“For downhill you race a track to the bottom. So you have a starting point [with a start gate] high up the mountain and an end point [finish line] at the bottom. We get shuttled to the top and we race down.
“We only have two runs that count – the seeding run and the race run. The race run is the final run. That’s the one that the results are calculated off. The seeding run is pretty much a practice race run, but it gives us a seeding and an order for who goes down when for the race runs.
“You can do as many practice laps as you can fit in. And we only go down the mountain one at a time.”
She added that race day was really windy, which changed things up on the track as it became a bit too risky to do the jumps at the bottom.
“My seeding run wasn’t the best. My foot blew off the pedal and I had really bad gusts of wind which prevented me from doing any of the jumps.
“My race run was better. I managed to keep it together and ride smoothly and do the bottom jumps, which allows you to carry much more speed. I went all out and I’m so happy it paid off.”
The Stellenbosch local added that the track was fairly straightforward and there was not anything “too hectic” on it.
“One thing that made it challenging were the braking bumps and ruts that have formed over the years. It made the track quite rough.
“Downhill racing only gives you one shot to prove yourself. If you have a bad run, a fall or a mechanical your race is over. That’s quite tough.
“I do love it for the speed, the people who do it and for challenging myself to get out of my comfort zones and do things that scare me.”
