The Hatrick & Moving ON !
The Hatrick Tour and Melrose Arch 2017
Hi everyone. Im sitting in a car writing this on my way to Pretoria for the Cansa Lost City cycle race at Sun City Tomorrow. I thought I'd make the time writing this while on the long road to distract myself from all the crazy drivers on the road. No I’m not driving, Mande is.
First off all. How crazy cold is it right now. I spoke to Mornay and Clint two days ago and they were content training on the rollers apposed to braving the cold outside. I guess Sundays race will be a good reminder of my days in University while living in the Hostel. The early morning rides rides at 4:30am to be in time to meet up with the Velo Cycling club an hour later.
There were a few things that you could take for granted on these rides. No matter how warm you dress your fingers, ears and toes were going to burn from the cold. You were probably not going to drink the first hour and a half. And you’d only start hearing some chatter after about two hours of riding. I guess Sundays race should be quite similar.
Anyway onto my experience at Clover Tour & Melrose Arch Criterium. Coming back from a successful campaign in Spain I really did not know what to expect coming back to South African races. Its been a really long and crazy year so far. To give you a short recap.
I tried peaking for most parts of 2016, took a mere week off after 94.7 before jumping straight into some hardcore training for the South African National Championships. Yes it went well, but the plan was to rest after Nationals. Then African Champs came up. I gave John a call immediatly and we tried squeezing out whatever was left in the tank. Winning there was a bonus and a whole story on its own. But life goes on an so dit training.
By now I felt like a fish looking for a pond in the desert. The only thing is a fish doesn’t have legs and I ended up going to Boland Tour with extremely bad form and mindset. But luckily Kent Main, now riding for the Dimension Data Continental Team showcased some of his hidden talent and produced a brilliant ride for RoadCover to take the overall Honors.
Finally it was time for some much needed rest. Well so I thought. But as soon as the Argus Cycle Tour got cancelled due to high winds and some unforeseen surcumstances we went straight into party mode. We woke up a bit hungover but after a smoothie and some really good weather- we started Climbing Lions head straight away.
Finally it was time for some overdue rest to reset. The rest period was cut short as Eugene Beck went out of his way for us to do something different. He had ambitions of getting us on the podium of Joburg2C. I knew Brendon had it in him, but for me to come straight out of a big rest period and into some unfamiliar territory was going to be as dodgy as hell. But I mean, we got everything on a silver platter- even with a Camper. While Eugene slept in the tents, we had the privilege of sleeping in the Camper. Show me a boss as passionate about the teams result as that and Ill make you a rock out of bread.
After 9 days of racing we managed to finish 3rd overall. Without the support and diverse ambition from RoadCover none of this would have been possible. Thanks to everyone involved!
But the job continued. The next day we had to be ready for the Aquelle Tour Durban.
We managed a superb 1,2,3 which was really unexpected as myself and Brendon came straight out of Joburg2C, quite fatigued. Shortly after Joburg2C RoadCover gave me the go ahead and they supported me in my personal ambitions of racing in Europe with a Spanish Team in the Basque Country of Spain.
I finished a huge three week Training Camp in the Mountains of Majorca before heading off to my first race with some pretty good form, if I may add. It went extremely well and I ended up winning a few one day races and Tours.
Contracts ? Well I guess it's become more clear to me that it's about who you know and what agency you're with, apposed to your abilities as a rider. But thats Cycling. Its as much a business as Sport, and you’ve got to play ball. I should know whats happening after the first week of Vuelta. For now It's just holding fingers crossed.
Finally we are at Clover Tour.
This was the first year the venue changed in the last 7 years. It was held at the Swadini Forever Resort in Limpopo. It consisted out of 5 stages over Four days. The 2nd Stage would be the most decisive stage, as it was the Queen Stage. The Tour went really well for us with three stage wins as well as the overall. The team showcased some really good form and I’m truly privileged to be part of such great team and structure!
I mentioned that I did not know what to expect as it has really been a long year in general, so you never really know when the body decides to mushroom cloud and decide that's that.
But I'm grateful and blessed a lot of things have been going in my favor and it is not something I TAKE FOR GRANTED.
A few days after Clover Tour we had the Helivac Criterium Series held at Melrose Arch. Its a criterium which means its basically fullgas for the entire 45min + 1 Lap. If you're keen to see more about the events have a look at the videos I made below.
