Nissan Trailseeker Series, Down and Dirty

Arriving back in South Africa from the US only three days prior to the event, I didn’t know how my body would respond to the stress of racing after all the travelling and crossing of a couple of time zones. There was nothing else to do but give my best during the event and see how it goes.

The third leg of the Nissan Trailseeker Series was hosted at Cornwall Hill College in Irene, Pretoria on a warm and windy spring day (1st September).

The 70km route consisted of one big loop laid out on mainly flat dirt roads traversing private farmlands mixed with some grassy single track. Starting alongside the elite men meant a very high tempo from the beginning as riders were fighting for position heading into the first piece of single track - It felt as if I landed myself in a stampede of mountain bikers.

It was a relief going into the 2^nd quarter of the race as things started to settle down except for all the dust, the area haven’t received rain in a long time and eating dust is definitely not my favourite type of race food. I found myself alongside my team mate Nicci Grobler in 3^rd and 4^th position in the ladies field. With the route being very flat and fast it took on a similar fashion as a road race. We were riding along in a small group either taking turns up front or hanging on in the gutter (gutter – if the wind blows badly from one side and riders form a long line on the opposite side of the road thus providing no shelter from the wind . The strong wind was one of the big challenges on the day and with less than 10km to go one guy in the group I was riding in decided to sit up and this saw our lined out group split in two.

I got caught out behind and tried to ride back up to the group but the strong head wind proved to be too much. This left me riding by myself to the end to finish in 4^th place.

Final Results:

1^st           Cherise Taylor

2^nd          Theresa Ralph

3^rd           Nicci Grobler

4^th           Yolandi du Toit

5^th           Yolands Speedy

6^th           Amy Mcdougall

Fritz Pienaar together with his Advendurance team put on yet another well organized event. To find (and build) a 70km loop of dirt road and single track in a big city is really impressive!!