USN CUP SERIES

The 2nd round of the USN Cup series was hosted at The Big Red Barn on the outskirts of Pretoria.

The 50km race route consisted mainly out of single track; yes your eyes aren’t deceiving you - 50km of fun, fast, flowing single track in the middle of Midrand. This forced the race organiser to limit race entries to 1200 people to prevent bottlenecks from happening and ensuring everyone had a pleasant ride.

Overnight rain storms cleared in time for us to start under pristine summer skies. Unfortunately flash floods had caused some damage with wooden bridges being washed away during the night’s deluge.  Andrew Grobler and his team did a fantastic job of rerouting the course and the race still ran smoothly despite a few last minute detours.

A furious pace was set from the word ‘GO’ as riders were fighting for position going into the first stretch of single track. In the opening kilometres of the race I found myself battling for the lead alongside Cherise Stander. The two of us road together until I was forced to stop with a deflating rear tyre around 15km into the race. I inspected the tyre but couldn’t find a cause for the loss of air. I quickly ‘bombed’ the tyre (inflating it with a CO2 canister) and set off in hot pursuit of the leaders as I now found myself back in 3rd position.

It took quite an effort to make up time as the flattish route didn’t really lend itself to chasing. Just before the 20km mark I passed the lady in 2nd place and shortly afterwards I caught Cherise who had to deal with a flat tyre herself.

It wasn’t long before I felt my rear tyre going flat again. Now I had to gamble between stopping again and continuing with a slowly deflating tyre. Which would cost me the least amount of time?  In the final 10km I felt my tyre starting to fold over the rim through the corners and I had no other option but to stop and ‘bomb’ again.
Luckily none of my competitors passed me while I was inflating my wheel. This time it was just a brief stop and I quickly got going again. I gave everything I had left during the final kilometres as I couldn’t afford another stop and I had no idea how close the other ladies were to me.

In the end I managed to hold on to the lead and won the 2nd round of the USN Cup Series. I am very pleased with the victory as it is my first victory for this year and the first in team bizhub’s 2013 colours!

The USN Cup series is only in its 2nd year of existence and judging by the entries being sold out well in advance of each event, it just goes to show what a great job the VeloCourse team are doing. So make sure you enter well in advance as the USN Cup races are definitely not to be missed.