USN CUP Series #3

The beautiful B’Sorah game farm just off the Broederstroom road, west of Johannesburg was the venue for the 3^rd round of the USN Cup Series.

The owner of B’Sorah game farm’s two sons are passionate mountain bikers which lead to them building single track on the 1600 hectares of farm land. The hand built trails are now on offer to like minded people seeking an opportunity to enjoy riding their bikes in safe, yet beautiful surroundings.

The result is 50km of remarkable single and jeep track through dense bush which offers views of various game (Kudu, Waterbuck, Blesbuck) for those who could steal a glimpse while riding. Sadly I only heard of this afterwards as I was clearly too focused on my race.

With the course only being 50km in distance riders didn’t want to muck about and started racing hard from the word go.

During the opening kilometres of the race, I struggled to find a good rhythm on the tricky single track. This dropped me back to about 4^th place in the ladies field. Amy MacDougall (Team ASG ) on the other hand rode the single track as if it was one straight line (which it was anything but) and moved into the lead with around 10km into the race.

Although I lost some ground early on, I never gave up and kept chasing hard, trying to make contact with the girls up front. Around the halfway mark I moved up to 2^nd place and caught sight of Amy as the course opened up a little bit. Having Amy back in view motivated me as I could see I was making progress.

With fresh motivation I tackled the only long climb of the race intent on catching Amy. I pushed extra hard and managed to close the gap on Amy and passed her to take the lead. I know she is fast on single track, especially downhill single track which meant the final 10km of the race suited her better.

Not wanting to make the same mistake as at Sappi Mankele, I road my heart out to the finish line crossing it only a couple of seconds ahead of Amy. 

Taking the victory at the USN CUP race in such a close and hard fought battle really makes the win extra rewarding. If it wasn’t for Amy I wouldn’t have pushed myself so hard which is what racing is all about.

Results

1^st      Yolandi du Toit (Team bizhub)

2^nd     Amy McDougall (Team ASG)

3^rd      Michel Coetzer (Cycle Lab)

4^th      Nicci Grobler (Team bizhub)

5^th      Reinette Jooste