USN Cup # 4, Big Red Barn

The fourth round of the USN Cup made a return to the Big Red Barn, a venue we had visited before in the current series. It is found in Midrand and has heaps of fun and fast flowing single track on offer, making it the ideal setting for a mountain bike race.

The 50km circuit is largely laid out on single track with short pieces of gravel road connecting all the trails. A floating bridge, an intimidating drop off and sweeping corners all added to the enjoyment out on course.

As is customary, the shorter the race the higher the intensity and this race was no different. As soon as we were given the word go, riders were sprinting off for that desirable first place into the opening single track.  

My “sprinting” earned me a 4^th spot behind leading ladies Samantha Sanders, Yolande Speedy and Amy MacDougal. I’ve ridden the course before during the previous USN Cup race and knew there was still plenty of time to make up lost ground and just focused on setting my own race pace. I managed to catch and pass Amy and Speedy around 10km into the race putting me in 2^nd place out on course.

I kept on racing to catch up to Sam but to my surprise I caught up to Yolande and Amy for a 2^nd time instead. In the heat of the moment they had missed a turn and unintentionally took a short cut. I knew there was nothing else to do except put my head down, race as hard as I can and sort out any issues afterwards.

As it turned out Sam stayed ahead winning the race with me finishing in 2^nd after 2h30min of flat out racing. True to her character Yolande immediately informed the judges of her detour and let them decide about the official results.

Results:

1^st            Samantha Sanders

2^nd          Yolandi du Toit

3^rd           Amy MacDougall

It is nice to see that despite the strong competition the girls could still show some sportsmanship and race in good spirit.