World Cup Round 1 South Africa

26/3/12

The first World Cup of the Season was held in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.  It was logistically a hard one for us Aussies as the Oceania Champs were held on the weekend prior in New Zealand, then most of us stopped off home for 24hrs in b/w.  So jet lag was always going to play a factor!

I arrived with my mum into Durban, late on the Wednesday night and then drove the 1.5hrs to our accommodation in Hilton on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg.  We were lucky enough to stay in a lovely B&B run by a very welcoming South African family.  Staying at the same venue were Laura Turpijn, a talented rider from the Netherlands, and her well renowned coach Eva from Belgium.  It was great to get to know them throughout the week, as well as learn of their different methodologies of training and racing!

I had limited course practice time on the Thursday and Friday mornings, so I tried to make good use with a few laps on each of the days. I had been warned of a very technical course and I wasn’t disappointed!  I reckon this was the best world cup course I had ridden yet, with some big climbs, techo rock gardens, fast berms and some scary jumps.  There were a few “A” and “B” lines in each lap, giving opportunity to pass riders.  To be honest, I was mighty scared of the jumps and it wasn’t until I followed Bec Henderson’s reliable wheel, that I attempted them.  I was happy enough after this and confident of my lines for race day.

I woke up race day feeling quite weary and still obviously jet-lagged.  I went out for a small roll in the morning to try and get the legs going and wake the body up.  I could tell I was in for a tough day, but was determined to give it everything and at least try to pick up some valuable points for the next round.  After a nice bowl of porridge for breaky, my mum and I headed down to the course to make sure we secured some parking within the hectic race village.

I headed out for a good 30-40in warm up with fellow Australian Jody Willet.  We followed a fit looking girl along a road for quite a while and when she finally turned we found out it was number 1 plate rider, Julie Bresset.  I guess we could be confident in a world class warm up routine!

As soon as the race started I knew I was in for a tough day, with heavy legs and what felt like limited lung capacity.  I tried to block this from my thoughts and just put in as much effort as possible.  I managed to avoid the guaranteed start line crash but then, along with 50 other girls, had to walk the whole first switch back climb.  Once the traffic cleared a little I was able to find some sort of rhythm and tried to use some of the A lines to round up a few.  Basically during the next few laps, I spent in around 50^th position. The legs started to come good on lap 4 and I moved up to 48^th, so at least it was looking like I may pick up a few word cup points.  Then disaster struck on the jumps section of lap 5.  With literally 5min to go before race finish, I totally stuffed up the landing on one of the jumps and finished up on my head! I have a small lapse of memory on what exactly happened, but it was bad enough to not finish the race and warrant a trip to the local hospital to get checked out.  X-rays were taken of the head and neck region, and luckily no breaks noted.

Back in Australia I have been lucky enough to get some great treatment through Lifecare.  The physio’s have been treating m twice weekly and things are starting to loosen up.  I have been able to get back into some non-bumpy riding and I am able to build on fitness once again, prepping for the next lot of World Cups in Europe.

Thanks to everyone for their lovely words of support.  I am very lucky to have so many people care! A big congrats to the other Aussies who did really well over there. In particular, my teammates, Dan McConnell finishing up 24^th in Elite men and Bec Henderson 6^th in U23 women.  Awesome work guys!