Cratching over a set on my second go (thats me on the right).
If you follow me on twitter you will know I was at the doctor last week Saturday rather than at the race. Eish! So bummed. On the other hand the rest allowed me to recover really fast and start training again with very little time lost.
Found my feet in the boat quickly with week so back to the pre-race routine I love so much of Future Life, Coffee and GU Roctane. The weather has just been amazing the whole series so far and it didn’t disappoint. A light off shore breeze dying by the race start to create a glassy reflection off the sea and a beautiful waves rapping round the point to a view one can only find on the kzn south coast.
I had a go at the back line in a brave move at the start. They come off 9 out of 10 times but this was the 1 time I got a 4 foot lip in the face. Lucky held onto my ski and limited the damage lucky not to be back on the beach.
Got going again and chased hard. Passed race organiser Billy Harker and set sights on making up some ground. Caught Brandon Van Der Walt and together caught his brother Grant Van Der Walt quite quickly. With just Len Jenkins and Hank McGregor well up the track we had our work would be cut out to catch them working together.
Lucky for us Hank had been a bit sick this week and was happy to let Len pull. Working together Brandon and myself worked really well together to get up about 20m behind the lead two with 1 surf turn and half a lap to go. Chaos hit when there was no turn flag for us in the surf. Hank ran across the line and everyone looked at each other ‘what now’? By the time we all set off on the last half lap Brandon had got a sneaky 300m lead. We managed to catch him in the last couple hundred meters but I turned on the back of the bunch and missed a running the other got in the last 100m.
The organisers decided to scrap the last half lap and give Brandon and myself tie 3rd. A fun day out even with the chaos. I am very happy with my form and the ability to catch the front bunch from well off at the start. Such are hard mental task feeling beaten so early but the trust in the speed on the Garmin (using the new 910xt, more soon). Confidence in my form is growing as I get fitter and with it such delight in pushing the body knowing it will respond.
The next 2 weeks are key to the winter block of racing. Amped as the BULLET starts to really run. Let’s hope we get some wind in the next couple weeks.
Top photo is from the legend Anthony Grote and the other 3 photos are from Claire Lindsay. Hope to have some more soon! |
