The afternoon before the National Cup XCO this weekend was spent hurrying off to Durban to pick up my brand new toy… the beautiful Cube Elite HPC SL hard tail mountain bike.

The bike was amazing to ride but unfortunately the conditions on race day were not so great.

Many of the international participants arrived in South Africa this last week, in preparation for next week which is the first round of the UCI World Cup Mountain Biking Series in Pietermaritzburg which made the National Cup event the perfect dress rehearsal.

Waiting to start.

Sadly the weather didn’t play its part and it rained quite a bit in the days leading up to the event and a lot on the day of the race, which turned the course into a mud bath and some last minute alterations had to be made by the organisers.

The start

About 50 riders had entered the event but only about 30 or so started, myself being 1 of 5 South Africans to do so.
The start was fast, as expected but I wasn’t quite ready for what the course threw at us. It seemed as though I ran more than I rode and after 4 crashes in one lap I decided to call it quits for the day.

This is after about 600m, the mud was that bad.

I must say a big thank you to Paul, Darryl and Jacques from Cube for getting the bike to me on time and hopefully next week things will go a bit better in the World cup. Tune in later in the week for a few more pictures and a review on my new bike. She’s a real beauty ☺

If you are in or around Pietermaritzburg this weekend come and watch the world’s best on mountain bikes. For more race and ticket information click here