Fraser McGlone South Africa report
23rd May 2011
World Cup Round 1, Pietermaritzburg
This was my first time racing at a World Cup, and only my second time going on a plane with my bike so when we got to check in our bike boxes were way over weight! So had to ram some Five Tens, race jerseys and race pants into my hand luggage.
Walked the track on Wednesday, top looked good and the bottom looked good, only thing that looked bad was the huge sprint in the middle of the course but it was the same for everyone so just had to get on with it!
First day of practice went well, started off pretty moist then slowly dried out as the day went on so by the end of the day the course was a lot faster. Got all my lines sorted out within a few runs then gradually built up speed on them.
Friday, qualifying day! Managed to get two good runs in before qualifying so I was happy with how I was riding. My run went well, it was my first full run of the course so I didn’t really know how hard to go on the pedalling, I came across the line into 74th position which I was super happy about! Was a really cool feeling qualifying for the first time.
Had four practice runs on Saturday, changed a couple of lines to ones I was more comfortable on and overall just picked up some speed.
Race day, it had been dry for the last two days so the course was baked solid. I went up for my race run feeling pretty good, it was one of the hottest days so when I got to the top I went straight for some shade to warm up. My race run went better than qualifying, went a lot harder on the pedal which was so hard to keep myself going, thought it would never end! I ended up 64th so it was a good start to my world cup season.
Fraser
1 Comment
Servus Fraser,
too bad you did not make it to the finals in rainy Leogang. Next time :-)
All the best for the rest of the season,
take care, cu in some gondola,
Katharina
Kathi Katz
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