Cedara Agricultural College played host to the 2011 Subaru Mountain Bike Classic. The race would take place in the Hilton forests which border on Cedara College and is the home to countless kilometres of fast flowing single track.
A good sized field took off from the sports field under misty skies.
On the first significant climb Rourke Croeser(Orange Monkey/Cannondale) pushed the pace and a group of 6 riders went clear including myself, Tyronne White, Patrick Belton, Brendon Davids(Jeep) and Evan van der Spuy(Jeep). We stayed together until a short sharp rise where Rourke got away on his own, followed by Tyronne and Brendon and then myself, Evan and Patrick. Travis Walker soon joined the 3 of us and we worked well together in pursuit of Tyronne and Brendon.
Unfortunately a few kilometres later I was losing quite a bit of air from my rear wheel and with carbon rims I was not willing to take a chance on it so had to stop and bomb it however this meant that I lost the group I was with and got caught behind a number of riders who had passed whilst I had stopped just before a section of single track; this made passing difficult.
Going hard up the main climb trying to make back lost time.
Image Compliments: Brian Smith
I pushed hard to catch back up but could only make it back up to 7th overall and 4th elite before the kilometres ran out and the finish line approached. I was a bit disappointed as I felt I could have done better, nonetheless it was a good race and the legs felt better. Course designer Chris Brand did an awesome job and the course was one of the best I have ridden this year so far.
chriswolhuter.com 