Vall-Nought

Monday and Tuesday were our official practice days on the DH track. To say Sunday nights sleep was a little ‘off’ would be an understatement. We now had to find out how the hell we were actually going to get down this mountainside upright…or even semi-upright.

To start the day off we decided to ride down the blue Commencal trail just to warm up. This was a fabulous idea, and everyone was relaxing a bit until half way when Cobus changed places with Mark and led the pack. I’m quite a lot slower than Mark, Cobus and Rika; and had stopped to tighten my elbow pads so I was a good minute and half behind them I reckon. So imagine my surprise when I came into a corner to see this view:

Cobus kindly re-enacted how I found him…

A desperate Cobus was frantically waving me down yelling “Stop! Please help!” Cannonball Koos had sped off from Mark at a ripping pace, literally leaving Mark and Rika behind who were just cruising…over jumped a step down into a berm by like double the length and shot straight off the berm and plunged down the mountainside like a goddamn missile. Luckily he had just managed to scramble up in time to see me coming by, as the other two had carried on down the mountain not knowing that Cobus was upside down 25m off a pretty much vertical drop. I think his only saving grace was that he was going so fast he jumped over a half cut tree and landed in some softer rotten pine needles and mushy wood He would literally have impaled himself if he’d hit that tree. After retrieving the bike we carried on down the hill and found the rest of the crew. And we hadn’t even got to the racetrack yet.

We joined the line of riders, guts churning and sweat beginning to grease our palms and brows. Slowly, one by one, we dropped out of the steep starting gate and made our way through the sections we’d walked past the day before. Mark hit the top road gap straight away and was gone like a bat out of hell, while the rest of us were just focussed on getting down the hill once rubber side down before attempting any of the jumps and drops. Although I was basically riding backwards I was going so slowly, it was okay. The steep sections were flipping steep, and it took some getting used to committing to a chute and learning how to just find a rut and ride-slide it; but we all made it down. Okay, so I did actually have quite a big crash going off a teeny ski jump and sprained my left thumb a bit, but on the kath-o-meter that’s not really so bad. I did learn that you had to judge your speed quite carefully though, so it was a good learning curve.

Pete had a rough day of it and wound up taking some big offs and crashes in the steep areas, Rika found him literally climbing out of a ravine that he had just gone crashing off and I think the overall body aches and pains just got the better of him on day two as he decided that he’d rather spend the rest of his time here chillaxing in the bike park on the less mental tracks. I think it’s always hard to make those calls, but also once you make that kind of decision it’s best to stick to it.

Day two was definitely better for everyone, although we all crashed (except Rika – touch wood). This is why we titled this blog post Vall-Nought, because we all saw our noughts. Bwaha. Nigel cartwheeled down the final chute in spectacular fashion, Jo’s legs looks like somebody smashed her with mulberries, Mark went OTB on his main tiger line and Cobus sort of train wrecked straight off the track and through the tape narrowly missing a family. But I think I win the ‘fall/fail of the day’ award for leaving the start gate with one cleat in, trying to clip in as I left the flat part of the ramp thereby smacking the ramp with a pedal and doing a full 360 somersault with my bike, splatting into the ground at the base of the ramp. Oh ja, I broke down the metal barrier fence too. I categorically do not understand how the hell I got up smiling from that crash, bike fine, I was fine…incredible. However, since I like to do things properly I crashed about twenty minutes after that, when I cleared a small double…and went directly on to my head and bad shoulder and literally saw stars. I’m going around that jump now…

The Start Gate...which is a bit more vert than this picture shows...

For your viewing pleasure here is a sample of Rika and Mark’s GoPro footage from Day 1 and 2, kind of muddled together. Tomorrow is the seeding run, and the ladies start at 11, and are done by 11:10…crazy. There are 11 in women, three of which are South Africans…we make up 27% of the field! I’m not sure if the full field will be starting though, as one woman has damaged her knee and another was seen in a sling.There are roughly 80 men in the 30-34 age group, and the same in the 35 – 39 age group…and most of them are flipping fast. I think there are about 350 total entrants but I’ll confirm that one. Okay night all! Let you know how seeding goes tomorrow.