Difference between first place and the rest

I got to race the Computer Mania Willow Creek Nuy 60km mountain bike race on Saturday. Although it was an ordinary PPA race, it had Computer Mania as a title sponsor and therefore some very decent prizes, which is unusual for a PPA race.

As usual with these local PPA races you never know who is going to pitch up at the start line. However, you know that there will always be at least 4 or 5 decent riders ready to battle it out at the front of the race especially this one as the prize for first place was a nice new HP laptop!

I really need a new laptop! I have been wanting to buy one for quite a few months now but always have other things that I need to spend my hard earned money on, especially things to keep me going in the sport of mountain biking.

It was a fast race as there was not a lot of climbing. The terrain was quite rough with lots of dry fynbos-scratching skinny shiny legs. A small group of about 6 riders were out in front until the first little climb at 20km. The group was then narrowed down to just 3 of us (myself, Greg Knox of UCT and a House of Paint rider who I unfortunately don't have a name for as it didn't show up on the end results). After the decent from this climb one of the others that was dropped on the way up was able to catch back up to us again.

From then on the front of the race consisted of the 4 of us. There were no major hills to break up the 4 of us until the final climb at 45km. This climb was more of a hike-a-bike climb as it was very steep and rocky. All of us had to resort to getting off our bikes to make it to the top. This provided little opportunity to make use of on the bike climbing strengths and everyone summited the hill together. Therefore it all came down to the decent into the finish and the guy that was able to catch back up to us down the first climb earlier on in the race was able to put in the best decent out of us and take the win with Greg Knox in second, myself in third and the House of Paint rider in forth.

Although still a decent result and keeping it consistent up in the top three for the last two weeks now, there was no new laptop for third place. Instead I won a very fancy laptop stand with an integrated keyboard. So thanks to Computer Mania for the fantastic prizes!