On the 5th February 2015 was the start of my national championships campaign. Having seen the course a few days prior to the event , I was really chuffed to see that it was a honest TT course. It had everything in it; the fast bits, the technical section and a few short climbs thrown in the mix. I started out really well and got a nice gap already on my competition and that set me up for the rest of the 42km course .

 

I had heard on lap 3 that I had a gap of 1min 30sec and that built my confidence up even more and I knew all I had to do at that point was maintain my composure and keep my rhythm going . It is strange , sometimes on the TT bike you feel as if you fighting your way to the end but this day I had exceptional legs and it seemed as if everything went right for me and I finished feeling empty but also great knowing I had won the national TT champs again for a 4th time.

 

The road race was 2 days after and being the favourite again after the TT I knew I would have a lot of riders riding against me. While I had no team mates as only South African riders are allowed to take part , I had to rely on a bit of luck for things to pan out how I would have liked. Anyway, seems most teams except for MTN , Abantu and BMC westvaal were out to sit and wait for me to do all the work . I have no idea why some teams even came to the start , having no one in the break and not even chasing or racing behind made me shake my head a few times , actually I felt sorry for their riders who were also wondering why their management hadn't allowed them to chase . At the end of the day we had a worthy winner, Jacques Janse van Rensburg , he deserved winning after a long breakaway  and it's good to see him take the jersey to Europe. Of course I was disappointed coming in 2nd (roughly 2min down) but I always knew it would be a lottery and that I would be marked out the race , but having said that I was happy how I felt and moving forward it is a good sign .

 

Now that the champs are over, it's time for one last training camp in South Africa and then onto Europe where my first big race will be Paris -Nice .

 

A massive thanks to Bosseau Boshoff for helping me out at nationals and Naeem from Valencia cycles as well as my family and friends who came to support .

 

It has been a great start to the year so far and I hope to gain more momentum as the year moves on.