Pete Smith - Team Jeep South Africa: 15th March

Two weeks from the end of Sani – and after multiple physio appointments for completely broken legs (crashing and stage racing are a bad combination apparently) – it was time for my first Super Classic of the season. Jowetts is one of my favourite super classics as its on home turf and has some of the most awesome singletrack in the province. Credit must go to Chris Brand who organises the singletrack laden course almost single handedly – no small feat.

I continued the crashing and injury theme of my early season the day before the race while warming up on one of the singletracks. I just go far to fast on my new full suspension Specialized Epic. The bike gives me a new level of confidence over rough terrain and rocky sections – evidently way more confidence than I should have. I planted my upper leg on a rather large tree stump adding ITB woes to my already shot legs. Nevertheless, after some serious stretching I made it to the start line the next morning.

The start again made me consider giving up the sport, but once I recovered I had an awesome days riding. I caught back up to and overtook David Lieman and Andrew Hill in the first extended singletrack, making a bit of a gap. David came back past and put 30 seconds into me on the first big hill, a time gap which stayed pretty much constant for the rest of the race. The course was sublime – flowing singletrack interspersed the hills and the flat grinds, helping you forget all the hard sections.

After 1:38, which felt like a sprint race after my early season diet of ultra-marathons and stage races, I came to the finish under a minute behind David. Andrew Hill was 2 minutes back in third. Mike had an awesome race, sprinting it out with Jedson Tombs and unfortunately coming off second best in 5^th place, a further minute behind Andrew.