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9th at Monterrey World Cup, Mexico

I got my best World Cup result to date, finishing 9th at my last World Cup race all the way in Mexico.

I had to race this one to get enough ITU point for entry into the other upcoming big races.

I scored enough points and got a top 10 finish, so I’m more than happy with this one.

Succesfully defended my African Elite Tri Title

Durban again hosted the 2010 African Elite Triathlon Championships this year.

A new venue with an ocean swim, flat bike and a very twisted run course was set to stage this year’s event.

I had my mind set on defending my title, and was prepared to race hard to do so.

I had a good solid swim, exiting the water securely in the front group consisting of mmyself Sander (Netherlands), Hendrik and Mehdi (

Morocco). On the bike things were going as expected with front four just keeping the pace up, extending our lead on th

e rest of the athletes. Going into the run things looked good as I comfortably ran with Sander for the first 5km. Things started to go a bit wrong by the end of the 2nd lap, but I still finished a respectable 2nd overall and was again crowned African Elite Champion 2010.

Happy with that !!

SA Champion 2010

I was very motivated going into the race. I have done all the training and although it is early season for me, I felt like I was in really good form to have a good solid race.

My plan was to get away from the field early on in the swim, and just control my effort on the bike and then put in a good fast run.

I managed to work well with Jeff Norton in the swim and opened up a 35sec lead on the main bunch by Transition 1.

I knew the non-drafting 40km bike would be the deciding factor in this race, so I had to make sure I put in a solid fast ride with enough in the tank for the run. I started the ride based on how I felt and kept it nice and steady for the first 20km. I had a 25sec lead on the chasing group by the start of the third lap, and decided to push my pace up a notch. After 40km I managed to extend my lead to around 1min going into the run.

I felt really confident in my running ability at this stage, and with a minute head start on the other main athlete’s I knew I had a pretty good chance of winning the race. I managed a good solid 31:56 run split to take my second National title.

I am very happy with my performance and it gives me a good platform going into the European season.

Five out of five.

Today we were battling things out again as the series moved to Blouberg Strand in Cape Town. This was the first surf swim of the series, which off course made swimming a bit tougher today. Nonetheless we were a group of eight athletes on the bike we were going to fight things out on the flat and fast run course.

Claude and Hendrik are definitely improving as the races tick by, and both of them pulled out some good runs today, finishing in 2nd and 3rd respectively. I managed to grab my fifth win. Verry happy!

Well done to everyone for some great racing today.

Next week we head down to PE for race number six.

On the cover of Triathlete SA

Go check out the November issue of Triathlete SA.

You can buy a digital version on www.triathletesa.co.za or find it at CNA  and most cycling shops.