National Cup - Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

After the success of the Karkloof Classic, Rourke went into the first round of the South African National Cup with high expectations and a positive outlook, but nothing could have prepared him for the monsoon that was about to move over the World Cup course of Pietermaritzburg! In challenging tough conditions, Rourke rode a strong race against some tough European competition including Britains David Fletcher, as riders from around the world test out the course in preperation for next weekends World Cup.

In his own words....

Saturdays National Cup were the worst conditions I have ever ridden in. It is hard to put into words how muddy it was. To give you some idea, the lap in the dry takes 16min and the laps were taking 30.

On the bright side, I had an awesome race. I felt really good and learnt a lot in the mud. Having the international competition is always good. Having 2 former silver medalists, at Junior world champs, was going to make it extremely tough.

U23's were the last to start, 2:35pm. I had a reasonable seeding and was on the front row. As you can imagine the start was crazy, I got the whole-shot and was in the single track first. The climbs were unrideable which made for a good running race, with many crashes. I made it through the first lap in the leading group of 4. Lap 2 was where the race was decided, those Euro's are FAST in the mud. Going into the last lap it was a Bulls rider and myself. On the climbs I would open 10 or 20 seconds however he managed to close it on the descents every time.

In the end I managed a 3rd place. I am really chuffed with the result. Lets hope this weekends world cup goes just as well.

Regards.... Rourke Croeser.