Rourke blows opposition away in Wortburg Classic!

Rourkes account of the Wortburg Classic.

It's always good standing on the top step of the podium! The Wortburg classic is one of KZN's biggest races and one I look forward to each year. The track is always in awesome condition with loads of technical single track and some quality climbs - the steepest and by far hardest was a 21% 1.5km climb.

The quality of racing in SA has improved a lot over the past 2 years and this was no exception. We got off to a flyer, my legs were feeling all of it after a hard weeks training up to the race. The first 10km were undulating and got the legs loose - once my legs were feeling good I made my way to the front and started setting a good tempo. It wasn't long before there were only 3 of us left. I kept the tempo up through out the next 20km - I could see I was hurting them!

I knew the big climb was after 24km - I was ready to put the boys in the hurt-box. At the bottom of the climb I started putting down the hammer, after a few hundred meters I looked back and there was no one behind me. I knew I had to put my head down and suffer for the next 20km.

I could feel the power was there and the form is coming on really well, at the end I had managed to open a 3 min gap over 2nd place.

I am really chuffed with the result, let's hope SA champs goes the same!

Rourke Croeser