Ballito’s 17-year-old Joshua Nelson’s strategy of attacking on the steepest climb in the 45km half marathon route paid off as he crossed the finish line first at the Ashburton National Mountain Biking Series (NMTBS) held on Sunday, July 26 at Sugar Rush.
The Ballito leg was the fifth in a series of seven events to determine the overall Ashburton NMTBS champion for 2015. With his win, Nelson regained the junior series leader’s jersey that was taken from his shoulders at the previous race at Van Gaalen in Brits, North West Province.
With the much publicised ongoing drought, riders and organisers were surprised by the extremely difficult conditions brought on by heavy rain before and during the event. Riders had a tough time and exerted additional energy navigating the extremely slippery, muddy route in the wind.
“A lot of the guys were sliding out and there were plenty of crashes,” said Nelson, who himself took a tumble early on in the race.
The young Surespan Swift rider took advantage of local trail knowledge and decided to hang back for a few kilometres before making his big move about 30km into the race on the steepest climb of the day. Nelson put down the hammer on a murderous 17% gradient climb and stayed away until the end, crossing the finish line in 02:01:36, 20 seconds before runner-up Martien Venter.
“I was very excited to get this win in front of my home crowd,” said Nelson.
The next event in the series takes place two weeks from now in Rooiberg, Gauteng, before ending the series at high altitude in Dullstroom where riders will have to compete at 2100 metres above sea level.
“The Dullstroom altitude got to me last year and I had a nose bleed. This year I will do some altitude training in the Berg or we may go to Dullstroom three days before the race to give our bodies a chance to adapt,” said Nelson.
Nelson is coached by Ty White and plans to go to Italy in 2016 where he will further his career as a professional mountain biker. Riders have to be 19 years or older to compete in the full marathon (70km) event and Nelson, turning 19 in the second half of next year, is looking forward to the challenge.
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