Mountain Bike Season Starts Again

Well after a period of keeping quiet … I’ve got two posts for you in one day!
The first post (this one) is to get my mind in focus for the start of the mountain bike season in Wales, this coming Saturday.

The other post is about my dream to become the first Lesotho rider to compete in African Championships in just a few weeks’ time (which is not easy when I’m thousands of miles away from Africa).

Everything else in the past six months of my new life in Wales has gone great. I enjoy school and seem to be doing well academically and I have also settled in with the youth group at church. BUT cycling has not at all gone to plan. I managed to get one mountain bike race in two weeks after my arrival in August and then everyone … I mean everyone… puts away their mountain bikes for the winter.

And now at last I understand why. It’s absolutely freezing over here and mountain bike usually goes together with getting wet … and wet and cold is a terrible combination. For the most part, I have managed to keep fit inside on the rollers (a piece of indoor training equipment that requires concentration, pedalling and balancing) and general fitness through playing rugby and football. I have tried out cycling in different – weather snow, rain and the occasional sunny, frosty day, but I always seem to arrive home wet and cold!

Well, it’s time to see whether the effort was worth it or not with the first round of the Welsh Mountain Bike Cross-Country Series this weekend, February 10th. The race will be at the famous Margam Park MTB trails, not too far away from where I’m living now. I’m getting my head in focus to do my best, but as this will be the first race of the season, I’m not sure what to expect.

It will be the start of quite a busy season and I expect to see general improvement in my performance as the weather improves and I get used to the conditions and style of racing. This will include the rest of the Welsh Series, and I hope some National races as well.

I still have my big goal in mind – to represent Lesotho in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland and so I am also looking for opportunities to pop back ‘home’ to Africa to pick up some ranking points, experience and also to lift up Lesotho’s flag in competitions that we haven’t been represented in before – The African MTB Championships and World MTB Championships.

I will keep you posted about my progress in the season … as for now, please read my post about the African Championships.