About Me
- Ashleigh Moffatt
- It all happened to me when I jumped on the seat and became one with my bike. Nothing else around you matters at that time as you are in a world of your own. I share a passion for cycling and encourage you to join me on my journey in 2012, riding in colours of BMC. its going to be a very exciting year!!
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Wednesday, 24 April 2013
African Continental XCO Championships
The African Continental XCO Championships took place in KZN
at Cascades MTB Park.
Looked forward to racing the African Champs this weekend and
we had a good strong line-up of women on the start line which was great. The
course for the XCO course was set to test all the abilities of the riders,
which then test each rider individually and it pushes you as a rider.
Standing on the start line ready to race we all looked over
our shoulders and saw these grey clouds coming and knew that we were in for
another muddy race. Therefore resulting in all of us laughing as there was
nothing that we could do and we were going to go have fun in the mud once
again!
With the mud conditions one needs to learn how to react with
the sliding around of the bike and how to control it, after you’ve fallen the
first few times you learn quite quickly how to manage your bike more
appropriately.
Well done to everyone that competed in the African Champs!!
There was some great racing!! Was great supporting and watching all the
different disciplines (XCE, XCO, DH)
Thank you to everyone for all the support, it means soo much
to the rider especially when they out there racing. One can never have too many
people shouting for them J
Next on the calendar is EUROPE, pretty excited about that!!
Xxx
Wednesday, 20 March 2013
SA Road Championships!
I just didn’t have enough of Nelspruit and the beauty of the
area that I had to go back and ride some more. Except this time I decided to
enjoy the scenery from the road bike J
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| Race Numbers for Road Race |
I went and did SA
Road Champs with my teammate Annemie Kruger, whos a roadie herself. So this was
going to be an experience for me and I was excited to take on the challenge. I
won’t lie I did ask Annemie for some roadie tips and what to expect on the
race.
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| Annemie and I road tripping to Nelspruit |
It was a hard route that contested of a 56km distance and
900m of climbing loop and we did it twice!
We went out of the start shoot with a pretty chilled pace
which was very different for me, as I usually burst out of the start from
cross-country. But I had to go and see what everyone was up too and went to the
front of the bunch and put my foot down, this was fun leading the bunch for a
little while until Ashleigh Moolman and Sharon Laws decided to attack on the
first hill of the day and that was the last time I saw them hahaha J
The route was hard riding as the hills were early in the lap
and it was big ring climbs and then the rest of the route was undulating and
quite fast, so was tough racing but I had fun and had a good experience! I
enjoyed working as a team with Annemie was lots of fun!
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| Annemie during her Time Trial |
Well done to my teammate Annemie Kruger for some great
racing both in the Time Trial and Road race!! J
Thank you to everyone for all the support, I think I will be
sticking to my mountain biking haha J
Was great meeting the other side of our family, Team
Westvaal BMC....Well to you guys for some great racing!!! Defiantly a team to
watch out for this year!!!
Xxx
MTN Sabie World Cup Marathon
MTN SABIE MARATHON: 74km and 1680m
I really enjoyed the MTN Sabie Marathon last year and was
excited to go back and race it! And to make it more interesting and great
racing it was the first leg of the marathon world cups!
So we had a strong field of ladies racing which was
terrific! It’s wonderful to see more and more ladies coming into the sport and
competing at top levels.
The Sabie Marathon (75km) is a hard route but enjoyable,
defiantly tests ones climbing legs J.
And has very enjoyable single track to reward you for the climbing! Had a good
race and fun out there! It was very hot and I was very happy to have Shotz
nutrition helping me through keeping me hydrated! Managed a 3rd in
U23 and 12th overall women J
well done to alls that competed, everyone put up a great fight! Well done to my
teammate Candy Neethling, great riding!!!
Xxx
SA XCO Nationals #1, Durbanville, Western Cape
The XCO nationals took place in Cape Town, Durbanville on
the track right there by Chris William’s Cycles. This was a good venue for the event because
of how spectator friendly it is, one can see the riders on majority of the lap
of the course.
It was a great course testing all the riders to the best of
their abilities, as well as giving the riders a bit of everything: technical
bits, hill climbs, and fast sections. I really enjoyed the course personally as
it was tough but pushed one self and that I enjoy the intensity of the course.
We had a nice bunch of women on the start line including
some internationals, it’s great to see so many girls coming into the sport! As
well as it pushes up the women cycling and to have more competition is always
fantastic.
Well done to all the ladies that raced, was some exciting
racing on the day!!
Xxx
KZN XCO #1 at Cascades
The First leg of the provincial XCO Series took part at
cascades, it was really exciting as we didn’t just have XCO but Downhill, XC
Eliminator and a pump track consist all on the same day!! This was quite
exciting as everyone was there all at the same time throughout the day
supporting all the athletes in the different disciplines.
We didn’t have rain which was awesome, the course was still
a bit wet but it made for great racing as the ground was nice and smooth.
All the ladies started together, that was pretty cool as it
gave us a bigger starting group and it pushes one during the race. As you
either want to catch the elites, U23’s or you don’t want the under girls to
catch you!
Nick Floros designed a great course that was suitable for
all riders, it was fast and following. With loads of single track which also
tips the scale of a course being great!!! J
J J
It was good race, lots of battling it out between Cherise
Taylor , myself, Biance Haw and Frankie Du Toit, with all four of us claiming
first place in our age groups!!! Well done to all the ladies that competed made
some exciting racing!!
Thank you KZN MTB for putting on a great event was awesome
being involved and supporting all the disciplines of racing!! Made it a
wonderful day of racing!!
Look forward to the next provincial!!
Xxx
Subaru MTB Classic
I haven’t done the Subaru Classic race for awhile and after
doing it this weekend I couldn’t believe how nice the race is!!
The course was AWESOME!!! With at least 75% single track!!!
The weather conditions were great as we had rain the night before and diafantly
thought we would be in for a muddy race. But the sun came out and made it a
great race!
I really did enjoy the race very much and well done to
Nedene Chaill for claiming the win, you raced well!!
Well done to all that competed!!!
Xxx
KZN Road Champs
So I rode the KZN Road Champs in Ladysmith. This was going to be something very knew to me. So I was excited but nervous at the same time as well as I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. I did have my awesome teammate Candy Neethling there, which was great as we could race together and also give me a head up on what to expect.
It was a really nice course consisting of 94km, it was very fast as it was not a very steep course. The weather wasn’t the greatest as we had rain and wind throughout the whole race, especially on the pass where it was like a thunderstorm haha. But that’s all part of cycling and it adds a bit of challenge into the race.
I won’t lie it was different to not sprint out of the start line, but we just casually got into a rhythm as the group decided who was who in the zoo. There was not a big bunch of us women, there was 15 of us riders (that was the total of all the age group put together), so there wasn’t a big bunch which was a little disappointing and hopefully next year will be better attended.
It was a good race and I really enjoyed the new experience of road racing, it’s basically like doing intervals non-stop for 94 km. It was a good experience and I’m glad I did it. It became a quite a fight on the second half of the race as the pace picked up and we were racing will a leader group of 5 of us. Candice put up a good fight and took the leading 4 across the line, ending in a sprint finish. I was very happy to get third elite. Well done to all the riders and to Candy for her second, great racing by all the women!
Ps: I must admit I do enjoy my cross-country more, will always be a MTBiker hehe J J J
Until next time
Xxx
Thursday, 17 January 2013
The Cycle Fest!!!
FUN IN THE MUD!!!! This sums up the weekend!
This past weekend was the Cycle Fest weekend, where there
were races throughout every day of the weekend! It was an absolute blast even
with all the rain, it added to the fun and excitement of the weekend!
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| Start/ Finish line of XCO |
Saturday was the XCO UCI Race (which was raced in memory of
Burry Stander). I woke up to over cast and drizzling rain, knowing that it was
going to be a morning of messing around in the mud!!
Then we were off as we fought our way around the muddy
cascades XCO course. Mariske got an early lead in the first lap where Sam,
Candice and I fought to catch her up. I managed to catch up to Mariske towards
the end of the first lap and then it was a full on battle in the mud as the two
of us fought it out to the end. A big
well done to Mariske!!! Great riding buddy!!!
I will admit my choice of tyres Mud King Continentals truly
helped me and I personally think were the best choice for the race!!!
It wasn’t easy racing
at all, continuously sliding all over the place as well as trying to go fast, but
it was all good in the end! J
I had lots of fun!!! Was a good season opening race!!!
Results:
1.
Mariske Strauss
2.
Ashleigh Moffatt
3.
Samantha Standers
4.
Candice Neethling
5.
Siska Van Der Bijl
6.
Hayley Smith
7.
Angela Egeland
8.
Kendall Ryan
It was a great weekend of racing and had soo much fun!! Well
done to everyone that came and raced in the mud J
Thank you to everyone for all the support and encouragement
over the weekend!!! Was great having
your support (shouting) especially in those conditions, makes it worth
all the falling, sliding and coming out not even looking like myself haha J J J
Thank you!
The next race I will be doing is the KZN Road Championships
in Ladysmith on the 20th January J
Until then...
xxx
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