The local downhill season has finally begun and Stefan Garlicki has raced the Helderberg Trails twice for the first round of the Provincial and National DHI series. This is how it went…
Coming into the first event, the Western Province Provincial Series opener, I was a little unsure of where I would be at as I had not raced in over five months due to a long off-season and my knee injury. My training had been going well and I felt good on the track but until you race you never really know. At the event my biggest challenge would come from Andrew “Needles” Neethling, who is a local to Helderberg, and also one of the best this country has ever seen. I knew beating him on his home track would be extremely tough but I just focused on myself and racing the track. The track was changed up quite a bit and was very loose to ride; riders were dropping like flies although fortunately there were no serious injuries. I knew the key would be to keep a good flow and not be too aggressive as it was extremely easy to make a mistake and crash in the dusty, slippery conditions.
On the Tuesday prior to the event I joined Adi van der Merwe for a few practice runs but I only got past the first few corners and then my brake pads fell out! I went to grab rear brake and there was just nothing there! Definitely a scary moment but I managed to pull over into the bush. I had fitted new brake pads the night before and had forgotten to fit the pins back in the calliper. I will not make that mistake again, it could have gone much worse that it did. I was, however, hoping that due to this, my race weekend would go a bit better now my mishap was out of the way.
I managed to do just that, I seeded 2nd just 2 seconds behind Needles with a smooth run without much pedalling. In the race run I managed to pull things together and grab the win by 1.4 seconds! I was ecstatic to start the season like that and the two of us were also well clear of the other competitors so that was a plus.
My celebration was short lived as I knew it would be straight back to work to prepare for the first national round. However the win did give me a lot of confidence. The track for the national was similar but about 30% of it was new so it did present a few new challenges. There would also be more top pro riders there like multiple SA champ Johann Potgieter, plus Sam Bull, Adi Van Der Merwe, and the two youngsters from KZN, Jono and Chris Philogene. My plan did not really change going into it; I focused on racing the track, being smooth and limiting the mistakes although I knew it would be tough. The track was probably the loosest and most dusty track I had ever seen around the world which made it extremely unpredictable. The speed was also high from top to bottom and I feel it is the best SA National Series track I have raced since I started out in 2010.
When race day came around I could feel the tension as all the riders wanted to do well and start the season on top. My game plan was to do two practice runs, a seeding run and then a race run, but unfortunately we were a bit slow in the morning and I only got in one practice run which was not ideal. I did feel the effects of this and in my seeding run I made some costly mistakes which I was a little frustrated with. However I still managed to seed first by 4 seconds over Johann Potgieter and Jono Philogene. After I saw this I knew that I just needed to hold it together and I could take the win. In the final I was more focused after listening to some music at the start and then just kept it smooth in my run. I had a great run with almost no mistakes and knocked 5 seconds off my qualifying time which saw me take the win by over 5 seconds!
So happy to start the season on a positive note after the long time off. This has really motivated me for the World Cups this year! Massive thanks to my team, all my sponsors, family and friends for the great support! On to the next one, until next time…
SA DHI Series Race 1 Results:
Men’s:
- Stefan Garlicki (02:53.277)
- Jonathan Philogene (02:58.730)
- Johann Potgieter (02:59.845)
- Theo Erlangsen (03:00.487)
- Adi Van Der Merwe (03:01.815)
Women’s:
- Rika Olivier (Vet Women – 03:50.924)
- Simone Futter (Sub Vet Women – 04:35.245)
- Sabine Thies (Junior Women – 04:59.846)
- Kathryn Fourie (Sub Vet Women – 05:08.882)
- Leigh Haskins (Vet Women – 05:45.726)
