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A muddy Hayley Smith of Uvongo basks in her World Cup victory.PHOTOS: Darren Goddard (cycho.co.za)/Gameplan Media
South Coast starlet overcomes all odds to seal World Cup victory.HAYLEY Smith (Bell Equipment) claimed a watershed win in the biggest race of her budding career when she triumphed in the junior women’s cross-country race at the RockyRoads UCI MTB World Cup Pietermaritzburg at the Cascades MTB Park last Saturday.
The World Cup debutant’s already shot nerves were compounded as the heavens opened moments prior to the race, which forced event organisers to cordon off certain sections of the course for safety reasons.
The Uvongo teenager, as she has done her entire life, defied the odds in the dire conditions to secure a convincing victory in a time of 59 minutes 11 seconds, a full four minutes 19 seconds ahead of runner-up Nicole Erasmus.
“I can’t believe what I have just done! I am so overwhelmed with my win and glad that all my training and preparations have paid off. I desperately wanted this win,” an elated Smith told The Fever.
“I was very nervous before the race and then it started to rain really hard and I forgot all about my nerves and was trying to work out how I was going to race this extreme track in these wet conditions.
“This is definitely one of my biggest achievements in my cycling career so far. It has been a very exciting weekend for me and one I will always remember,” she added.
Smith’s victory was the most emotional and remarkable of all over the course of the weekend as it came less than a year after the inspirational young rider had undergone heart surgery to treat an arrhythmia with a cardiac ablation.
17-year-old Smith had been battling with an abnormally high heart beat for about 18 months and would often have spells of light-headedness, lack of energy and even fainted after races.
It was only early in 2011, when she was selected through Cycling South Africa as a member of the Sport Science Institute’s High Performance Team that her condition was correctly diagnosed and she was withdrawn from the team to undergo treatment.
After making a full recovery, Smith suffered another setback when she broke her collarbone during her first race back which required a plate and five screws to be inserted. She said her love for mountain biking never waned and was the main driving force behind her recovery.
“I never dreamt that I would achieve this goal so soon after what I had been through last year. Last year was a very challenging year for me health wise and I am just so grateful that I am able to cycle again. All I wanted to do was to get better and get back on my bicycle and do what I love most.
“The World Cup experience has been awesome and watching all the top riders in the world and getting to chat to some of them is really cool. The vibe of everyone cheering and shouting for the riders out on the track is awesome and really helps to motivate you.”
Prior to Smith’s heroics, Umtentweni superstar Burry Stander (Specialized Racing) secured second place in the elite men’s cross-country race after narrowly being edged by world number two Nino Schurter (Scott-Swisspower MTB Racing Team) of Switzerland.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been on the podium, so second place is not what you aim for, you always aim to win, but I’m satisfied with what I did today,” said Stander.
“It was a big race that I wanted to do well in. It’s definitely the most stressful World Cup for me all year. The level goes up every year. Today we were probably going faster than we were three years ago.
“I think everyone is on top of their game and trying to improve where they can and I realised last year that I would have to do the same and pick up my level if I were going to carry on competing. That’s what I’ve done. It seems to be working and I hope to build and get stronger going forward,” he added.
Candice Neethling (BMC) and Evan van der Spuy (Varsity College) also did the South Coast proud in the season opener, the former finishing as the top-placed South African in the women’s Under-23 cross-country race (11th) and the latter 14th in the junior men’s cross-country race.
The World Cup debutant’s already shot nerves were compounded as the heavens opened moments prior to the race, which forced event organisers to cordon off certain sections of the course for safety reasons.
The Uvongo teenager, as she has done her entire life, defied the odds in the dire conditions to secure a convincing victory in a time of 59 minutes 11 seconds, a full four minutes 19 seconds ahead of runner-up Nicole Erasmus.
“I can’t believe what I have just done! I am so overwhelmed with my win and glad that all my training and preparations have paid off. I desperately wanted this win,” an elated Smith told The Fever.
“I was very nervous before the race and then it started to rain really hard and I forgot all about my nerves and was trying to work out how I was going to race this extreme track in these wet conditions.
“This is definitely one of my biggest achievements in my cycling career so far. It has been a very exciting weekend for me and one I will always remember,” she added.
Smith’s victory was the most emotional and remarkable of all over the course of the weekend as it came less than a year after the inspirational young rider had undergone heart surgery to treat an arrhythmia with a cardiac ablation.
17-year-old Smith had been battling with an abnormally high heart beat for about 18 months and would often have spells of light-headedness, lack of energy and even fainted after races.
It was only early in 2011, when she was selected through Cycling South Africa as a member of the Sport Science Institute’s High Performance Team that her condition was correctly diagnosed and she was withdrawn from the team to undergo treatment.
After making a full recovery, Smith suffered another setback when she broke her collarbone during her first race back which required a plate and five screws to be inserted. She said her love for mountain biking never waned and was the main driving force behind her recovery.
“I never dreamt that I would achieve this goal so soon after what I had been through last year. Last year was a very challenging year for me health wise and I am just so grateful that I am able to cycle again. All I wanted to do was to get better and get back on my bicycle and do what I love most.
“The World Cup experience has been awesome and watching all the top riders in the world and getting to chat to some of them is really cool. The vibe of everyone cheering and shouting for the riders out on the track is awesome and really helps to motivate you.”
Prior to Smith’s heroics, Umtentweni superstar Burry Stander (Specialized Racing) secured second place in the elite men’s cross-country race after narrowly being edged by world number two Nino Schurter (Scott-Swisspower MTB Racing Team) of Switzerland.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been on the podium, so second place is not what you aim for, you always aim to win, but I’m satisfied with what I did today,” said Stander.
“It was a big race that I wanted to do well in. It’s definitely the most stressful World Cup for me all year. The level goes up every year. Today we were probably going faster than we were three years ago.
“I think everyone is on top of their game and trying to improve where they can and I realised last year that I would have to do the same and pick up my level if I were going to carry on competing. That’s what I’ve done. It seems to be working and I hope to build and get stronger going forward,” he added.
Candice Neethling (BMC) and Evan van der Spuy (Varsity College) also did the South Coast proud in the season opener, the former finishing as the top-placed South African in the women’s Under-23 cross-country race (11th) and the latter 14th in the junior men’s cross-country race.
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