In all likelihood the National Pro-elite Cross-country race that will take place in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday (4 June) will boil down to one teammate competing for victory against another.

Philip Buys and Marc Bassingthwaighte (from Garmin-adidas) are undoubtedly the two in-form cross-country riders at the moment. This is especially true after they had both competed in the World Cup events in Britain and Germany over the preceding two weekends.

If, and it is a big if, Burry Stander (Specialized) should decide to compete in the event, it would be almost a foregone conclusion that he would be the winner. By finishing fourth in the Offenburg World Cup event, just more than a minute behind the winner, Stander again proved that he is one of the world’s best.  In accordance with his performance when he was still competing in the u.23 races of the World Cup series, Rourke Croeser will be the only other rider who might be capable of spoiling the fun for Buys and Bassingthwaighte on the Cascades course.

Buys is moderately satisfied with his performance at the Offenburg World Cup. He again managed to finish a World Cup event and he was pleased that this time he was a full minute closer to the overall winner, Julien Absalon (France).

In Yorkshire he was a full 12 minutes off the pace but in Offenburg it was only 11 minutes.

According to Buys the most important lesson that he learned from his participation in the two World Cup events, is that he needs to become much stronger.

“I cannot continue to use the excuse that, in accordance with my UCI ranking, it is fine if I finish in more or less the 70^th position every time I race in a World Cup event.  Manuel Fumic from Germany proved that it is possible to catch up with the race leaders if you are strong enough.

“He started behind me in Offenburg, but passed me and many other riders to finish 28^th overall.  In future my goal will be a top 30 finish.”

Buys described the start of the Offenburg race as really tough.

“The race started with a serious climb and, if you did not want to be stone last, you had to race hard to get to the top.

“I was doing fine during most of the race, passing about 15 riders, but during the last lap my bike’s chain became twisted and I had to stop to fix it. Even though I was off my bike for only 30 seconds, about six to eight riders passed me. This showed once again how tough World Cup racing can be.”

“If I should go to Europe again to race, I would rather compete in the smaller mountain-biking events where there are good UCI points on offer. In this way I might also improve my start position for the World Championship.”

The one thing Buys really enjoyed in Offenburg was the sprint event that took place two days before the World Cup. He finished 15^th and Stander was 10^th.

Offenburg was not a good racing experience for Bassingthwaighte because he could not complete the race.

This is his explanation of what happened.

“Offenburg didn’t go quite according to plan. I was really looking forward to the awesome course, with drops and sweeping trails. The course was quite rooty but that only added to the technicality. The weather was way better than it was in England, with temperatures hitting 30 degrees. A shower on Friday made the course nice and compact.

“I was doing fine at the beginning, but then my position just deteriorated. Well maybe not quite, because I was still sticking with the same group but that was that.  During lap three I connected a tree and had to stop to straighten my handlebar.  After this misfortune I was able to catch up with the group again, but I couldn’t pass them.  I simply did not have the legs and, to my great disappointment, I was pulled off before the last lap.

“I noticed that many of the professional riders are struggling at the moment, so I guess I should not be too hard on myself.”