Hello and Welcome

Enjoy the ride and listen for the scream of joy on the trail.

 

The white stuff

16.05

 

I look out the window and it is grey. Rat grey. Not mouse grey, rat grey. The house is still quiet. I get up to make me a tea. You see I have stopped drinking coffee for a week now to see what effect it has. (till now it is far less smelly in the room) As I passed the door I see that there is an unfamiliar white on the lawn. Not completely white, but enough to get my attention. Ya it is snowing. Shit. Yesterday I had wished for this! It was kak cold yesterday already and I was joking that it might as well be all white outside, we are getting cold anyway. Now this!

Yesterday Candice and Phil had paid the bike shop a visit to get some winter clothes. Now I think it’s my turn today. Not entirely sure about training today. We are staying up on the mountain, in the snow line. It’s not snowing in the valley but it will still be freezing cold. Last week at least we had Adrien with us who has a stationery trainer with him. He is now staying 7km away on the other side of the valley. Us poor Africans.

 

We are in La Bresse France for the next world cup on sunday. This time we are not as fortunate with Wifi in the house as in the Czech Republic. And everything is double the price I think. We pay a visit at the local pub to get Wifi where I am seated right now. Looking out the window I can see some riders on the course. They have the proper clothes with them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Racing ways

15.05

 

Warming up at 10 degrees for a race is not really one of the most comfortable things when it comes to mountainbike racing. You have to start and find the positive things that make it more bearable. Luckily the sun was shining in my case. It was there but had no power. I think this sun should meet up with the African sun a bit to get some pointers on earth heating. A little rain the day before and the temps drop crazily.

I had watched the live broadcast of the women’s race earlier in the day and saw that everyone was riding in summer clothes. That showed how much heat we generate during a race. So as I stand on the start line I freeze. I am in my summer gear, waiting for the race to finally start so I can heat up.

I was ready today! I had done some reading up on confidence boosting and was playing that in my head the days leading to the race and I was so positive with everything. It was cold on warm up but it didn’t get my hopes down. The gun went and we start racing down the wide road in a big pack, and then bang! Huge crash halts two thirds of the field. Idiot behind me is so focused on attacking the group on the start that he doesn’t notice the crash and comes right into me. No panic sets in by me, instead I quickly analyse the situation, straighten my handlebar and off I am, now right at the back, together with Phil. Luckily the course was very open on all the climbs so passing seemed a permanent option.

For two laps I felt the cold air in my lungs. It burned a bit. But racing was full on. I was stuck with a group for two laps trying to figure out why I am not losing them as I was climbing strongly and away from them. It had to be the downhills then, or they were faster on the last climb. On lap 3 I followed Adam Craig up the last climb in his fast pace and also followed him on the downhill to the finish. My shock wasn’t properly working. The cold made the oil thick so suspension felt the same as when I was trying to drink from my bottle in the cold, hard and slow. But I guessed that I wasn’t the only one then and just let go and took the beating that now was the crazily rutted route. Still I pushed on the climbs, but also not completely balls to the wall as I wasn’t quite sure if was able to do that for the entire race. Line had given me positions. In the latter stages of the race I heard her saying 88th. I then wanted to at least get me a top 80. That would be half way of the 160 starters. Initially I aimed for something realistic as top 70.

Final lap came and I was lying 79th. Not it got interesting. I could feel a cramp setting in as I started the first climb and had now two riders on my wheel. I let both pass. But didn’t let them go. We were about to catch another rider so if I had to let the guys go I at least had my 80th position. But one of the two had gone too hard to pass me with the other guy and was tiring. I gave it one more burst up the long climb and got my 79th back and managed to ride it home. It was a good feeling to finish with a mind that really wanted to race. Every time I thought of resting a bit another part of my mind told me GO! I now need to build that part even more.

Thanks goes to Line for standing it out in the icy cold, feeding us. At least I took two bottles so it was worth it J
A little success story was when Adrien Niyonshiti and I went to the course on Friday. He was battling with the vertical drop and I offered to help him. Some pointers and some mock approaches saw him riding down there. He also did so every lap he rode in the race. Unfortunately he got lapped but I’m sure e now knows what this is all about and will be riding better this weekend.

 

 

 

 

Happy travels

09.05

 

This has been quite an interesting trip till now. Together with Line Phil, Adrien and Nicole I boarded Air France flight on the way to Prague for the first world cup.  The flight was quite smooth, I was lucky enough to have three seats to me on the big A380. I slept big hours.  That plane is one piece of awesome machinery. Looking out at take off one can see the wings flexing upwards as it lifts off, and it is so quiet and stable.
We arrived half an hour late in Paris which meant we had to run to the gate for the next flight. The gate was in another terminal though..

Sweating from the run I arrived at the gate to be told we are too late. The boarding staff still phoned the captain to see if it is possible to wait a little. I mean we were 7 people. Another couple was also with us 5. Anyway, I didn’t panic, we were told to go to the transfer desk to get another flight and we were promptly helped and the next flight was 3 hours later. Free breakfast consisting of a croissant and a hot drink was offered for us. But I was already thinking of our baggage...

 

So there we sit on the Czech airlines plane and I notice the wing was quite dirty and already got a bad impression of the place/people. Have they no pride? The air hostesses then came along handing out drinks so I fold down my table only to put it right back up again. It looked a little mouldy.

The flight was ok and the view out the window quite cool. As we were flying over Czech I saw that it was actually pretty beautiful over the fields, lots of forests and yellow fields and less dense population than Germany. Out comes the wing for lading and I get the horrific sight of the hidden places of the wing.

Next up was collecting the bags and then a lovely 3 hour drive to Nove Mesto Na Morave where the course is. Phil’s bike came, then AD’s two bikes came. So we waited a while longer but time seemed to fly by. I decided my bike wasn’t there and headed to the conveyer where Line and Nicole went to collect our bags only to find them sitting there with empty trolleys and an empty conveyer belt. I then headed to lost baggage and we sorted out everything there. After a quick stack up at Costa Coffee we got into the Merida Czech Republic van that was our shuttle and were told a 2 hour drive followed. Well, to make a three hour drive into a 2 hour one only means one thing, the guy went fast! It was ok on the highway but it carried on on the smaller roads too. We got here. And it is beautiful!
I got a good night’s rest and the sun is shining for which I am very happy. The baggage, we are told, will arrive this afternoon only. Holding thumbs.

 

 

 

 

 

Odd race venues

08.05

 

It isn’t hard to think back to Saturday’s race in Mauritius. Sometimes I really can’t believe how privileged I am to race in some places. Actually all places I go to. I see so much of what’s out there and get to experience different cultures. Sometimes the places I go to are not the greatest but at least I know what they are like now.

Africa champs in Mauritius was a rather short notice affair. I was scrolling through the UCI calendar and noticed the event on there and notified my federation about it. Only after that did the countries get an invite to the race, which was 7 weeks ago. Then the federation still had to do a team selection and do necessary organising. In the end a team of 4 Namibians ( Mannie Heymans – manager/rider, Heinrich Kohne-elite men, Heletje van Staden-Elite women and me)  flew out to the beautiful island.

The flight was filled with probably every participant not from Mauritius so it was a joyous event. From the airport there was a split again as team SA headed off to their larny Hotel and us to the Tamarin Hotel, a pretty cool laid back hotel in the Tamarin Bay. Not without incident did we leave the airport though. As we loaded the 2 taxis with bike bags on the roof and trying to fit luggage in the boot, I had to rearrange my boot packing skills as it wouldn’t close. On opening the boot again I flipped it open and out of habit thought it would stay up. Rather, it rikishe’d right back, giving me a nice knock on the forehead. Mannie said with every normal human it would have burst open. It was sore yes.

Our hotel was the closest to the course, 20 min easy cycling to the course for a perfect warm up. We inspected the course on Friday and I was surprised at what was on offer. A really beautiful but also tough course was laid out in a reserve usually used for hunting. Open grass plains and thorny trees was the green part of the course. Now you probably think thorny tree right? Well yes the west of Mauritius is more arid and acicas grow here too. The course’s downhill was pretty rough but I absolutely loved it. Before that though was one mean steep climb, one where I used my small right from the bottom and I hardly ever use my small ring. It was a course where you definitely heard a scream of joy through the trails.

In between the training there was loafing on the beach swimming in the lovely warm water and dining in the restaurant. Free Wifi is something the Mauritians know about. In the hotel I struggled to connect at first but then got going well. I love staying connected to my girlfriend.

Raceday dawned and the weather played along well. The wind had blown quite a bit the previous days but was light on Saturday. Some light drizzle even fell here and there at the later stages. As is tradition it took the lead from the gun and was surprised that no one took over for a long time. Probably because the first single trail was only a km after the start. Rourke Crouser then led the race with me and Phil Buys on his heels. Then the climb started and I chose to settle in my own rhythm as I didn’t want to overcook it on the first lap. Rourke and Phil had a gap which I then closed slowly by the end of the first lap. Rourke then had to ease off the pace up the climb in the second lap while Phil was once again charging up it. He was riding at single blade 36 in front so was rather forced to power up the climb, while I was hoping this will hurt him at the later stages of the race. Again I closed a bit on the downhill but in the flats Phil saw my weakness and put the hammer down. From there on it was basically a race to the finish, behind me I never saw any chasers and ahead Phil slowly opened the gap.
I was cheered on greatly by my Mauritian friends whom I got to know at last year’s Southern Tropical Challenge. Thanks to them for rooting for me.

In the end I had to settle for 2nd, again, but I was happy to still have been able to race away from the rest of the field. Behind me Adrien Niyonshuti claimed an impressive 3rd for Rwanda, making it a really international Podium.
Dope test followed and together with Rourke, who had won the U/23 cat, and Phil, we kept each other company for the next two hours about until we all rode home together, rather fast.

A lovely grill dinner was served at the Hotel and afterwards I was too tired to have a jol, definitely the better option anyway. Sunday we still had some time on our hands and the team wanted to go to the market. I wasn’t too keen on that though. I asked about surfing but the instructor said there are no waves. So I also didn’t want to sit around on the beach the whole morning and decided to join the team on the Market visit. This was a dumb idea by me. Luckily we stayed only for an hour. Back at the hotel I had to make up for the bad decision and decided to do some Stand Up Padeling. Mannie was in and together we had a great time crossing the bay getting a good strength exercise. And I even caught some waves.
This ended the trip off well and it was time to head back to the airport. Everything went by way to quickly. When one has fun hey...

A quick layover in Johannesburg and I am off to Europe for the next two world cups, first in the Czech Republic and then in France.

 

 

 

 

 

Homeground advantage

22.04

 

With all my South African racing I hardly get to race the Namibian XCs anymore. I do the odd one when I am lucky to be at home. I was really surprised on Saturday when I arrived at the first XC of the year, sponsored by Cymot.  There was a small beer tent! I have never seen that. And there were people filling all the benches. It was amazing!

I had quite a tough week and didn’t have chance to preride the course so it was my intention to ride a lap before the race. Luckily my good friend and mentor Mannie tagged along and we scouted the twisty singletrails behind UNAM. Good thing we are VIPs here as we took a little longer and got to the start with 4 minutes to spare, perfect warmup. As I looked behind me I saw all these people and I was really proud to be part of all this.

Racing here works a bit different than in SA. We all start together. Men, women, geckos, youngsters, everyone. Ok except the real lighties. They raced at 12, our race was at 14:00. Now ifyou know singletrack and lots of people with different levels of skill, you know this can become a challenge.

So off we went and Mannie and I took charge with the word from the coach to do surges instead of constant tempo. The track was suited for this as there were 4 drags where one could really power. After two laps I was on my own and started lapping riders. Never one to yell someone off the track I usually waited for a suitable jeep track unless the rider in front made way for me. This was more good training as then I would surge forward. The track got better as the laps went with all the riders and by the end had even gotten nice and compact to let it flow.

It was really nice to win in my home town while Mannie finished a good second followed by Heinrich Kohne. The three of us will also head to Mauritius for the Africa Champs beginning of May.

It was really a cool gathering of mountain bikers and I could feel that everyone was enjoying it.
Thanks to my club Rock&Rut and to Cymot for the great event.

 

 

 

 

 

Racing with passion

18.04

 

Spontaneous decisions can be fun. Such was my last race trip to South Africa last weekend. The initial plan was to head to England to test ride the Olympic course. After a lot of UM and A I decided it was a hell of a lot of money to spend which could be used much better on other preparation, like racing.

Unfortunately I wasn’t part of the first four to receive a sponsorship from FNB Namibia in preparation for the Olympics and I also don’t have a financial sponsor for the year so money does become something precious.

So I jetted to Jo’burg to take part in the second leg of the SA XC cup series in Pretoria, a venue that has always been kind to me. Luckily I had spent a lot of time in PTA the last 2-3 years so it isn’t so bad going to the place anymore.
I pulled in at my sister’s new digs. Cool place with a bunch of awesome Namibians staying together. I got a room to myself even. My sister could get ready at 6 for university without having to worry about waking me. Bonus! I was feeling right at home as I knew all the people there.

I went to check out the course on Friday lunchtime. It was still too chilly for a Namibian summer spoilt boy in the morning. 3 laps did the trick on the new reverse course. The evening had us all throwing steaks on the braai and eating together at the table. Of course there were veggies and garlic bread too. I left the others to enjoy the Friday evening while I went to bed focusing on the race.

I got to the race with the element of surprise. Not many people knew I was coming as it was very short notice. So I was hoping this would play in my favour. I lined myself up next to Philip, eager to hit the single trail first. I had a super start and did just that. I didn’t want to go all out and overcook myself, but also see if I can make some riders suffer a bit. After half a lap Philip came past me in a bit of a kamikaze move but yeah that also happens at world cups so it was good practice. He pushed a hard pace. The course was pretty flat but had plenty of twists and turns, which meant A LOT of accelerations. Phil is a bit smoother in these things and soon was out of sight with the twisty course. I still had good hopes that his pace would ease a bit. In lap 3 and 4 I started catching up again and soon was 15 seconds behind him again. But he caught wind of this and pushed hard again. By now we were in between the youngsters and with all the singletrack it was also hard to pass at stages. Not one to yell someone out the way I this was not in my favour. So I ended up in 2nd place, a minute behind Philip with which I am pretty happy about, seeing that he rode minutes out of me at the previous races.

What is a little sad to see is that I paid 300 bucks for the entry(ok-50 of it was late entry fee) and I walked away with a spray on degreaser for my second place. My mum taught me well to be thankful for what I get and I am, I could have gotten a handshake only. I don’t expect big prizes but at least at the marathons you also get a goody bag with your entry. That shows that I am definitely doing this racing out of passion and with the Olympic goal in mind.

I really did have fun and the spectators where great, even I, in Philip’s home town got support. Thanks for that.
I’m back in Nam again as now I need to organise a Visa so that I can go and race a few more races against the big boys overseas. But first, another race at fountains and Africa Champs in Mauritius!

 

 

 

 

Showing my versatility

31.03

 

A short notice decision had me entering this year’s National Road champs as the focus all being towards the Cross country Olympic race. I had mentioned the race to my coach two days earlier and yesterday morning He mentioned that it would be great training at this stage, so I was happy to go ahead with the entry.

Not having much variety in Namibia one always takes the challenges that come up. Of course there are the diehard mtbikers that give this a skip but they are allowed to with the chance of missing that awesome moment in the trail, of which we have a few now in Namibia.

We headed down the hill in a chilly 7 degrees, as the weather had turned in the last two days after lots of rain. Jackets were flapping in the wind as we descended down from matchless. The going seemed slow once we hit the flats and after just 30 min of riding I started getting tiny bit annoyed with only half the field working, even though the pace was easy. I decided to don my jacket, take a bite of my nutella pancake and start heating up the racing. On my first attack, I was caught by surprise. Thinking that I would get a response from the pack, I looked back after my 20 sec attack to see I was alone with a fairly large gap. No one had ever jerked.

I went into this race motivated to mix it up on the podium but also taking some advice from the coach to get some good tempo work in. So I went with my attack, carrying on at threshold power. I knew this was a bit silly, all alone in the wind. But I thought maybe this would create a bit of panic in the field so that they would start attacking each other too and break up their rhythm. The presence of last year’s winner Loto Petrus(MTNQubeka) and hot favourite Dan Craven(Sigma Sport) did bring a calmness into the bunch though and they kept their cool. But by now I was far out and I was on a roll, testing my form. I managed to say ahead for an hour and twenty minutes before the bunch decided I’m getting too far ahead now.
Boring roll through followed, for which I was a bit happy to be honest. Dan put in a big attack up the service road climb but I was on his wheel like a bad rash. Another lap of rolling through followed when Dan put in another crazy dash up the same hill. Now there were only 5 more riders to respond, including me. But by now I started feeling my crazy effort earlier and started thinking of the climb back up to the finish, at matchless. I could feel muscles twitching but still helped with the advancement of the break.

As the climb started in earnest Dan put in another attack, while I was on my back feet at the front. As I stood up I felt the tensing of cramps setting in and I just kept my pace, to see Dan and Loto riding off. I kept my rhythm, and soon was able to lift it once I settled into the climb, dropping my pursuers in the effect. I had some catching up to do and thankfully the cramps didn’t materialise. Riding up the last 3 hills I was dangling back about 30 seconds but kept it there should anything happen up front. In the end the other two were too fresh to haul back and they fought out a fierce cat and mouse battle which ended in a sprint to the line which Loto won in the end.

I am really happy to still finish behind them so closely. This is good mental fuel in my prep for the Olympics.

It would have been cool to win it obviously but in the end Loto and Dan can use the stripes on their jerseys much more than I could, being road racers. May sound like an excuse for some, but I had fun, I had a solid race and I am happy. And I am tired.

 

 

 

 

 

Racing is getting fun again!

 

Its one thing to race and another to race when everything feels right. My form is getting along nicely at the moment with the help of Coach Ian. When good form comes along so disappears all the doubt. I'm one of those that doesn't know I can beat everyone all the time. Since I am kind of a privateer again I've been looking at riding and racing through different eyes. The way I used to look at it before I became a pro. Man I loved racing. And there wasn't the pressure to have to perform. Now I am starting to feel similar. I focus easier again and I feel hungry to perform. It has definitely gotten much more difficult to win than back in the day.

At last week's Momentum XC number 3 held at the Cascades course I felt again what it is like to have a real lekker race. To be able to race hard from start to finish and even sprint for the line. Its then when racing is real fun. There were some mistakes here and there and had I not been caught up behind the rider that caused the first jam I might have raced well up the top 20s. But these are only mistakes to learn from and not to hang on to.

The power was there lap for lap and it is an absolutely great feeling. It shows training is going right, the mind wants to go!

I even had a sprint for the line for 24th spot! usually I shake my head at these situations but I had something to win. It was one of my most commited sprints ever! It was a rush. I lost by a hair. But I fought, to the end.

 

 

 

 

New year new beginnings

 

Well most of you have probably heard that Team Garmin is no more. The last 4 years have been really great for me. Starting with the new team back in 2008 was one move that I am really happy about. It was a rollercoaster ride with lots of ups and some downs but with plenty of chop and changing as the team progressed to become one of the best teams to ride for. Till this day I'm not entire sure why the team was wiped away but hey I'm sure there are good reasons out there somewhere.

 

It has been my life dream to take part in the Olympic games one day and the day is finally dawning on me. Having qualified my federation at last year's Africa Champs in Cape Town, I am just waiting for the final qualification rounds to come to an end on 23 May for the UCI to send out all qualification spots to all the federations.

 

For this reason I have put all the eggs into one basket and now am focusing solely on XC racing for this season. Not the best pitch for approaching possible South African sponsors, as marathon seems to be the 'in thing' here. Strangely enough it is the only country in the world where it out ranks cross country racing as a sponsorship publicity sport. I think the reason being that South Africans don't like spectating, they would rather take part themselves if they made an effort to getting away from the supersport channels.

 

Ben Melt Swanepoel and I have put our heads together to try and land ourselves a title sponsor for the year as both of us are without a team. Melt has been the brain wave in landing us good product sponsors till now, but we are yet to hand our proposal to the correct person to land a title sponsor.

 

So if one of you reading this can see the benefit of sponsoring us, or know of someone who might, please don't hesitate to contact me.