Friday, December 25, 2009

Info

Hey guys

Have got a new email address! If you guys want to feel free to email me on davids.brendon@gmail.com

Ciao


Merry Christmas

Hey Alles!!!

Just wanting to wish everybody a merry Christmas, and a fantastic day with their families!! Don't forget the true meaning of Chritmas guys!!
Have an awesome new year and thanks for all your support in 2009!

See you next year for an awesome season!

Stay Safe
B

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Year End

Now that we're at the end of the season it's time to kick back and chillax!!!

A huge thanks needs to go out to :-

Max Cluer - Max Cluer Sports Marketing
For everything he does for team Jeep SA, and all the effort he puts in at events eg Hill2Hill

Clint Morck - Team Manager
For pulling out the stops with getting kit produced, bikes ordered, you name it!!!

Grant Dinkel - Adrenaline Cycles
For always putting the customer before himself, many a night Grant had his shop open at 9pm helping us out with our bikes!

Craig Paul - Team Mate
For always helping me out and giving some awesome advise! A really great mentore

Allegra Wykerd - Coach
Without the help of this wonderful lady I would not be where I am today! She has helped me out with mental prep as well as my training programs etc!!! Johann, her husband has also helped immensely!

Thanks sooo much!!!! YOU GUYS ROCK

2009 HP Urban Rage- Presented by Jeep

Hey guys,

Can't believe that it's been a year since the first Urban Rage already!!

This year it was slightly different though, the course was shorter, with more obstacles and quite a bit more technical. The course was a mere 2km but was really energy sapping, and the miserable weather made it far more worse, as the obstacles began to get more and more slippery.

My first individual qualifying run of the day was fairly chilled as I was very unsure of the obstacles on the course. However, at the end of the lap I was quite confident on what would be needed to make the final of the Super Cats at the end of the day.

I then teamed up with my team manager, Clinton Morck, for the 2 man team event as good, fun, and layed back ride. I opted to go out first and do the first lap, while Clint would do the second and we would complete the course on the third lap together, as a team. I went out pretty hard on my first lap, just to see how the obstacles would be if it began to rain. After Clint's lap we went out on a reasonably chilled lap which allowed me to scope the lines even more, and it was great fun to do something like this with "the boss!"

It was then quite a long wait until our second qualifier so I took a nice long warm up on my road bike, while munching down on some sandwiches and pastas .I went to the start ramp and set my sights on making the final... I pushed super hard for most of the lap but backed off near the end as it got more technical, as I want to risk not making the top 10 for the final that was approaching. Afterwards I was super nervous as we awaited the news of our times as I thought I had perhaps slackened off a little too much towards the end...

The tension became quite intense, but then I received news that I'd qualified 9th!.
The top 10 men and top 5 ladies were then walked through the aquarium, which would be the last 1km or so of the final... And boy would it be tricky... it had super steep stair cases and polished concrete floors, but looked like it would be one heck of a race and a huge amount of fun!

I then went into full race mode trying to focus on getting a top 5 result or higher. I tried to get into the zone with just 15 or so minutes before the start of my race. I sat on the start ramp spinning my legs and then got called up to the gate... I chose my gate line and waited for the count down... As the gates dropped I sprinted as hard as possible down the ramp and attacked the first obstacle. I pushed as hard as I could, and was using up all the energy I had saved up from the previous rounds. I put in peddle strokes at every possible place on the course and pumped through a lot of the obstacles. I kept my lines into the corners as tight as possible trying to make sure that I took the shortest distance to each obstacle and corner. I sprinted down an alley way and sped into a 90 degree corner, but as I was exiting the corner I hit a lamp post and got myself horribly concussed and disorientated... I Stumbled to my feet, not knowing what happened looking past my bike a few times before I realised it was just ahead of me. I got onto my bike and pushed on towards the finish, as this was after all the final
From the entrance of Ushaka I cannot remember how I got to the finish. I can't even remember riding down the steps into the aquarium.... But after crossing the line I heard that I had still managed to some how get 7th overall... I was super surprised with the result!!!

Congrats to Craig Paul who managed to get 2nd overall just behind Phillip Buys, as well as Luke Roberts who managed to wrap up an awesome 3rd! To Max Cluer and his team!!! A fantastic day was had by all!!!


The Jeep Team


Clint Morck and I





Friday, December 11, 2009

SUSPI High Performance Camp-Stellenbosch

Hey Guys

I was fortunate enough to be invited by Cycling South Africa (CSA) to attend a high performance program over a period of a week in Stellenbosch at the Sports Performance Institute, for some testing and a whole lot of other activities which included core training, biodex, jump testing(power),ice baths(not so nice), massaging,muscle activation (probably the most painful experience EVER).

We arrived at Huis Neethling, which was to be our home for the next 7 days on Wednesday afternoon 2nd December after being collected from the airport in Cape Town by a kamakazi driver of note, who somehow managed to get us to from the airport to Stellies in one piece.
After settling in I went for a fairly chilled ride around Stellenbosch and Jonkershoek to kill some time before all the athletes that were invited got together in the evening and Luke and I found quite a cool climb called Helshoogte that was just outside of Stellies.

Over the next couple of days we went for some tests and we were also shownsome gym techniques and core exercises, and between all this Luke Roberts and I tried to slot in our propper training programs wherever we could.

The weekend was ours to kill and we made the most of it to explore the area as much as possible. One one occassion we hit an awesome group ride to Gordons Bay and back to Stellies via the back roads. Unfortunately I picked up a puncture 15km from home, but thats all part of the experience I guess.
Then came Sunday, and I was privilaged to ride what is probably one of the best road rides I've done to date. We left Huis Neethling at 8:00 and made our way towards Gordons Bay again, but this time with only about 8 or so guys. We entered Strand and went straight towards an awesome looking mountain pass in the distance. We arrived at the pass and it was totally spectacular, it was so awesome we actually did the 4-5km climb twice and each time the ride up resulted in a race between all of us.

After a good days ride with some awesome new friends we had made while at the camp, Luke and I decided to go to a Hair Salon and get mullets. Crazy I know, but again... all part of the experience :)

After a totally magical weekend we were back at the institute for some tests on monday morning. Fortunately we had a lot of free time between the tests so we were able to fit our rides in a lot more easily than the previous week, but before we knew it, the week was over and it was time to come home.
It was really awesome to meet some new people, and make new friends. We had and insane time wondering through stellies to go and supplies and food with our mates which just added to the wicked atmosphere. This is a week that I will cherish for a long long time.

A big thank you to CSA for the opportunity to go down to SUSPI for the testing!It was an awesome experience.