UCI MTB World Cup - Pietermaritzburg

Hey guys, this past weekend was a rather disappointing one from my side, with the my race not going too smoothly!

The hype leading up to the World cup was absolutely crazy! The Elite men and U23 racing was insane. It was unbelievable to watch the titans of our sport battle it out to see who would reign supreme at the end of the day. The South African riders put up a really good fight! Burry Stander did SUPER well to hold onto 11th after two HUGE crashes, one of which damaged his bike. Rourke Croeser rode really well to come from the back of the U23 field to finish 13th! A really classy ride by both riders!

Then on Sunday morning, it was the Juniors turn to take on the reconditioned XC course at Cascades. At 9:30 sharp we took our places on the start line. I had the privilege of being the number one ranked Junior, which allowed me to pick any start line I wanted. The gun went off, and the 250m dash down the start shoot began. I had a super bad start, dropping down to 8th, I kept calm and made my chase back on the long steep climb that lead us up into the hills of Cascades. I hit the front and went hard to try split the bunch up. A group of four or so riders made the break with me as we hit the first fast piece of singlet track. Andri Freschnecht made his move on one of the short steep climbs. I managed to latch on and this is where the racing began to take place. Heading onto the 2nd lap the bunch was very closely knit between the 4 riders, with Andri just off the front. We hit one of the open roads which allowed me to close back up to Andri before disaster struck me in one of the sections to follow. My pedal smacked a low lying stump, flicking me backwards down the single track. The shock of the crash took me a long time to shake off, and left me feeling dazed and slightly deflated. I tried hard to bounce back, but only managed to find my legs on the last lap, which had allowed 6more riders to pass me, leaving me in 8th. I chased hard, but unfortunately the last lap came to quickly. I had only managed to work my way back up to 6th.
Congrats to Andri on his win, a very well deserved result!

A very disappointing result for me, but its all part of the sport that I'm involved with. All in all it was one AMAZING experience! Huge thanks needs to go out to Max Cluer for the awesome job done in organising such a great event!

Hey guys! check out this fun video with some of the guys from the team! www.youtube.com

Mud Bath - Cascades National XCO Cup #1

With the weather taking a turn for the worse after the Karkloof Weekend, it meant only one thing for the National Super Series that was coming up.... MUD!

The rain rolled in around Wednesday and poured on and off for the next couple of days. This made practice really tricky as we needed to brave the conditions in order to ride the rock gardens, but at the same time we didn't want to damage or hurt ourselves in a crash that could occur in the slick conditions. Practice went off really well, with no major crashes or incidents. I was feeling really confident on the new Ellsworth, despite the horrendous conditions. The Truth SST.2 handled the conditions unbelievably and had really left a good impression on me leading up to the race.

Race day dawned, and yet more and more rain fell. With an 11am start, my morning was rather chilled. I arrived at the venue and was greeted by a sight of absolute carnage! The riders were absolutely covered in mud, bikes were trashed and spectators resembled drowned rats more than human beings. The parts of the track that I could see from the car park looked like a war zone. The thought that sprung to mind was, "This is gonna be tough... very tough"

By being seeded on the front row it meant that I had a really clean line straight into the first climb, which was right after the start. Right from the gun I went hard to get into the first single track in a good position. Behind me there was utter chaos. Arno du Toit and I were the only two riders who managed to ride up the first climb, everyone else was forced to unclip and start running. The front end of the field was soon whittled down to 4 riders, Gert Heyns, Arno du Toit, Luke Roberts and myself.

The conditions were terrible, with many parts of the course being unrideable. I put in a really hard effort on the longest climb of the course, which lead to the bunch whittling down to Gert and I with Luke a few seconds back. Gert and I managed to put a gap between us and the chasers and began to battle it out for the lead. Unfortunately I took an extremely heavy crash in the biggest rock garden of the course, leaving Gert to ride away into the distance. I remounted and began my pursuit back to Gert. With some bruised confidence, I chickened out of the bull runs on the last lap, which allowed Gert to open up an even bigger gap. In the end I managed to roll in for 2nd, around 2minutes down on Gert.

Congrats to Gert on his result! A very well earned win!

A huge thanks to Ellsworth for such an awesome machine! With each ride the bike feels better and better! Another big thanks needs to go out to new sponsor, Powasol! Their cleaning products and chain lubes were UNBELIEVABLE in the conditions I was faced with on the weekend! Thanks Guys!

Now comes a very easy week in prep for my big one! The 2011 Pietermaritzburg MTB World Cup!

Ellsworth USA - Truth SST.2 - Race Machine

Hey Guys

check out some pics of the new race machine!! Huge thanks to Tony Ellsworth (Ellsworth Bikes USA) for this amazing product!! Head to W Squared cycles and speak to Johann or Allegra Wykerd (Ellsworth SA) to find out more on this awesome machine






Huge thanks to Andre (Rush Sports) and E.Thirteen for this Super Light Chain Device!


Tune Prince and Princess hubs, on Stans Podium MMX hoops, ensures that I'm on one of the lightest wheelsets on the market! get down to W Squared Cycling to check out these products!

Another big shout out to Craig Paul for the hard work that he's put into my bike! Johann and Allegra Wykerd have also worked tierlessly to get my bike ready before the National and World Cup later this month! Thank you!