State Side - My 2nd home

If you guys didn't know already, Im back in the States to begin my first full blown season as a Professional Mountainbiker. My first major race is on 3 March, down in Texas, The Mellow Johnny's Pro XCT. The week following that Im racing the 2nd round of the Pro XCT series here in California at Bonelli Park. So as you can tell, I'm have a pretty insanely crazy schedule at the moment.

Friday we're having our first team photo shoot of the year here in OC. Im pretty excited as we'll be getting some more new gear and I'll get to test out the new steed for the first time.Let me just start off by saying that it is one PRETTY bike! Im ecstatic to be on the S-Works Epic 29 again for 2012. Thanks to Specialized and Team Sho-Air for providing me with the best equipment for the task that lays ahead.

The new baby.

The new Jakroo Team kit is insane

So, after my last race in South Africa, the first round of our national series, I flew back to the States, and what a trip! SHEESH! A nine hour flight to Dubai went by pretty fast, but once I got onto the flight to the US... lets just say my entire mood took a turn for the worse. A very large man occupied about 98percent of my seat, this was fine because there was an empty seat to my right, but when I went onto move the arm rest so I could use the spare seat, the lady two chairs down from me (which actually turned out to be the enlarge man's wife) put her feet up onto the spare seat. So I sat in the most unbelievably awkward position for around 16hours. So my trip back here was a little bumpy, but since I've been back, life has been really good. It's been really awesome to catch up with my team managers, my room mates and friends. The training is also going super good, I got back yesterday from a couple days of hill training around my girlfriends home town of Ventura. The riding out there is absolutely unbelievable!

O well, just thought I'd hit up a post before heading out for my ride!

Catch ya later

B

Super stoked to be award my South African National Colours for representing South Africa at World Championships last year.

Scorcher - SA National XCO Series Opener

Hey Guys

Woah, sorry for such a late post... things have been INSANELY hectic nice leaving South Africa a couple days ago!! Ive definitely hit the ground running here, new bikes, team photo shoots, new kit, team meetings and training have all been hectic. But I'm loving every second of it.

But lets get this post rolling.... Last weekend was the first round of our South African National XCO Series, which was held in Durbanville, just outside Cape Town. The course was an absolutely spectacular one, with more than 90% of the track visible from the Chris Willemse Cycles Store. The course was definitely one of the best I've ridden in South Africa in recent years, with a really good mix of climbing, descending , rocks, sand, drops and most of all, the most spectator friendly course I had ever ridden in South Africa.

Practice on Thursday and Friday went really well. The Epic29 was simply amazing over all aspects of the course, which left me extremely confident for the big race the next day. After my ride on Friday, I was fortunate enough to get a massage from one of the best in the business, Line Griffiths. Needless to say, she put me through the roof, but at the same time ironed out any bumps and niggles she could find, to ensure that I was 100% ready for the next days assault.

Saturday came around. With a 12pm start time, I had the entire morning to lay around, stay off my feet, and most importantly get even more focuses at the task at hand. We made our way to the track a little earlier than usual as I had to get my glutes taped/wrapped by Line' (the previous day she had picked up that I had sustain a slight injury from a big crash a couple days earlier) Line' worked her magic, leaving me feeling fresh and ready to hammer the 7 lap suffer fest that was fast approaching.

All the big names had come out to play, and to make the racing a little more interesting, the u23 category had been thrown in with the Pro/Elite Category. With a very short start loop and the u23's seeded at the very back a good start was going to be an absolutely crucial part of the entire out come of any ones race. At 12 pm sharp, with nerves running high, muscles twitching and heavy breathing, the start gun cracked. I had a terrible started as the door was closed on me around the first corner, leaving me nowhere to go but backwards. I managed to kick hard down the next straight away and was able to close back up to the front end of the field, before getting caught up in a crash. After hastily remounting my steed I was again held up by a crash ahead of me. After exiting the first single track I was around 18th Overall. As we hit the first climb of the lap I was able to kick hard once again, riding myself into the top 10 as we approached the first long single track section. Now in a relatively decent position, I was able to take a little time to recover before hitting the next climb. Burry and Phillip had already isolated themselves off the front of the race. A smaller group which both James Reid and Rourke Croeser (both u23)were in, had also formed around 10 seconds ahead of my group. Over the course of the remainder of lap 1, I fought hard to break through and break free of the large chase group that I was in. Going into lap 2, Louis Bresler, Renay Goustra and I managed to get away, and began to close down the gap to the next group.

I eventually managed to put a gap between myself and Louis, with Renay, who had bridged up to the next rider, James Reid, only a few seconds ahead. The roar of the spectators was rally insane, it honestly felt like a mini word cup with people lining the sides of almost the entire track! With two laps to go out of the 7 lap race, I dug deep down into the pain cave to try pull myself closer and closer to James, who was sitting 2nd in the u23 Category. The gap, to my surprise actually started to come down with around 20-30seconds between the two of us heading into the final lap. The last lap was going to be a make or break lap, with the traffic of lapped riders and the course now being super torn up, it could force a mistake from the best of riders. I got through traffic fairly easily and kept charging wherever and whenever possible, but unfortunately I crossed the line around 30seconds down on James, narrowly missing a top 5 Overall.

So I brought home a 3rd in the U23 Category, with Rourke taking the win and James coming in 2nd. I'm happy with where my form is at for this time of year, theres some room for improvement, but I have never felt better. Mellow Johnny's is only a couple weeks away, and BOY am I excited! Its gonna be my first time racing in the Pro Category at a Pro XCT, so Im not entirely sure of what to expect! Stay tuned to see how it goes!

A massive thanks to Clive Broekhuizen for hosting us at his house in Melkbosstrand, it was truly awesome to hang out and get to know his family.

Until Next time

B

photo's courtesy of Ray Cox

photos courtesy of Ehlers Smit

BOOM - 2012 XCO Season Opener

Last weekend I made the trip up to Pretoria (around a 6 our drive) to participate in the first round of the new XCOSA series. This series has a massive prize poole which attracted most of the country's prominent XCO racers, such as Burry Stander, Philip Buys and James Reid, to name but a few. Although the course was not very technical, it would prove to be the perfect season opener to the MTB front. The course was really spectator friendly, looping back and forth past the Start/Finish area to allow people to see the raw speed of XCO racing. Flat, fast and absolutely flat out, it was gonna be one awesome show.

Friday was a fairly chilled day. After arriving at around 10am, I met up with my coach and mentor, Burry Stander, for a couple laps around the high speed track. Its always super awesome to ride with Burry, theres always good advice or something new you can learn or pick up when riding with one of the worlds top mountain bike racers. Line choice, tyre choice, suspension pressures... the list can go on and on, its a major honor to be able to ride with someone so knowledgeable about the training, racing and recovery aspect of the sport!

Saturday morning dawned, with the Pro's and U23 field setting off at 12pm, I was able to have a super lazy morning. Eventually I rolled into the event along with my dad, got set up in the feed zone, hit a warm up and then... Race time. The start shoot was extremely loose gravel, which meant I had to get out front to try and avoid any trouble if there was shuffling for positions.

The count down started... My arms twitched as the former U23 World Champion Shifted on his bike as the time ticked ever closer to the gun... The gun cracked, and soon after, I found myself pinning it at the front as we charged towards the first corner. We made it around the sketchy first corner and hit a small climb up towards the first single track. I lead the group over the short spike and into the first single track. A group of 4 of us had managed to get clear already and we were now charging down the fast paced single track that brought us back towards the spectators. Unfortunately around the halfway mark of the first lap I dropped my chain and lost touch of the lead group. Ate getting it back on I was able to time trial myself back onto the tail of the group which was now being driven by James Reid (u23 rider-Team 360-Life), only to have it drop off yet again. This time it was a little bit more serious, the chain was wedged between the bottom-bracket and small chain ring. I stopped to fix it but lost valuable time and was now passed by Andrew Warr and Louis Knipe, leaving me in 6th place, around 30 seconds off the back of 4th and 5th place. And so began my game of "yo-yo," I was able to close the gap to Louis pretty fast, but then began chasing after Andrew Warr who was now in 3rd. In the midst of racing and chasing back, I hadn't even noticed that James Reid had had a puncture and was now back in 6th. After chasing back for a lap and a half I, I managed to ride myself back into 3rd Overall. But, yup, you guessed it, I dropped my chain... AGAIN... Louis caught back up to me, which meant I had to fix the chain and chase back to him. Over the final 3 laps, this is what would happen - Catch Louis, attack, get a gap, drop my chain, stop and fix it and then I would then chase down the 20-35second gap again... this went on and on, but I didn't let it bother me, I made the best of the opportunity and just got on with the task at hand. The last lap came around, fortunately this time I had managed to catch Louis before heading through onto the next lap. I immediately launched an attack and could see he was tiring, but Louis, being the power house that he is, would grind out a massive gear down a long flat piece of single track at the back and reel me in. I made two more attacks before getting a small gap, when again, my chain dropped... Louis came blazing past me as I stopped to fix the problem, but having lost 20seconds to him with less than a quarter of the lap to go it was going to be tough to get him back. I charged as hard as I could over the final sections of the track, but simply ran out of time. I crossed the line in 4th Overall and 1st U23, just over 3minutes behind Burry and Philip, and around 10seconds off Louis. Andrew Warr came in 5th with James Reid coming in strong at 6th!

So, a SUPER hard fought battle, but one that I am extremely ecstatic about! Im extremely happy with where my form is, going into next weekends big event, Round #1 of the SA XCO National MTB Series. Its my last race in Sunny South Africa before heading back State Side where I'll be racing the Mellow Johnny's Pro XCT #1! EXCITING TIMES!

A huge thanks once again to Burry Stander for all his help and input, Charles Stander for his advice and my dad for taking me all over the country side!

Until next time

Cheers