The Fall of a Legend... My Hero. RIP Burry Stander

Burry Stander... A name synonymous with success, with pride, with South Africa and more recently, with heart break. Burry was and still is an international icon to millions around the globe.

Yesterday, Burry was struck my vehicle and pronounced dead. Its strange, even typing this does not feel real. Burry, to me seemed so invincible, untouchable, wonderful. Watching him race was always a highlight, no matter what happened out on track, he would always rise to the occasion, proving to all, a fan or not, that he could do whatever he set his mind to.

I was fortunate enough to spend some time with the legend. Burry helped mentor me, coach me. He gave a lending hand when I needed one and was ALWAYS willing to give me advice, and, as Im sure you could all imagine, his actions made fall in love with him as a fan. Not many people can say they had the privelege to ride with their all time hero, let alone spend some time in his home, or in the gym with him. Racing alongside him, or more likely, behind him, was always humbling.

To Burry, I pray that you rest in peace, and that you may guide and give a protecting hand to your beautiful wife, Cherise, and your entire family. I thank you for the short time I was able to spend with you, and I will cherish every memory.

Thank you, Burry.

Brendon

Its GO TIME!!

Wow, how amazing was the XCO racing at Olympics?? Please tell me you watched it!!!

This year South Africa sent 3 riders, one female and two male riders, and needless to say all three of them did the country extremely proud. Burry Stander i think has to get the most aggresive rider award!! after watching the highlights of the race, I got chills seeing him bury himself into the ground to catch back up to the leader and in the end only missing a medal by a mere 4 seconds. Philip Buys and Candice Neethling went to their first ever Olympics and both rode their socks off!! Although I was extremely disappointed that it wasn't a fellow South African taking the win in the mens race, I was somewhat relieved that one of my idols, Jaroslav Kulhavy, of the Czech Republic took down Nino Schurter in a sprint for Gold!!!! What was also impressive was the fact that Specialized had 3 factory rider in the top 10, with Todd Wells brining it home in 10th!

So as Im sure you can all imagine, Im extremely excited, motivated and ready going into this weekends Pro XCT finals at Mt. Morris, Wisconsin. Its a course I absolutely love and one that suites my strengths. I managed to take the win last year in the junior race in both the XCO and the short track, I plan on having a good trip there this time around too.  After a rather sluggish race at Colorado my coach, Jim Lehman and I had a look to analyze and improve on the motor I had built up from the marathon racing. He adjusted the program and ramped up the speed work, which has definitely left me feeling a lot more confident going into the UCI Category 1 race. This however, does not mean the racing is gonna be any slower. Olympian, Todd Wells is going to be there and possibly Sam Schultz. Not to mention the other fast kids  such as Russel Finsterwald, Howard Grotts and Jack Haig. Theres definitely going to be a major battle.

Then Im off to South Africa on Wednesday, with my girlfriend, Kendall for a couple months. Im excited to catch up with my family and friends, its been far too long. Unfortunately I wasn't selected for world championships, so I've turned my attention to some big race back home before taking a little break and possibly coming back over the pond for cyclocross season.

So just  short post to let out some of my excitement. I'll definitely be hitting up a post on the Wisconsin course as well as how the race played out.

Until then, guys

B

Burry leading the charge!

JAROOO!!!

Reasses and Reload

Hey guys

Last weekend was my first ever Sea Otter Classic, and as Im sure you can imagine, I was unbelievably excited to race against some of the Worlds best mountain bike racers.

Team mate, Pua Mata and I made the trip up to Monterey on the Wednesday before our first race (Friday).  Before I knew it, we were rolling into the world famous Laguna Seca raceway, a race track that I've heard of since I was two bricks and a stone high. I'd watched races of my now teammate, Ben Bostrom, when he raced World Superbikes on the Ducati team. It was a truly spine tingling feeling as we rolled into the pit area.

The immense size of this event was flabbergasting! Venders were crowded by people trying to see the latest and greatest products that were on display by the various bike manufactures, eyewear and clothing companies. It was awesome to bump into long time friend, former manager and fellow South African, Max Cluer, in amidst the hustle and bustle that is the Sea Otter Classic. I also got to meet up with Burry for a few minutes after his long haul direct from Europe.

Over the course of the next couple of days, I got some preriding in on the 20mile, single loop XCO track, then Friday rolled around, Short Track race day. The short track course was, well, short... around 650-700m long, with on short kicker climb, and NO room for overtaking. Oh, and man was it super bumpy!! Never mind that, I was fairly confident as we lined up. I had a second row start and the inside line to the first corner. Off the start I had good positioning, but as we approached the first, off camber corner, the rider to my inside cut down onto the main line viciously, causing my to unclip and stumble onto the first climb. I dismounted an ran up the short kick, but had lost a great deal of time on the leaders. From there I went as hard as possible for more then half the race, but once I realized I was out of contention I eased up and held my position to the end, not risking anymore aggressive passes.

Saturday was the Pro Mens XCO race. A single loop of 20miles, with 3500ft of climbing. With a field of some of the world's best xc riders, such as Burry Stander, Todd Wells, Geoff Kabush, Sid Taberlay, Sam Schultz, JHK to name but a few, the racing was gonna be fast and furious! Positioning onto the dirt was going to be very crucial after completing the long tarmac start loop.Fortunately I hit the dirt in 3rd, right on the wheel of Sid and Burry. The pace soon got hot, leaving the main group of riders shattered and strung. I was lucky to be sitting in the lead group of around 15 or so. We sped into a climb, appropriately named "The Wall", the group became extremely strung out with a couple of riders getting a gap over us. Max Plaxton, Geoff, Sam, Sid, Burry and Todd were now slightly off the front. I was now in the second group of 6 or so riders along with JHK, Derek Zandstra and Spencer Paxston. Disaster then struck. In amongst the thick dust, few  miles down the road, a rock flew up from the front of the pack and smashed into my front disc brake, bending it pretty badly. At first I thought it had merely hit a spoke or two, but soon it seemed as though I could barely hang onto the group. I stopped to loosen the actual caliper in order to give me a little less resistance until I could get to the tech zone, around 4 miles away. But even with the loose caliper, the brake was rubbing terribly and I began loosing positions FAST! When I finally rolled into the tech. zone I think I was very nearly in last place. Johnny Muller helped change my wheel and I was off. For the final half of the race I buried myself deep into the pain cave, but just couldn't bring myself back into the race, ending up in a lowly 49th.

I learned some valuable lessons at Sea Otter, although not a great weekend on my side, I feel I didn't come away from the race entirely empty handed. Definitely hard lessons learned.

Until next time
B

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

Catching Up

Hey guys

Just a quick post to let everyone know whats been going on over the last couple of weeks. To be honest, nothing much has happened, besides the fact that I'm training my butt off!!

After some awesome time with the family down in the Cape, as well as some great rides to end off my base, I made plans to spend some time with world class athlete, my mentor and all round nice guy, Burry Stander. Before I even got to his house, I knew the days that lay ahead were gonna hurt, really, really badly. Needless to say, day one was, in his words, "af kak."

4:50am, yes, thats the time we were up and at it to simply try and beat the suffocating heat so familiar to the South Coast. Hill repeats with the former U23 World XCO Champion was definitely a very, VERY tough task.

So, after being buried somewhere on the top ridge of Mushroom Hill, I thought my day was done... Little did I know. After a really chilled out afternoon, I decided to brave a gym session with Burry, his fiance, Cherise Taylor, and Candice Neethling. I guess all I can say about that gym session is that I was buried for a second time that day. I think it must've been quite amusing to Burry to see me shaking and shuddering at trying to do some f the exercises he was breezing through! That evening we hit up a really nice restaurant for dinner, before turning it in for an early night.

Day two was far more chilled but it still had its fair amount of thrills. A 5hour road ride along the coastal roads seemed to be easy enough. It all went off fairly smoothly, until I somehow shredded my road tyre. Not a problem, we made a plan, and used up some of our EnergyBar wrappers to act as gators to prevent the tube from being exposed. This worked really good until I clipped a road side 'Cat Eye' and flatted my tyre again, with only 10km or so to go, and so began my trek back to Burry's house. Luckily for me, Candice flatted a couple hundred meters up the road, pinched her spare tube and was too, left stranded on the road side. Plan B - Hitch Hike! We stood at the road side like two goons with our hands out, trying to catch the attention the motorists, who all seemed to be far to busy to help us out. Eventually, a farmer in a minute little hatchback picked us up. We piled our bikes into the trunk, I sat on the back seat and held the bikes for dear life, as they hung out the rear door as he sped us towards our destination! Thankfully the bikes stayed intact and were unharmed by the time we got to Burry's house. After a loooooong day out we all just hung around the pool, watched a bit of TV, had an awesome lunch (prepared by Cherise) before I packed up the car and headed back to Pietermaritzburg.

A huge thanks to Burry and Cherise for all their advice and hospitality. It really made the stay that much better!

2012 - LETS GO

Let me start off by saying HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Wishing yo all a phenomenal year ahead!!

2011 has come and gone... What a year it was for me. I found myself racing all over the globe against the Worlds top athletes, I was selected to represent my country on a couple of occasions and I managed to wrap up the African Continental Championships. However, the Highlight of my year came in around June/July, where I was approached by one of my childhood "dream teams," Sho-Air/Specialized Factory Racing. As you know I have signed a three year contract and will be racing mainly in America for the first year and hopefully onto Europe and the full world-cup circuit in the years to come.

This past season wouldn't have been made possible if it weren't for some very special people who helped me make my dreams a reality. Firstly my parents sacrificed a lot to get me where I am today, without their help, guidance and support, the simple fact of the matter is, I would not be racing a bicycle. Then my ever supportive brother, who always encourages me to follow my dreams and make my own tracks in the sands of time. Kyle, you're the best!

Burry Stander has also been hugely instrumental in helping me achieve what I have over this past season. Being one of the Worlds best riders, Burry has been able to give extremely knowledgeable advice. A huge thank you needs to go out to him for all the help he has given me!

The folks from Team Jeep South African were and still are a very influential part of my life. Team owner, Max Cluer, taught me everything I needed to know, in order to achieve my dreams of being a professional athlete, from an extremely young age. Co-Owner of the team, Clint Morck, IS ALWAYS behind me whatever I do, and even though I no longer race in the colours of Team Jeep South Africa, he is still willing to drop everything to help me out! He's taken the roll as my 2nd father.

The folks from Ellsworth USA helped me out tremendously upon my first trip to the USA, which made my life far easier, and made the adjustment to the States extremely easy. Then comes a very special family, a family that have unofficially adopted me when I'm in America, The Williams'. They're my family away from home, and they treat me as one of their own, they even support me at races as if I was one of their sons!!! You guys rock!

Team Sho-Air/Specialized helped me out greatly at the end of this season. Two days after signing the contract with the team, all team equipment, clothing, bike etc. arrived at my accommodation, on the opposite side of the American continent!! They then flew me back out to the States after the World Championships in Switzerland, where I met up with my best bud/room mate, Johnny Muller (Marketing for Team Sho-Air), my Team Manager, Ty Kady, My Team Owner and MAJOR car enthusiast, R. Scott Tedro, as well as my new team mate, Pua Mata (ultra endurance super star). Scott has put me up in an amazing house along with Johnny and his girlfriend, for the past 3 months, which will continue to be my base for the 2012 season.

While in the States I met some pretty spectacular people, and got to ride with some of the fastest people on two wheels, with names like Todd Wells, Brian Lopes, Sam Schultz, Ben Bostrom, Sid Taberlay, Ned Overend.... sheesh, the list could just go on and on... So I'm guessing you can gather I'm SUPER excited for this coming season!!!!!

The 2011 season was definitely one to remember, in my books it was a good season, but there is a lot of room for improvement. I have had a drastic re look at my training for the upcoming season, have modified it, with the guidance of my mentor/coach, Burry Stander, and I am confident in the way things are building up for my first Pro XCT (formerly known as the NORBA series), in mid March. Having had international exposure over the last year, I am more motivated than ever and I'm itching to get back over to the US to sink my teeth in my first season as a Professional Mountain biker. There's no doubt in my mind that its going to be tough, REALLY tough, but it's gonna be one amazing experience. 2012 is here, it's time to take charge.

Until next time guys

Stay safe and keep it rubber side down.

B

homeward bound - One Crazy Adventure

Hey guys n gals

By the time you're reading this I'll be back home in SA. So here's a short story of my CRAZY trip home...

OK, so... the gnarly trip home started off with a super late fight out of LAX on Tuesday night. $400 later in over sized luggage, and some rather sneaky maneuvers to get my brothers Christmas present on board as hand luggage, my trip soon began to commence. The 5 hour flight to JFK International was pretty lame. Mainly due to the fact that there was a 5 year old kid throwing a tantrum for around 4hrs of the entire 5hr flight to New York.

Upon touch down in New York city, I found myself lumbering around the confusing airport, only to be told by a intensely rude and obnoxious women that I had to catch a train, out side of the airport, in order to get to the right terminal. So I meandered my way in the general direction of where I was told to go, found a train and hopped onto it. Well, from the lack of sleep, partnered up with the bad mood that I was now in, I ended up hopping onto a train that lead in the complete opposite direction. Eventually, after an hour or so of jumping from one train to another, I ventured into the right terminal. I then got checked in with South African Airways (SAA), which went off without a hitch.

It had to be smooth sailing from there, right? Oh, How wrong I was! I thought that the direct flight back home to SA would be straight forward, and that I'd sleep the majority of the flight. hmmm, another small child saw the end of my beloved sleep after only an hour in the sky. The little person whaled and squawked continuously for a couple of hours, resulting in me losing more and more sleep. After the entire 16hour flight from JFK to OR Tambo International in Johannesburg, I had only managed to get 5 hours of sleep. But, I was home, so that kinda lifted my spirits. All I had to do was catch the next flight to Durban which was in 2hrs time. Sounds easy enough. right?

In between waiting at passport control, the airport losing my bike and me having to wait for them to find it, those two hour simply flew by. As I got to the check in, with two ridiculously big bike bags, a massive luggage bag and my two carry on bags, Philemon, of SAA Domestic Flights simply said, "you have missed your flight, go buy a new one." I stormed off to get another ticket but refused to pay, after a further two more hours, I was eventually reimbursed with a ticket to Durban.

At least I'm home now. I'm super jet lagged, but its good to be back home with the family. I'm here until mid February, so I'll be home to get in some good training before jetting back over the states to tackle the 2012 Pro XCT series in the States. I'm also hoping to meet up with Burry for a couple rides while I'm back here to get some advice and pointers going forward!

Its been really awesome to catch up with my family and friends. Its been a long time since I was able to sit down and actually speak to them. I've got to make the most of the short period that Im going to be in the country!!

Sweet ride with some of the boys from Team Jeep South Africa.

I'll keep you all updated

Until next time

B