For the past couple of weeks, I have had some really exciting news building up regarding sponsorship deals for the coming year. I've finally been allowed to let the cat outta the bag, so...... In 2011 I will remain with Team Jeep South Africa, but will also be representing my new co sponsor .... Ellsworth bikes.
I have been fortunate enough to have been offered to ride from Ellsworth Bikes in the USA. I will be riding the Ellsworth carbon Enlightenment 29er which is the hard tail configuration in the mtb range while riding the Ellsworth Coercion carbon road bike on the road.
Ellsworth Bikes are renowned for their quality hand built frames that are built by craftsmen to the highest standard. These two babies should start arriving soon and I am really excited about getting them sorted in preparation for the 2011 season.
I will be racing on a full time basis in 2011 and am really excited about the prospects of possibly racing in Europe, while still meeting my commitments here at home and maybe even getting to the States where I could hopefully get some decent results for Ellsworth on their home soil and demonstrate what an awesome product Ellsworth really is.
Well despite the rest and base training preparation since Hill 2 Hill, the last competitive event for me is coming up on the weekend in the form of Urban Rage in Durban. Bring the family down and come and enjoy the racing and Ushaka Marine World at the same time.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
Time to Give Thanks
Ok, so with only urban Rage left on the calender, I think its due time for me to give thanks to EVERYONE who has helped me and stood by me throughout the year!
Team Jeep South Africa (including Clint Morck and Bex van de Linde for there support and advise) and all associated sponsors- John Dory's, ER24, Tropitone, Varsity College and Stedone Hazycrest Projects. These guys are the back bone of my team, and without them the team would simply not be able to survive.
Max Cluer- Team manager/owner, for his guidance, support and understanding, as well as all the hours that he puts into the team behind the scenes. This guy is a machine and an energy bunny of note.
Craig Paul- a Guru with a spanner, always making sure that my bike is running smoothly and a very big role model, training partner and mentor to me! I could not have asked for a better team captain.
Johann Wykerd and W Squared- for his selfless commitment to so many people and for all the help in so many ways. Always giving advise, being a mentor and being a close friend. A huge Thank you Johann for ensuring that I was able to ride a Merida 96 carbon for 2010. You and Allegra are an inspiration to so many and I applaud you for it.
HUGE thanks needs to, without a doubt go out to an EXTREMELY special lady. My Coach, Allegra Wykerd, has stood by me for many years, despite the circumstances and always ensured that I was as well prepared as possible.
Grant Dinkel- Adrenaline Cycles. On a few occasions, Grant opened his shop doors well after 8pm to help me out when I had discovered a problem that needed sorting before a race, and was always willing to squeeze me in on short notice! What he does for the youngsters in the sport is also amazing. Keep up the good work.
The Steyn family in Pretoria for putting us up with accommodation on two separate occasions and especially Nettie for running me to and from Fountains in preparation for SA Champs. "Julle is die beste"
Grant Walliser for assisting me with Nokian Tyres. They are a fantastic product and really contributed to my results. Thank you once again.
Then lastly, my parents and brother. They have to be THE most supportive family in the entire cycling world. Always attending EVERY SINGLE RACE that I do. They drive to opposite sides of the country while I fly, just to show their support. These people are the reason I'm able to race!
Thank you to everyone for your support this year.It has been your support that has enabled me to race and I thank you for it.
Here's looking forward to the 2011 Season, which should be a real humdinger.
Team Jeep South Africa (including Clint Morck and Bex van de Linde for there support and advise) and all associated sponsors- John Dory's, ER24, Tropitone, Varsity College and Stedone Hazycrest Projects. These guys are the back bone of my team, and without them the team would simply not be able to survive.
Max Cluer- Team manager/owner, for his guidance, support and understanding, as well as all the hours that he puts into the team behind the scenes. This guy is a machine and an energy bunny of note.
Craig Paul- a Guru with a spanner, always making sure that my bike is running smoothly and a very big role model, training partner and mentor to me! I could not have asked for a better team captain.
Johann Wykerd and W Squared- for his selfless commitment to so many people and for all the help in so many ways. Always giving advise, being a mentor and being a close friend. A huge Thank you Johann for ensuring that I was able to ride a Merida 96 carbon for 2010. You and Allegra are an inspiration to so many and I applaud you for it.
HUGE thanks needs to, without a doubt go out to an EXTREMELY special lady. My Coach, Allegra Wykerd, has stood by me for many years, despite the circumstances and always ensured that I was as well prepared as possible.
Grant Dinkel- Adrenaline Cycles. On a few occasions, Grant opened his shop doors well after 8pm to help me out when I had discovered a problem that needed sorting before a race, and was always willing to squeeze me in on short notice! What he does for the youngsters in the sport is also amazing. Keep up the good work.
The Steyn family in Pretoria for putting us up with accommodation on two separate occasions and especially Nettie for running me to and from Fountains in preparation for SA Champs. "Julle is die beste"
Grant Walliser for assisting me with Nokian Tyres. They are a fantastic product and really contributed to my results. Thank you once again.
Then lastly, my parents and brother. They have to be THE most supportive family in the entire cycling world. Always attending EVERY SINGLE RACE that I do. They drive to opposite sides of the country while I fly, just to show their support. These people are the reason I'm able to race!
Thank you to everyone for your support this year.It has been your support that has enabled me to race and I thank you for it.
Here's looking forward to the 2011 Season, which should be a real humdinger.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Momentum health - 94.7
Wow!! what a HECTIC weekend! in between all my matric exams, I had a little time to 'quickly' shoot up to Jo'burg for the 94.7 road race.
We left at sparrows fart, around 3am on Saturday morning, in order to miss the rush of the JHB traffic. After arriving we settled in with our other family members before hitting the road again to go and get registered.
MAN!!! the expo was SUPER cool! I could've honestly spent a couple of days in there. There was everything from cycling caps to the new 4.7kg Cervelo R5 road bike! There were some really impressive stalls which housed some of the most unbelievable bikes ever! ASG had the Pinarello Dogma and Emotion cycling had the new Volcans and Cervelo's. Unfortunately I had to be dragged away from this paradise to go get some rest before the next day.
I hit the hay early that night, trying to maximize my chances of catching up on some sleep... BUT my 6am start meant I was up and at it at 4:00 the next morning! That's one thing about road races, they are HECTICALLY early! I was a little uncertain of how my legs would be from my past couple of weeks of base training, but my coach certainly knows what she is doing and I was very pleasantly surprised.
At 6am we were off and fortunately it was a nice slow start to the race which allowed for my legs to warm up and by the time we hit the first climb I was firing on all cylinders. The attacks came pretty frequently, but i managed to stay safe in the lead bunch which was able to drive off the front. However at the 2nd climb I could feel things weren't feeling so hot, so I sat up slightly and decided to chase back on the descent towards Ponty tower. I made contacted with the group again and then managed to settle in nicely, before putting in a move on the tight windy streets in central Jo'burg, with the likes of Brad Mitchell and James Fourie. I realised it wasn't going to be a very successful break so the pace eased up again. Then disaster struck at around the 50km mark... my front gear shifter snapped off completely. ( The shifter on the opposite side broke in exactly the same way a month earlier while racing the Midmar Notts).Luckily it was stuck in big ring on the front, so i could keep up with the relentless attacks that were about to come.
The bunch continued to get smaller and smaller as we approached the the final 20kms, and was now just 15 strong, testosterone pumped riders. Luke Roberts went on the attack, and managed to get a sizable gap over the bunch and with no one wanting to chase down and the gap began to grow. The ASG junior team then took matters into their own hands and quickly ground out the gap that had been form, and soon we had Luke back in our sights.
But then the most difficult part of the race came at around 85km in the form of a MOOSE of a climb that looked like a vertical wall. We hit it = the explosion of my legs... not being able to gear down ensured that the gear I had to push made my pace really slow. I just had to watch as the other Juniors dropped to the small front ring and danced up the cliff face. After I eventually hurled myself up and over the climb I rode a steady pace back to the finish, coming home around 15th just behind Luke who had run out of steam with his huge effort earlier, riding up front on his own for quite some time. A very disappointing result especially with my legs feeling so good on the day, but a brilliant indicator that my legs are feeling good for Urban Rage!!!
A huge thanks to Linda Roberts and Charles Roberts for helping me out with an error that was made with my seeding and for sorting it out for me as I only realized the organizers mistake when I was on the other side of JHB when I opened my goody bag.
The organisation and scale of this event was a real eye opener and a good indication of what can be achieved when those involved in organizing an event know what needs to be done and it is done well.We were already on our way home and some riders were only starting two hours later and I was really happy that I was done because it was really staring to get hot.Some riders that were riding for charity dressed up in cow outfits including udders did the route twice.Respect Brothers and sisters. RESPECT!!!!
A great experience and I will definitely be back again next year. One more exam and I can start focusing on the task ahead in 2011.
We left at sparrows fart, around 3am on Saturday morning, in order to miss the rush of the JHB traffic. After arriving we settled in with our other family members before hitting the road again to go and get registered.
MAN!!! the expo was SUPER cool! I could've honestly spent a couple of days in there. There was everything from cycling caps to the new 4.7kg Cervelo R5 road bike! There were some really impressive stalls which housed some of the most unbelievable bikes ever! ASG had the Pinarello Dogma and Emotion cycling had the new Volcans and Cervelo's. Unfortunately I had to be dragged away from this paradise to go get some rest before the next day.
I hit the hay early that night, trying to maximize my chances of catching up on some sleep... BUT my 6am start meant I was up and at it at 4:00 the next morning! That's one thing about road races, they are HECTICALLY early! I was a little uncertain of how my legs would be from my past couple of weeks of base training, but my coach certainly knows what she is doing and I was very pleasantly surprised.
At 6am we were off and fortunately it was a nice slow start to the race which allowed for my legs to warm up and by the time we hit the first climb I was firing on all cylinders. The attacks came pretty frequently, but i managed to stay safe in the lead bunch which was able to drive off the front. However at the 2nd climb I could feel things weren't feeling so hot, so I sat up slightly and decided to chase back on the descent towards Ponty tower. I made contacted with the group again and then managed to settle in nicely, before putting in a move on the tight windy streets in central Jo'burg, with the likes of Brad Mitchell and James Fourie. I realised it wasn't going to be a very successful break so the pace eased up again. Then disaster struck at around the 50km mark... my front gear shifter snapped off completely. ( The shifter on the opposite side broke in exactly the same way a month earlier while racing the Midmar Notts).Luckily it was stuck in big ring on the front, so i could keep up with the relentless attacks that were about to come.
The bunch continued to get smaller and smaller as we approached the the final 20kms, and was now just 15 strong, testosterone pumped riders. Luke Roberts went on the attack, and managed to get a sizable gap over the bunch and with no one wanting to chase down and the gap began to grow. The ASG junior team then took matters into their own hands and quickly ground out the gap that had been form, and soon we had Luke back in our sights.
But then the most difficult part of the race came at around 85km in the form of a MOOSE of a climb that looked like a vertical wall. We hit it = the explosion of my legs... not being able to gear down ensured that the gear I had to push made my pace really slow. I just had to watch as the other Juniors dropped to the small front ring and danced up the cliff face. After I eventually hurled myself up and over the climb I rode a steady pace back to the finish, coming home around 15th just behind Luke who had run out of steam with his huge effort earlier, riding up front on his own for quite some time. A very disappointing result especially with my legs feeling so good on the day, but a brilliant indicator that my legs are feeling good for Urban Rage!!!
A huge thanks to Linda Roberts and Charles Roberts for helping me out with an error that was made with my seeding and for sorting it out for me as I only realized the organizers mistake when I was on the other side of JHB when I opened my goody bag.
The organisation and scale of this event was a real eye opener and a good indication of what can be achieved when those involved in organizing an event know what needs to be done and it is done well.We were already on our way home and some riders were only starting two hours later and I was really happy that I was done because it was really staring to get hot.Some riders that were riding for charity dressed up in cow outfits including udders did the route twice.Respect Brothers and sisters. RESPECT!!!!
A great experience and I will definitely be back again next year. One more exam and I can start focusing on the task ahead in 2011.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
skinny wheel racing part 3 -Road Rash and an Ass Grating
Ok... so the Shova didn't exactly plan out how I hoped it would...
Being off the bike for close on a month, with the odd race thrown in, I was pretty nervous to see what the countries top roadies had to throw at me. Surprisingly I felt pretty strong, and definitely felt that I could make it to the bunch sprint at the soccer stadium in Durbs.
The race started off fantastically. I managed to secure myself in the bunch and pretty soon I found myself contending with the top guns... and I felt GREAT!!! We peaked over the notorious Fox Hill, which winds its way out of Maritzburg, which lead to the attacks coming hard and fast. I was able to react, and soon found myself with a very small select group of riders. As we turned onto the Eston road which makes its way towards Camperdown the race took a completely different direction. We had a full on block head wind. That meant only one thing.... GUTTER = NO SLIP STREAMING... thats where things stopped going my way! The group swung across the road to prevent us being able to slip stream the person in front of us. I found myself sitting in 2nd, so I still had a small amount of the slip from the rider in front of me, then.... the next thing I knew I was grating my butt away on the tarmac at 60kph. The tar that was on the yellow line dropped away to the side which forced me onto some dodgy gravel. I managed to get back onto the 'good stuff,' but was then clipped by a rider passing me. I came down with the most disgusting sound of grinding carbon and aluminium in the process of being mangled, not to mention the smell of my what must have been my skin being peeled off and left on teh road surface. After sliding for what seemed forever I eventually came to a halt. My bibs were shredded, my glove of my left hand, disintegrated, my shoes were ground down to a fine carbon dust, my handle bars and pedals had been mangled by the rough surface. The bodily injuries were quite painful. My left cheek of my butt was virtually non existent, despite me flashing it to everybody from here on as there were no bibs to cover up any longer. My elbow had taken the full brunt of the initial crash, and my fore arm had lost half the skin, which, by the way was still sizzling in the road.
I jumped up to try and limit my losses, I fixed my chain and began the most intense chase of my life. It doesn't happen often, but I literally pushed myself to the point where I could taste blood. I eventually made contact with the bunch when we got to the bridge crossing the N3 at Camperdown. But I was definitely feeling the effects of the chase. As we approached the last major climb of the race the attacks came like no tomorrow, I simply couldn't react. I had to sit back and try keep my cool. Luckily the gap didn't grow too drastically and I managed to make contact with the rear of the group, with the help of some reckless descending down into Botha's Hill. But again, the attacks came which equalled the end of my day, and my chances of a good result went down the tube.
From there I decided to just make the remainder of my race a good start into my base training, so I just chilled for the final 20km or so. It was really a bummer not to get the result I was hoping for... but hey... thats racing and that's the way the cookie crumbled at the end of the day. I ended the day with a really good lunch and a fruit smoothie before heading back up the hill to Maritzburg.
A huge thanks must go out to Clint and Ollie Olsen for arranging a new shifter in time to replace the one that snapped the previous week at Midmar / Notts. You guys were fantastic and thanks for all the encouragement and advice.
Now comes my base, starting on Tuesday and hopefully a good result at the 94.7 is possible!
Wish me luck
peace\
making the junction to the bunch after my crash
Being off the bike for close on a month, with the odd race thrown in, I was pretty nervous to see what the countries top roadies had to throw at me. Surprisingly I felt pretty strong, and definitely felt that I could make it to the bunch sprint at the soccer stadium in Durbs.
The race started off fantastically. I managed to secure myself in the bunch and pretty soon I found myself contending with the top guns... and I felt GREAT!!! We peaked over the notorious Fox Hill, which winds its way out of Maritzburg, which lead to the attacks coming hard and fast. I was able to react, and soon found myself with a very small select group of riders. As we turned onto the Eston road which makes its way towards Camperdown the race took a completely different direction. We had a full on block head wind. That meant only one thing.... GUTTER = NO SLIP STREAMING... thats where things stopped going my way! The group swung across the road to prevent us being able to slip stream the person in front of us. I found myself sitting in 2nd, so I still had a small amount of the slip from the rider in front of me, then.... the next thing I knew I was grating my butt away on the tarmac at 60kph. The tar that was on the yellow line dropped away to the side which forced me onto some dodgy gravel. I managed to get back onto the 'good stuff,' but was then clipped by a rider passing me. I came down with the most disgusting sound of grinding carbon and aluminium in the process of being mangled, not to mention the smell of my what must have been my skin being peeled off and left on teh road surface. After sliding for what seemed forever I eventually came to a halt. My bibs were shredded, my glove of my left hand, disintegrated, my shoes were ground down to a fine carbon dust, my handle bars and pedals had been mangled by the rough surface. The bodily injuries were quite painful. My left cheek of my butt was virtually non existent, despite me flashing it to everybody from here on as there were no bibs to cover up any longer. My elbow had taken the full brunt of the initial crash, and my fore arm had lost half the skin, which, by the way was still sizzling in the road.
I jumped up to try and limit my losses, I fixed my chain and began the most intense chase of my life. It doesn't happen often, but I literally pushed myself to the point where I could taste blood. I eventually made contact with the bunch when we got to the bridge crossing the N3 at Camperdown. But I was definitely feeling the effects of the chase. As we approached the last major climb of the race the attacks came like no tomorrow, I simply couldn't react. I had to sit back and try keep my cool. Luckily the gap didn't grow too drastically and I managed to make contact with the rear of the group, with the help of some reckless descending down into Botha's Hill. But again, the attacks came which equalled the end of my day, and my chances of a good result went down the tube.
From there I decided to just make the remainder of my race a good start into my base training, so I just chilled for the final 20km or so. It was really a bummer not to get the result I was hoping for... but hey... thats racing and that's the way the cookie crumbled at the end of the day. I ended the day with a really good lunch and a fruit smoothie before heading back up the hill to Maritzburg.
A huge thanks must go out to Clint and Ollie Olsen for arranging a new shifter in time to replace the one that snapped the previous week at Midmar / Notts. You guys were fantastic and thanks for all the encouragement and advice.
Now comes my base, starting on Tuesday and hopefully a good result at the 94.7 is possible!
Wish me luck
peace\
making the junction to the bunch after my crash
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Skinny Wheel Action - Round 2
So this weekend, after 3 weeks completely off the bike (apart from high performance testing)since racing the Hill 2 Hill, I decided to try and mix it up with the boys who race the skinny wheeled, light weight things they call road bikes. With the Amashova only one week away, I thought it'd be a really good opportunity to race the Midmar-Notts to test the waters and see how the legs would react.
We were up at sparrows fart to get to the typical early morning start of all road races. We arrived and went straight to register and get my bike rolled in (to have the gearing checked-Juniors race with lighter gear ratios than that of elites and older). Then came the warm up... with the cold morning conditions it was pretty hard to try and get warmed up, so I made the best of what I had and rode around in a big circle. Then came race time, at least it was delayed by around 20 or so minutes, which meant the start was at around 07:30, still a tad earlier than most mountain bike races.
The juniors started with the elites and under 23 riders, which meant only one thing... the racing was going to be hard and fast. With names like Chris Jennings, Dave Leiman,Andrew Warr and Myles van Musschenbroek things were not going to be easy. As we left the dam the pace stayed pretty moderate, with no one getting away from the bunch. By the time we got to the main climb of the race, the bunch was still very much intact. A few of the top riders came to the front and blew the bunch to pieces. At the steepest part of the climb I saw a chance to try and make a break, so I took the leap and made my move... I managed to get a good gap and felt like I was super humanly strong, until I sat down to get into a rhythm... that when the wheels fell off. The remainder of the bunch caught and blew me out the back, along with another rider. Fortunately I recovered really quickly and managed to time trial my way onto the bunch again.
The lead bunch was now around 15 strong, and we were now on the long gradual climb which winds its way all the way to Nottingham Road (25-30km long). The bunch continued to whittled down and only a few of the top riders were left with the ever increasing pace, riders were being dropped off the back all the time. Myles, a fellow junior rider, put in a really big effort at Michaelhouse and managed to get a gap of around 10 seconds on the bunch. Dave Leiman bridged the gap, which definitely made the bunch react with a chase. The gap slowly began to come down, and eventually the junction was made, almost instantly a counter attack went off the side with Dave Leiman. Chris Jennings, Mike Aidey and I went with. In the pandemonium I heard the most diabolical sound come from behind me... I looked back and saw a rider hit the deck hard. Unfortunately it was Myles who'd made a small mistake which lead him to practice some high speed bush diving.
The bunch was now down to 7, with me being the only junior present, so things were definitely looking very good.
Then to my amazement, with about 47km to go, my rear shifter snapped clean off which meant I only had one gear to push to the finish. I tried to dig deep, but I couldn't hold onto the disgustingly hard pace that Chris was now setting on the rough road just outside Notties heading towards the N3 and I was spat out the back of the bunch now only 4 riders strong.
And so began my 47 odd kilometer time trial back to the Midmar dam.
Luckily I managed to catch one of the other riders who had lost contact of the lead group as well. We began to really work well together, with me pushing on the flats and downhills, and him helping me on the up's. Eventually we arrived back at Midmar, with cramp nipping at my heels. I'd managed to make up a place crossing the line in 6th place from the elite starting batch and was the 1st junior home about four and a half minutes ahead of the next junior, a result I was really stoked with.
Now comes Amashova and then I will be back on the bike to start my base training in preparation for the 2011 season !!!
We were up at sparrows fart to get to the typical early morning start of all road races. We arrived and went straight to register and get my bike rolled in (to have the gearing checked-Juniors race with lighter gear ratios than that of elites and older). Then came the warm up... with the cold morning conditions it was pretty hard to try and get warmed up, so I made the best of what I had and rode around in a big circle. Then came race time, at least it was delayed by around 20 or so minutes, which meant the start was at around 07:30, still a tad earlier than most mountain bike races.
The juniors started with the elites and under 23 riders, which meant only one thing... the racing was going to be hard and fast. With names like Chris Jennings, Dave Leiman,Andrew Warr and Myles van Musschenbroek things were not going to be easy. As we left the dam the pace stayed pretty moderate, with no one getting away from the bunch. By the time we got to the main climb of the race, the bunch was still very much intact. A few of the top riders came to the front and blew the bunch to pieces. At the steepest part of the climb I saw a chance to try and make a break, so I took the leap and made my move... I managed to get a good gap and felt like I was super humanly strong, until I sat down to get into a rhythm... that when the wheels fell off. The remainder of the bunch caught and blew me out the back, along with another rider. Fortunately I recovered really quickly and managed to time trial my way onto the bunch again.
The lead bunch was now around 15 strong, and we were now on the long gradual climb which winds its way all the way to Nottingham Road (25-30km long). The bunch continued to whittled down and only a few of the top riders were left with the ever increasing pace, riders were being dropped off the back all the time. Myles, a fellow junior rider, put in a really big effort at Michaelhouse and managed to get a gap of around 10 seconds on the bunch. Dave Leiman bridged the gap, which definitely made the bunch react with a chase. The gap slowly began to come down, and eventually the junction was made, almost instantly a counter attack went off the side with Dave Leiman. Chris Jennings, Mike Aidey and I went with. In the pandemonium I heard the most diabolical sound come from behind me... I looked back and saw a rider hit the deck hard. Unfortunately it was Myles who'd made a small mistake which lead him to practice some high speed bush diving.
The bunch was now down to 7, with me being the only junior present, so things were definitely looking very good.
Then to my amazement, with about 47km to go, my rear shifter snapped clean off which meant I only had one gear to push to the finish. I tried to dig deep, but I couldn't hold onto the disgustingly hard pace that Chris was now setting on the rough road just outside Notties heading towards the N3 and I was spat out the back of the bunch now only 4 riders strong.
And so began my 47 odd kilometer time trial back to the Midmar dam.
Luckily I managed to catch one of the other riders who had lost contact of the lead group as well. We began to really work well together, with me pushing on the flats and downhills, and him helping me on the up's. Eventually we arrived back at Midmar, with cramp nipping at my heels. I'd managed to make up a place crossing the line in 6th place from the elite starting batch and was the 1st junior home about four and a half minutes ahead of the next junior, a result I was really stoked with.
Now comes Amashova and then I will be back on the bike to start my base training in preparation for the 2011 season !!!
Sunday, October 3, 2010
2010 CSA High Performance Camp - Umhlanga- Two Days of PAIN
Wow what an amazing weekend! MTBSA as well as CSA (Cycling South Africa) put together an awesome High performance camp for the top Juniors and Elite athletes of South Africa, and was held at the AWESOME Umhlanga Medical Center near Gateway.
Needless to say, the two days were single handedly the most disgustingly hard days I've ever had on a bike. This was of course due to the fact that we had a 40km TT on the Computrainer as well as a VO2 Max test and Spin scan test. The 40km TT was definitely the hardest, each athlete was continuously trying to better the previous athletes time over the 40km distance. The VO2 testing was a different kind of disgusting all together, with the power gradually increasing on the Computrainer, the thought in the back of all our minds was, "O BOY!!!!" Unfortunately the computer which was monitoring my test switched off near the end, so I was unable to get a perfectly accurate result.
But nevertheless this specific HP camp was by far the most well organised and professional camp I have been on to date. The hotel we stayed in was absolutely fantastic, the food was spectacular and the level professionalism was at the highest level. With people such as Jeroen Swart, Tim Goodenough, Johann Wykerd and the entire team it definitely made the Camp very worth while and extremely thorough.
A huge thanks needs to go out to CSA, MTBSA, Johann Wykerd and Jeroen Swart and his team! Without you guys it wouldn't be possible to run such a tight shift program!
VO2 Max Test = Death
Needless to say, the two days were single handedly the most disgustingly hard days I've ever had on a bike. This was of course due to the fact that we had a 40km TT on the Computrainer as well as a VO2 Max test and Spin scan test. The 40km TT was definitely the hardest, each athlete was continuously trying to better the previous athletes time over the 40km distance. The VO2 testing was a different kind of disgusting all together, with the power gradually increasing on the Computrainer, the thought in the back of all our minds was, "O BOY!!!!" Unfortunately the computer which was monitoring my test switched off near the end, so I was unable to get a perfectly accurate result.
But nevertheless this specific HP camp was by far the most well organised and professional camp I have been on to date. The hotel we stayed in was absolutely fantastic, the food was spectacular and the level professionalism was at the highest level. With people such as Jeroen Swart, Tim Goodenough, Johann Wykerd and the entire team it definitely made the Camp very worth while and extremely thorough.
A huge thanks needs to go out to CSA, MTBSA, Johann Wykerd and Jeroen Swart and his team! Without you guys it wouldn't be possible to run such a tight shift program!
VO2 Max Test = Death
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