Lock n Load

Man, sorry for the late post guys!! We've been without electricity for 2 days and it only just came on! So I'll try get in a quick blog post!

Last week was my final grueling week of training, and to end the tough block off I decided to hit up another big local race (Harburg Tour de Krantz) to get some race intensity in. This is one of the toughest local races on the calender and is always well attended. With the likes of Itech Connect/Momsen pro rider Brandon Stewart and Andrew Hill (TIB Insurance) the racing was going to be hard and fast. Just what I had gone to look for.

08:30 sharp the racing started, and unlike previous years, the racing seemed to be pretty slow off the blocks. This was pretty short lived, Brandon put a major surge in as we entered the first single-track, splitting the field to pieces. I found myself clinging onto his wheel as we began to hit some of the more serious climbs. Eventually Brandon managed to ride myself and Andrew off his wheel before the summit of the first really tough climb.

After we summited the climb I pushed the pace to see if I could shake Andrew before trying to close the gap to Brandon. It worked. A section with a series of short, sharp climbs allowed me to get away from Andrew and at the same time, inched me closer and closer to Brandon's wheel.

I managed to hold the gap at around 45seconds to Brandon for the majority of the race. The sight of the Film crew in the helicopter always meant that I could judge how far ahead Brandon was for the entire race. On the longer, more open climbs Brandon would stretch the gap out, making me work super hard on the Short, Punchy climbs (like that of XCO) to try and bring the time difference down a notch. As we made our way through the final feed point I received news that Brandon was now 1minute ahead. I pushed on, trying to make up time wherever possible. I eventually had to settle for 2nd Overall (pro) and 1st Junior (u18) around 90seconds back on Brandon. Andrew Hill rounded off the podium a further 4minutes back. Big ups to Brandon, he is coming onto some amazing form and I wish him the best of luck for the up and coming Ultra Marathons!

I'm super happy with where the form is and how it is coming along. with only 9days to my world Championship race I definitely have a very positive frame of mind. I just have to keep my head clean and ignore any distractions that may present themselves. I leave South Africa with the South African XCO and DHI team on Friday and should arrive on Saturday afternoon! Which leaves plenty of time to check out the course and get dialed in. I also hope to meet up with my Mentor, Burry Stander, to get the "low down" on the course.

Pheww! Exciting times!!

Stay tuned

Brendon

Focus, Focus, Focus

Hey Guys

with little over a week until my trip to Switzerland, my excitement, as you can imagine, is at an all time high. Training is going really well and I'm now in my last really tough week. I guess all that's left is to stay safe until the race, keep eating right, stay healthy and stay focused on my goal. I will be racing my last race in SA this coming weekend, using it as a "Race Simulation" for World Champs.

I managed to find this really cool preview of both the XCO and DHI events that are going to be held at Champery. Awesome to see my mentor, Burry Stander, dominating the mens XCO race in the clip. click the link below

World Champs Preview


Enjoy
B

World Champs Prep

So I've been back in the country for 2 weeks now, and as you all know World Champs is only a few weeks away.

These past two weeks have been THE toughest weeks of training I've had in my entire career. Many people don't see the sort of training and dedication that goes into being a professional cyclist. Nutrition is closely monitored, Training, on the bike, often takes up half your day. Recovery is also a crucial roll in getting in quality training. The better you recover, the better you can train the next day, which results in a better outcome when it comes to a race. Mental strength is another key roll of pushing yourself to the next level, pushing through the surface of the pain barrier, teaching your mind to tell the body to keep going. This past weekend I proved to myself that I could do all of these despite a long tough week out on the roads.

The Eston Illovo Race is the largest one day event in the world. A highly prestigious race that attracts many of South Africa's best Professional Mountain Bikers. Riders like Burry Stander, Max Knox, Marc Bassingthwaite, James Reid, Brandon Stewart.... then list of these animals goes on and on.. and on.

Being my first race in the colours of new sponsor Sho-Air/Specialized Factory I really wanted to have a good result, but was totally unsure of how my legs would hold up after the hard weeks training. So, I adopted the approach of, "Go until you blow!" With a junior XCO race only lasting between 1h15-1h30, it was my goal to stay with the big boys until then, anything longer than that was a bonus!

With the first KOM of the 60km race only 2.5km into the race, the heat got turned on really early. The attacks leading up to the final sprint were furious, but I managed to cross the top right on the wheel of Burry Stander, around 5th or 6th. A ferocious counter attack came from Max Knox directly after the summit. Burry seemed to cruise across the gap along with Brandon Stewart. I bit the bullet and pushed to get to the 3 man break. I latched on but pretty soon the race resumed with around 10 riders. To my surprise top riders like Marc Bassi and Mannie Heymans were off the back, but there wasn't time to worry about what was going down behind us. The group hit the next tough climb around 10km in. The bunch split up, with me being ridden off the back. Somehow I managed to ride myself back across the gap, back onto the wheels of the now 8 man strong lead group. This happened one or two more times, but both times I was still able to push the pain away, grit my teeth and, well, GO!

Then came one of the most deciding climbs of the race. Around 25km into the race Max Knox attacked hard. All of us followed, but were soon ridden off by the like of Burry, Brandon and Max. James Reid and Phil Buys were just behind with myself, Marc Bassi and Andrew Warr right on their tails.

I managed to drop Marc and Andrew and began to try and close the gap up to James and Phil, who had now lost a little time on the 2 leaders, Brandon and Burry (Max suffered a puncture). Max managed to close back up to me, and to my surprise I was able to climb with him until he suffered another mechanical. Andrew Warr had also worked his way back, along with Andrew Hill. Unfortunately at around 50km my legs, well, EXPLODED! Andrew Warr managed to get away leaving Hill with me. This is where I had my realization. I just kept pushing on. As hard as it was, I just kept on going as hard as possible. Eventually around 5km later I had managed to shake Hill and was now closing on Warr. I eventually came in 6th Pro/Overall and 1st Junior/u18.

I'm totally ecstatic to have been able to battle it out with the top pro's for some of the race. The race also showed me where my weaknesses are and how I can improve on them. The new bike, a Specialized S-Works Epic 29er, was an absolute dream! Falling more and more inlove with this machine every time I ride it! Big thanks to Sho-Air and Specialized for hooking me up!!

A huge congrats to Brandon Stewart for bringing home the win, to Burry Stander for sprinting home in 3rd after snapping the one side of his bars completely off in a crash around 5km out and most of all to the organisers for putting on another fantastic event!

Until next time
B

Junior mens podium

long hours on the roads in prep for worlds!

Its good to be home

Hey guys,

Well, now that I'm back in RSA, final preparation is WELL underway! Its my last couple of super intense weeks before heading over to Switzerland for the UCI World Championships!

Oh, and incase you havent heard, I'm now under the colours of US based team Sho-Air/Specialized Racing. The guys from the team have been really awesome, with only 2 days left in the States, they were able to get me the Specialized Epic S-Works 29er, along with a bunch of kit, bottles, apparel etc!! A huge thanks to Scott Tedro, Ty Kady and Johnny Muller. Johnny is the brains behind the amazing remodel of my blog!! looking really cool!!

I also need to thank my previous sponsors, Team Jeep South Africa and Ellsworth Bicycles. They were both willing to release me from contract to join the new team. Jeep has been alongside me for the past 5 years, and I always had amazing support from them, to Max, Clint, Bex, Bron and Sarah for your amazing support and loyalty to me as an athlete, I thank you! I really appreciate the endless hours that you put into the team! It did not go unnoticed. To Johann Wykerd (Ellsworth Importer) I thank you for the opportunity to ride such an amazing brand. The Ellsworth stood strong the entire season, never letting me down. I still believe that the Ellsworth is an awesome piece of racing equipment.

I will be leaving for the USA almost directly after returning from Switzerland on the 6th of September. I will be heading out to Las Vegas for the 2012 Interbike convention, where our new pro team will be officially announced. I'll then stay over there until december, where I will return to RSA to complete the remainder of my Base Training, enjoy some family time over Christmas and my Birthday, and then head back over early February where I will start my 3 year contract with the amazing setup that Sho-Air/Specialized have.

Check out a couple of photos Darren Goddard got during a photoshoot in the new kit.

Windham World Cup, New York Trip, and some catching up!

Hey guys

Man, I apologise for such a late update on the Windham World Cup. But as I'm sure you all heard, it didn't go off smoothly to say the least.

Everything started off extremely well! Windham had an awesome course, beautiful scenery, good riding and of course, I was reunited with some South African friends! It was amazing being able to spend time with familiar faces and our time together soon became even better when none other than Mr. Casey Williams joined the crew!

Practice on the wet course went off pretty unhitched. It wasn't until Thursday (2days before the race) that things took a turn for the worse. While doing a fast lap of the course I came into one of the rock gardens, only to see that some oblivious spectators were standing in the line. In an attempt to miss the spectators I tried to move across the rooted/rocked out section, into another line, but in the process I slipped on a root which sent me straight to the ground. I fell so fast there wasn't even time to put my hands out nor time to try to tuck 'n roll. My face met the floor with a loud thud, followed by immense pain. Before I even knew what had happened I found myself sitting in a pool of blood. My nose had broken and I had a couple gnarly lacerations on my cheek and nose too. I dont know what I was thinking but out of nowhere I decided to put my nose back in place, which was shortly followed by a loud "click" and a heap load more pain.

So we made a trip to the doctor, where my obvious broken nose was x-rayed. The images were pretty crazy. The left part of my nose, where the cheek and nose meet, looked as though someone had taken a hammer to a windscreen of a car. I was also suffering from some intense pain in my right hand, which the doctor diagnosed as a mild dislocated "pinky" finger. So with a little 'pop', and a little 'click' i was ready to try take on the remainder of the day before my early morning appointment for a check up. Friday morning came, and the doctors room was where we were headed. Dr. Schneider walked in and pushed on my nose a couple times, I thought he was seeing if it hurt for me, then, out of the blue, he pushed hard and my nose made a super gnarly crack. He had pushed my nose back into place as it was still slightly skewed from the previous day. So again, I was sent on my way. A chilled couple of laps were done on Friday, before kicking the feet up for the day.

Race day was upon us. Saturday, 5pm, was when I had to put my set-backs behind me and give it everything. I lined up 3rd in a small, but super fast junior field. The 8 fastest Juniors in the world were on the front row, which meant a podium spot was going to be a very hard fought result! The gun went, pandemonium broke loose, the group of 30 juniors dived into the first corner. I got pushed wide after a good start and came out of the start loop around 15th. The long climb began to split the field up which left some really big gaps for me to close down as I began to work my way back up. At the top of the climb I had moved into 4th, but 2 riders up front were starting to open up a small gap. We hit the first single track but the gap to the first 2 riders kept opening. As we approached a double track section I made a pass on the rider ahead in an attempt to try close the gap by myself. Unfortunately after making the pass I was rammed from behind, causing my hanger and derailleur to twist. I stopped to try and fix the problem, but could only get the derailleur to work in 3 gears. I managed to time trial my way back up to the leaders, which were now all together, before the end of the first lap. Lap 2 is where my day really started. As we wound our way up to the top of the course, the group whittled down to 3, but I really began to hurt as we approached the steepest climb of the lap. I was forced to jump off and run. I began to drop positions rapidly, but I tried to stay positive and make up time on the technical sections I was able to ride. Unfortunately the race got worse with every lap. I was forced to run almost all the climbs as I was simply too tired to push the gears that were usable on my bike. In the end I was nearly an entire lap behind the leader. A very disappointing result, but a valuable learning curve.

Sunday then came round, which turned out to be one of the most memorable days of my entire life. Caitlin de Wet, Casey and Kim Williams, Alexis Ryan, Rachel Campbell and I made a trip down to New York City. WOW, what a city. It was really cool to be inside one of the busiest cities in the world, to feel so small and insignificant amongst the hustle and bustle of "The Big Apple" was just mind blowing.

We tried to cram as much of the major attractions into our day. Visiting the Statue of Liberty, Battery Park, Wall Street, Ground Zero and a number of the memorials, The Empire State Building, Central Park and Times Square!!! To see so much of such a crazy city was incredible. The Empire State Building had to be one of the highlights of my NY trip. To get to look out over the entire city, to have a ride on the Sky Ride ( an IMAX roller coaster)and to just be around good people is a memory that could never be replaced. Central Park was the host of one of my best memories of my ENTIRE US trip. We all hired beach cruiser bicycles, which had anywhere between 2 and 6 working gears, and decided to go 'cruise around Central Park. Well.... Casey and I soon went of the tarmac and were bunny hopping over logs and rocks, finding drop offs and messing around.... until..... a mildly serious man on a TT bike came blazing past. This was too good to be true, an opportunity to race on cruisers! we left the others in our wake and rode onto the wheel of the TT rider. A rather nasty climb came around which was where Casey and I tried to make our move, which ended up lasting a whole 30 seconds or so.

Now with fond memories from NY, I've just got to Missoula, Montana. Last weekend I gave my support to Casey and the kids from EXPO racing at the US national championships. This coming weekend is my last race in the states and final round of the Pro XCT National series. Then its back to SA, before jetting off to Switzerland for World Championships!

Until next time
ciao

4th of July in Albany

a rather excited Casey

Subaru Cup - Wisconsin

Hey Guys

Wow, times been flying since I've been here in Milwaukee. I've been running around this entire week tryna sort out a new race wheel which I destroyed on Friday last week while doing a practice lap of the course.

After stressing like a mad man, the Subaru Trek Team came to the rescue with one of Emily Batty's spare race wheels. The guys were super helpful and very accommodating. A huge thanks needs to go out to them for helping me out, without you guys I wouldnt have been able to race at all on the weekend. They slotted the wheel in and I was back onto the track to get some more practice.

I felt pretty tired on the bike after a super tough weeks training, but felt like I had the course dialed in. I made my way back across to the Team EXPO camp site. Before continuing I need to give a huge shout out to Gus, Papa Ted, Riley and all the other people helped me out with accommodation and shuttling. I really appreciate the help you guys did for me, you really made the stay in Wisconsin an awesome one.

so, most of Friday afternoon consisted of me running around after a wheel, but once the riding was out of the way I spent the entire afternoon lounging around in the campsite with good friend and fellow Junior competitor, Casey Williams. By the next morning I was pretty well rested and super amped to hit the race with everything I had. Being a Pro XCT (NORBA) I was not allowed to race up in the Pro/Elite Category, which meant my race was around 11:00 (Pro Cat 1).

The field was pretty big, around 100-120 riders in total. I stood on the start line, literally shaking in my socks, waiting for the siren to sound the start of my 4 lap race. I managed to make a good leap to the front, from there I decided to hammer as hard as I could at the front of the pack. The tactics seemed to work, I'd opened a good 5 second gap over the front runners before we hit the hardest and longest climb of the track. By the end of the first lap, Casey Williams and I came through together, around 30 seconds ahead of the field.

I made my move on one of the steeper climbs on lap 2, opening the gap up to around 1min over the next lap as I headed into lap 3. Over lap 3 I managed to stretch the gap out to around 1:45 and felt really strong heading into the last lap. The last lap began to get really tricky. The lines had changed drastically, switch back corners on the climbs were getting super loose, and the fact that there were 100's of Cat1 men and women back markers ahead made racing really tricky. Many of the people would not give way in the single track, mainly due to the fact that they thought I was a late charging back marker trying to make unnecessary passes. This didnt help the fact that a hard charging Casey was coming through the now "alert" field. My lead began to whittle down fast and before I knew it he was on the same switch back climb as me, just one contour below.

I made one last, super big push up the final technical climb to try open a small buffer before hitting the single track to the finish line. Fortunately it worked out, I crossed the line around 25 seconds ahead of Casey.

Results Pro Cat 1 (overall)
1. Brendon Davids
2. Casey Williams (+0.26)
3. Max Houtzager (+1.30)
4. Payson Mcelveen (+2.40)
5. Jake Richards (+4.00)

Then came the Short track on Sunday. A discipline that I have never raced in. Our starting call up was based on the results from the previous day-meaning I was the first seeded rider, and would have first pick at the start line.

The short 900m track was open, and fast. Meaning one thing.... HARD racing! The gun went for the start, I slipped a pedal, nearly went over the bars, dropped to the tail end of the field, and caused a huge crash in the process. I managed to get going and had to claw my way through the field. I rode on the absolute limit for 3 full before eventually meeting the back of the lead group of 4. Casey was laying down the law and making us all bleed to hang with him. Around the half way mark (8minutes in) I went to the front and went as hard as I could. I managed to whittle the pack down to 3, with Casey a little off the back. One of the Cat1 u23's then made a major attack, which no one wanted to bridge, I saw it as a window of opportunity and went for it. I bridged the gap and as soon as I caught him I countered, catching him by surprise.

I managed to hold my lead for the final two laps, crossing the line 5 seconds ahead of Josh Johnson (Pro Cat1 u23) and around 25seconds ahead of the next junior.

A huge thank you needs to go out to the following people for helping out and for making my stay in Wisconsin so awesome! Gus, Christie and Pappa Ted ( Expo Racing ) for hosting me before and during the race as well as the endless help my entire stay. Subaru Trek Factory Team for the spare race wheel that they gave me for the racing. Without them the race would have been impossible to do! Riley Kopesky and his family for hosting me the week after the race! They Really made my stay super comfy and stress free! Johann Wykerd for helping me out with a hub, even though I'm on the other side of the world!! I really appreciate the help from each and every single one of you!

Now I'm in Windham, NY. The course is really cool. Super tough, but fun!!! Will get some images up ASAP!

B