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

Quick update

Hey guys, I'm trying to keep up with the blogging with a post every two weeks or so... so here it is.

A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks, starting off with my first ever ultra endurance race, 12hours of Temecula. I made a last second decision to team up with my American brother, Casey Williams. With us sharing the 12 hours load, I thought it'd be an awesome idea to use the 6hours on the bike as a good base ride, little did I know I was going to be going flat out for at least 3 of those hours.

So about the race itself... the weather was perfect.... temporarily. It had rained all night, but the dry soil had soaked it up really well and had left the track in pristine riding condition. The first couple of laps were ridiculously fun, even though we were racing flat out I couldn't wipe the smile off my face at the end of every lap. My 3rd lap of the 11mile loop went onto be the fastest lap of the day, around 4 minutes faster than the next person. The fast paced laps were short lived, as I made my way out onto my 4th lap (the 8th lap for our team) the weather made a turn for the worse. The rain came down in buckets, leaving the course in an absolute shambles. It became an absolute mud bath, forcing many of the people to actually pull out. Casey and I continued to persevere through the snotty conditions until the race was prematurely called after the completion of my 5th lap (the teams 10th lap). We ended up taking the win overall and the win in the 2 man team category, being a lap ahead of the next 2 man team.

The following week Myself, Team mate Pua Mata and Ty made a trip across to the beautiful Catalina island for a photo shoot with Mountain Bike Action for the Catalina Gran Fondo event, which is going to be taking place next year. My mind was blown by the awesomeness of this place. Everyone drives golf carts, the water is crystal clear to the point that the water is turquoise. The streets are filled with fantastic coffee shops and restaurants and the riding is pretty sick!! Its definitely going to be an event to remember, with some of the most amazing views, fantastic riding, and come on.... who doesn't want to ride on the Catalina Island with your buddies and end off the day with a drink on the beach?? Get onto the US Cup website and mark this event on the calendar. A huge thanks to the team for taking me over to such a picturesque getaway spot!

The view from the beaches of Catalina

Last week I had a nice easy rest week, which presented the perfect opportunity for me to go back up to Big Bear and hang out with the Williams family for Thanksgiving. After hearing of thanksgiving for so many years back home in South Africa, it ended up being a serious eye opener. I always knew that a lot of food was eaten on thanksgiving, but seriously.... A TON of food is eaten on thanksgiving. I was out eaten by Casey's 50kg, 14 year old brother!! I tried my best to shovel in as much food as the rest of the family, but it only resulted in me passing out next to the toasty fire in a food coma, while being spread out like a star fish. It was a pretty awesome experience though, and I'm stoked to have spent it with a family that is so close to me! I owe a huge thanks to the entire family especially Kim and Casey. Kim is always willing to help me and always allows me to head up to Big Bear whenever I want to! She always looks out for me, keeps me healthy and always looks out for my best interests. Casey, who is basically my brother has been driving me around, he's taken me from Big Bear to Santa Monica, from LA to Ventura, to his Cyclocross races, a massive thanks to him for carting me around. Thanks a million broseph!

Sunset in Santa Monica

This past weekend, Casey and I got to do a mega ride up in Ventura with up and coming super star Kendall Ryan, former World Road TT champion, Olympic Silver medalist, and 6 time National Champion, Mari Holden, as well as former professional base ball player Barry Bonds. Needless to say, the ride was awesome, Barry had us in fits of laughter the entire time! Casey then went onto race the Cyclocross State championships, and got 2nd in both the Junior men and the u23 men... after 5h10min on the bike the previous day!

There's only two weeks left for me here in the States until I go home for a month and a half. I can't believe that the past 3 months have flown by so quickly. A lot has happened, a lot has changed, BRING ON 2012!!

Until next time

B

Day2Remember: Mike Nosco Memorial Ride

Two days ago I was very humbled and honored to have been able to take part in an extremely moving event. The 3rd annual Mike Nosco Memorial Ride took place in Ventura, just north of LA.

Mike Nosco was in the Navy for 20 years, he was part of a very elite unit called the HCS-5 (Helicopter Combat Support). He also worked at a Biotech company called Amgen for 10 years. Unfortunately Mike was tragically killed in a car crash on November 3, 2004. His brother, Jack, started the Mike Nosco memorial ride 3 years ago, and the event has grown massively in that short time. The ride has attracted many of the USA's best professional cyclists, with names such as Lance Armstrong, Chris Horner, Dave Zabriskie, Neil Shirley and Andy Hampsten. This year was no different, Lance Armstrong made an attendance to the VIP dinner, Dave Z and Neil Shirley as well as Ned Overend (mountain bike legend) all came out to ride the brutal 80mile route on Thursday.

So the route that we were going to be meandering on was pretty insane, probably the most hilly route Ive ever seen, with a total ascent of around 3500m-4000m!! The fact that there were a couple former World and National Champions as well as current super stars like DZ, and past super stars like Neil Shirley, I knew this wouldn't be any walk in the park. The pace was fairly mellow for the first 20 miles of the ride until we hit the first and most brutal f all the climbs, Deer Creek. I launch one of the first attacks at the bottom of the grueling climb, but was pretty soon outdone by Neil Shirley. He came blazing past me, and brought along Ned Overend and another recently retired professional road racer. I managed to ride myself back onto Neil's wheel, and so began a long, intense day in the saddle. The lead group got smaller and smaller as the miles ticked away.

Every mountain pass we went up was brutal, but we were rewarded with the most amazing decents, some being 15-20km long at times! As we began to make our way up the last major climb, Latigo Canyon,, which was at the 100km mark, all seemed to have come back down to a humanly pace.... that was short lived. About 5kms up the climb Neil laid down the law once again. I felt good and went with, along with Ned Overend, Thurlow Rodgers (former world road race champion) and one or two others. But the heat, and distance we had covered, as well as the intensity at which we'd be riding began to take its toll on me as we approached the final 1,5miles of the climb. I hung onto the wheels for dear life, pushing myself deep into the hurt box, but I managed to hold on over the top before stopping at a feed station. Then came a super gnarly descent, probably my favorite of the entire ride, long swooping corner, fast twisty chicanes, tight switch backs, banked corners... it was insane. I had a couple hairy situations where the rear wheel completely locked up, but fortunately I managed to keep things rubber side down!

After the tricky mountain pass, came a long section of rolling climbs and descents. The front group had regrouped and was now 12strong as we began to hit the cross winds. The pace got upped drastically as we edged closer and closer to the end of the ride, with a couple riders trying their luck at getting off the front. One thing was for sure though, the group was getting blown apart by the crazy accelerations. By the time we rolled back into the car park where the ride had started, the group had been strung out into 7 or 8 riders, I was just glad to be one of those 7 or 8. Man, that was a tough day, the pace was relentless up front, but what was truly amazing was the fact that 500odd cyclists took the time out from their week to come down and support an amazing cause as well as remember the life of Mike Nosco. This year the ride was also in memory for Ronette Espinoza, who tragically lost her battle with cancer.

If anyone would like to make a donation to this amazing cause just follow the link here http://www.mikenosco.com/sponsors/

A huge thanks to Team Sho-Air/Specialized for an amazing couple days and for taking both the Sprinter and RV to the event, and a major shout out to Ben Bostrom and Nikki for hosting myself, Johnny and Ty while we were there. They have an amazing house overlooking Malibu, its simply mind blowing. THANKS GUYS!

Images courtesy of Veloimage

The amazing view from the Bostroms. Excuse the bar across the screen, I was too mesmerised by the sunset to even move.

Good times up in Big Bear

Hey guys

First off, I apologise for not having updated my blog sooner. I got a little side tracked but all is on track now.

So for the past couple of weeks I've been up in Big Bear with good friends Casey and Cameron Williams, along with their awesome family. Its been an absolute blast from the second I walked into the house, the Williams family are always super welcoming and loving, which really helps me to feel at home.

Ok, so around 2 weeks or so ago, I made the trip up from LA with Cameron and his mom, Kim, after he had competed in a Cyclo Cross race very close to where I live. I managed to make it up to the small town nestled in the mountains just in time to spend the final couple of days of 'Fall break' with Casey and Cameron before they had to head back to school the following week. We clocked some pretty big hours for that week, with Casey showing me around all his Base Training areas. Basically theres only 3 roads that lead out of Big Bear, but, those 3 roads are probably have some of the most mind glowingly awesome road riding I have ever done. For 2 weeks I've been riding those roads, alternating different routes, sometimes combining two of them to get in a massive ride. However, one of those rides stood out from the rest. Last week I had a super long ride, and decided to combining the two most scenic routes in order to get the right amount of time in with out getting super bored from looking at the same thing the entire ride. So I took off into the day, and after a couple hours, I found myself climbing into the clouds. After nearly 2 full hours of climbing I finally popped out the top of the white fluffy cotton to an amazing image. The road i was one could be seen in the distance, which meant I still had more climbing, but what really struck me was the white ocean that lay beneath me in the valleys. Without seeming too cliche, the only words I can actually use are, breath taking, literally.... The clouds moved like waves, pulsating through the valleys and crashing into the cliff faces. I can tell you how the cold wind was nipping at my skin, or how the clouds engulfed me us I made my way up to the summit of the pass, but the truth is, to actually have experienced something so amazingly beautiful, was simply surreal. People driving in cars were stopping to take pictures, little kids pointed out the windows in search of some mystical creature. Man o' man was it SIIIICK!!!

So now that I've shared the highlight of all the awesome times I've had here in Big Bear, I think I should let you all know that I went to the High School here in Big Bear for a week, which was surprisingly cool. It was really weird at first, with everyone looking at me like a new kid, but it then turned into people saying, "dude, its that kid from Africa." I met a bunch of really cool kids at the school and made some awesome new friends. Pretty much for the last 5 or 6 days I've been coming to school, then hit a ride and then when it gets cold enough, around 8or 9 at night, we make snow in Casey's back yard. Also, in my time away from LA I haven't been in Big Bear the entire time. This past weekend Casey, Cameron and I made a trip down to San Diego for a CX (Cyclo Cross) race. I didn't compete but watched from the stationary trainer, and then headed out on the roads with the boys once their race was over.

The weather is starting to get a little colder now in Big Bear which presented the perfect opportunity to test out the new gear sponsor's, Jakroo, wind/winter jacket. I can honestly say that its super toasty. In the cold 10*C winds I was working up a sweat. Super impressed with both the quality and performance of the garment!

Unfortunately all good things do come to an end, and I will be heading back down the hill tomorrow morning. On Thursday is the Mike Nosco memorial ride, which I've heard is BRUTAL!!! Super amped to see what its all about, and to meet up with Scott, Ty, Johnny and the rest of the team in Ventura. A huge thanks needs to go out to the Williams family for hosting me and being like a family to me. I love you guys and appreciate everything you guys do for me!!!

Until next time

B

The road leading up above the clouds

Managed to snap this shot with my iPhone last week