Skinny Wheel Action - State Championships 2012

The 2012 season has begun, and man did it kick off with a bang. The first race of the season was the 2012 Kwa-Zulu Natal State Road Championships. Although it was State Championships all the big names in South African cycling had decided to make an appearance, especially from the mountain biking front. With names like Burry Stander, Kevin Evans, Davids George, Rourke Croeser and James Reid, the racing was never going to be easy.

At 8:00 sharp we rolled out into the super slick conditions... 9 laps of a fast, wet, 15km loop lay ahead of us. It wasn't long until the first couple of attacks went off the front, but they were all very short lived and brought back before any real gaps formed. It wasn't until the fourth lap that a major break got away. Myles van Musschenbroek and Aston Davies managed to open a gap to around 2minutes on the main group, with Burry and the rest of the big names sitting safely in the bunch, biding their time. I began to get a little anxious as both of the riders sitting in the break were both in the u23 category, thus meaning they were my competition for the State Title.

After around a lap and a half the main bunch began to get organized, and within another lap, the gap had been closed. Lap 6 put me in a spot of bother... I missed a feed when going through the tech/feed zone and I soon felt myself on the verge of bonking. It couldn't have come at a worse time... The group had now upped the pace drastically and as we made our way up the grueling 15minute climb I found myself in a very, VERY dangerous position, AT THE BACK... THE VERY BACK, and I was holding on for dear life. The group had been absolutely shelled, and was now only around 15 strong as we approached the final 3 laps. I eventually got my much needed feed, and almost instantly felt 100% better. Then came the major move of the race. With 2 laps to go, Burry (Specialized Factory) and Kevin (360-Life) attacked and no one could follow. Kevin's team mates, Davids George and James Reid then attacked and managed to get a gap on what was left of the main group. I was left to try and chase down the move. Over the final lap I closed the gap to James and Dave very slightly, but they simply proved to be too strong in the end. So with 400m to go the group had now been shelled down to 4... I attacked as hard as possible over the top of the final climb and time trialled to 5th Overall (2nd KZN Resident) and 1st u23, narrowly edging out Rourke Croeser!

A big thanks to Brandon Stewart and Clint Olsen for the use of their awesome Easton EC90 Aero Wheels, To Craig Paul for keeping my bike in check and to the entire Cyclelab PMB Team for being my back up and support!!

B

my best friend, Adriaan, making sure I get my feed.

Giving Back

Hey guys,

A couple weeks ago I was asked to do a small presentation and talk at my primary school of seven awesome years, in New Hanover. Where I managed to catch up with my old teachers as well as give the kids a really brief talk about my affiliation with the school and speak to them about my journey of becoming a professional athlete. The main point of my talk was to encourage each and every one of the kids to pursue the dreams, to stove to be an individual and to never give up on something they believe in.

Then came the much anticipated Team Relay, where teams of 2 or more kids would tackle 5 laps of a 4km loop around the grounds of the school. It was really encouraging to see all the kids participating, and even more eye opening to see the young talent being produced in the area. In the end the small team of Beani Thies and Travis Stedman utterly destroyed everyone, but a fun day was had by all!

A huge thanks to the Head Master and staff of New Hanover Primary for having me. Another big shout out to all the kids who came out to help support and participate!

Thanks to Mrs. Stedman for the photos.

B

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