UCI World Cup in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
XCO - 20th in U23
Euphoria, Caffeine, Adrenaline Pumped 2L/second.
The seriousness hit me as Michael Crosbie warned me that some riders undo your back wheel in the start gate.
At the start line (25th position) with 43 other riders shoulder to shoulder pumped up on caffeine and carbs, music pumping 'Epic Battlefield music' for the 5 minutes that we were on the line then a big bassy heart beat for the last 30 seconds.
Silence..
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| U23 Start |
Whistle goes, music pumps, XX1 and XTR crunching into place as 43 men fight for positions. In the first 50 metres we were up to a great speed, the guy next to me face-plants out of nowhere as everyone drills into him running him over. I then got a sudden speed boost from a rider riding straight into the back of me, bending my hanger.
We hit the first single track, I shot up the side and onto my feet as I had gone straight down the side of a bank. As I'm running I looked up and I was behind our National Champion Cameron Ivory. I soon felt the damage of my bike as my gears slipped and jumped. First lap I stayed on pace but slowed down a bit on the second. Second last and last lap I came strong and picked off riders moving into 20th.
NOTHING on TV does it justice, I was amazed how much bigger the rocks and steeper the track is than when you see it on Redbull. So next time you watch a World Cup on TV realise that small blur of rocks are actually big pointy small child sized, wheel stoppers.
Other than the racing it was with out a doubt a very interesting trip starting with while I was watching 'Blood Diamond' to get in mood of 'Africa' with a woman behind me on my flight to Johannesburg who must've been dying or something because the flight attendants had to make an announcement to see if there were any doctors on board. On the same flight our team Mechanic/legend had to drag a fat woman down the isle because she passed out. Jenni King woke up to this, lol.
AFRICA
Even though the only animal we saw was a cat, we definitely got a South African experience, from getting scammed at the ATM's, the museum lady calling us a taxi that turned out to be her neighbour who didn't have seat belts...or even a taxi business, Mark Tupalski getting offered mushrooms and acid, and the people on the highway! Everyone from the poor to well-off walked along busy highways at all times of the day and night, some commuting, some begging (one man was in a wheel chair in the middle of the road, barely looking alive) and some selling sports sunglasses waiting for an impulse buyer who wants Chinese crap as they pull on to a highway at 70km/h. I even saw one man with a chair over his head just marching along as if it was actually normal.
Even though the only animal we saw was a cat, we definitely got a South African experience, from getting scammed at the ATM's, the museum lady calling us a taxi that turned out to be her neighbour who didn't have seat belts...or even a taxi business, Mark Tupalski getting offered mushrooms and acid, and the people on the highway! Everyone from the poor to well-off walked along busy highways at all times of the day and night, some commuting, some begging (one man was in a wheel chair in the middle of the road, barely looking alive) and some selling sports sunglasses waiting for an impulse buyer who wants Chinese crap as they pull on to a highway at 70km/h. I even saw one man with a chair over his head just marching along as if it was actually normal.
The scenery was very nice at times. It reminded me of 'Upper Brookfield on Steroids'. Upper Brookfield is where I go for my recovery rides, lush rain forest with wild vines.
The Pros and Hero's
Knowing that I was going to see the Pro's that fill Pinkbike, magazines and star in movies such as 'Seasons' who fuelled my motivation for the sport, started to sink in when I saw 2012 Downhill World Champ Danny Hart casually making a bowl of cereal at my accommodation, cornflakes if you were wondering...not sure on the choice of milk.
Knowing that I was going to see the Pro's that fill Pinkbike, magazines and star in movies such as 'Seasons' who fuelled my motivation for the sport, started to sink in when I saw 2012 Downhill World Champ Danny Hart casually making a bowl of cereal at my accommodation, cornflakes if you were wondering...not sure on the choice of milk.
Practice was great experience, a chance to be on track with riders like, Manuel Fumic, Hermeda, Emily Batty and Marko Fontanna who crashed into me and said sorry before he even hit the ground.
Fontanna wasn't the only one to have an off, due to the course being very technical with rock gardens, jumps and drops, there were plenty of hospital trips for everyone. Unfortunately my Team mate Jenni King also had to go to a hospital just out of town after an incident during practice. Her trip to the hospital by herself sounded like quite an experience, with a man with two stab wounds in the back lying in front of the door. There were also people coughing up blood in the waiting room. Thankfully Jenni got out alive.
The locals weren't all bad, most of them were lovely, bubbly (personally and physically!) people okay with having laugh, which was recommended when running into the TORQ Crew. We soon found out from Jenni that a lot of locals make up there own jobs like one man who stood in the middle of the road (as usual) collecting rubbish for tips. When we told him we were from Australia he chanted "Sic Mic!!". Mick Hannah started his season off with a Solid 2nd in the Elite men's field in the downhill for the first world cup here in South Africa.
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| Warm up route |
Day trip to Durban Beach
Probably the dodgiest place we went to, not like lion tearing your rental car apart dodgy (like Andy Blair, Mic Crosbie and Cam Ivory) but the drug dealers in high viz vests dodgy. As we were walking along the not-so-nice esplanade I broke a thong but thankfully there was a market stall every 5m for km selling exactly the same products as each other, thongs = $3. There was one man who had clearly thought thoroughly about his begging plan, " Hello gentleman, my name is Henry..something something, sorry to disturb you on this fine day, I fully respect that you are giving me the time to listen to my words, the reason I look like this today is my parents were both orphans....yada yada yada " sure he was polite, clear, and kinda honest but the flaw in his plan was that he did this walking directly behind me practically breathing on the back of my neck, and with us being a bit cautious due to what we had been through already, I slowly moved towards the back ready with my spare thong that I was carrying in case s**t went down.
Probably the dodgiest place we went to, not like lion tearing your rental car apart dodgy (like Andy Blair, Mic Crosbie and Cam Ivory) but the drug dealers in high viz vests dodgy. As we were walking along the not-so-nice esplanade I broke a thong but thankfully there was a market stall every 5m for km selling exactly the same products as each other, thongs = $3. There was one man who had clearly thought thoroughly about his begging plan, " Hello gentleman, my name is Henry..something something, sorry to disturb you on this fine day, I fully respect that you are giving me the time to listen to my words, the reason I look like this today is my parents were both orphans....yada yada yada " sure he was polite, clear, and kinda honest but the flaw in his plan was that he did this walking directly behind me practically breathing on the back of my neck, and with us being a bit cautious due to what we had been through already, I slowly moved towards the back ready with my spare thong that I was carrying in case s**t went down.
He was a sad wake up call for me to realise how lucky we all are to be who we are and where we are.
We checked out the Aquarium and had an awesome awkward moment with a foreign man who thought he was talking to his family as he was looking at the fish, little did he know they had all walked off and was surrounded by Ed, Mark and myself, classic! We then caught our last taxi back to the airport to get stooged one last time with a fare that was double the price, which again didn't have seat belt (so I improvised).
One taxi never turned up for our poor Ed, so instead the CEO of the company picked him up in her Mercedes Benz to take him to the race course!
So many stories!
So Mark Tupalski and I were riding along for recovery spin when he casually says " That house is on fire and the roof just caved in ". Confused by the way he said it, I turned around and sure enough there was smoke and flames shooting up. So we turned around and there was an old lady outside quite distressed while her 2 sausage dogs were getting rescued from the afternoon BBQ.
When we went to to the city of Pietermaritzburg, Ed got an interesting flyer from a man leaning on a pole. Let's just say he can cure everything.
I also had the chance to visit 2012 downhill World Champ, Greg Minnaar's bike shop, which had a pool, kitchen, commercial coffee machine, massage therapist and a maid!
More Stories
Yelled out to Julien Absolon (multiple World Cup, World Champs, Olympic winner) as he rode past while I was warming up. Moments like these are pretty crazy, being my 16th year of racing mountain bikes.
Saw Nino pass Absolon on the rock garden - Golden Moment. It was amazing to finally get the chance to watch an Elite Men's Race at the highest level. That moment summed it up.
Had a nice chat with Emily Batty who was really genuine and incredibly nice. Even though she was getting hassled endlessly by fans she doesn't drop her well-known kindness.
Unfortunately the Swiss Scott team, UCI Officials and the Pro Giant Team boarded their flight but then had to get off due to the 'plane not working' this caused all three groups to miss their flight to Switzerland where they were going to have 1 week at home before going to the next world cup in Cairns. Nino marched though the airport not looking happy. Then I heard South African Airlines misplaced 20 of their bikes.
Time to do it all again at the UCI World Cup in Cairns in 2 weeks.
BOOM blog done on my 5 hour flight ~ Perth to Brisbane
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Nice one benji !!
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