Our first race for the day was picking the 5 fastest mountain bikers and putting them against the 5 fastest BMX guys in an elimination race. The one crossing the start/finish line last would be taken off the track each lap till there was just one left. The mountain bikers were allowed to start in the front as they were not used to much time on the track but it was evident within one lap who was on home turf.

The BMX boys were quick to move to the front and with 4 laps remaining there was only 1 mountain biker left making sure that they “showed who’s boss”. Next up were the juniors in similiar style racing but shortened to 5 laps as the Stellenbosch heat was turned up.

The aim of the day was to incorporate a little bit of cross training as well and Ndiphe come up with the idea of a BMX duathlon. The seniors would run 3 laps, cycle 5 laps and finish with a 2 lap run at the end. Once again it would be a mix of the BMX and mountain bike kids battling it out for bragging rights the following week.

"Rasta"and "Shorty" leading it out from the front

Transition

"Rasta" was the champ for the day!

The three clubs taking part were Songo.info/Cycling4Kayamandi, Velokhaya and Mitchell’s Plain and there were about 60 riders taking part in the various age categoties as well as a couple of elite riders from the Stellenbosch are that came to join in the fun for the day.

Warming up and checking all the lines on the track

We were fortunate enough to have a two man start gate which gave the kids a bit of a feel as to what the top level riders racing is like. The kids throughout all the categories all had the chance to do a flying lap where there time was taken and were then paired up to race accordingly.

One of the Songo kids starting his timed lap

Even though the temperature guage was steadily going up and the wind and dust getting worse the racing continued at a fierce pace with all the kids trying not to get eliminated and go on to each following round. Add to this some friendly rivalry of doing your club proud and you could only imagine all the cheering and supporting from the sidelinesas as race after race took place!

At the end of a great days worth of racing there was a little exhibition from the local elite guys as well as the prize giving where Songo.info took some of the medals. The guys from the mountain bike club were out to support as well and I am happy to say that Sivuyile that crashed so badly at the Lourensford Classic has fully recovered and back in training!

Dear Songo Team,

It is always a great honour for me to report about the kids.

On Saturday we took part on the Lourensford mountain bike race.

It was a very beautiful day and the kids were very excited and ready for it.

We had 5 kids doing the 58 KM; 7 did the 32 KM and 2 girls doing 15 km.

The kids are improving everyday it always great to see them in action.

I was with the kids that did the 58 KM;  you should have seen them at the start and they were all very focused and ready for action.

They started very well and just after 5 km there were couple of hills and my kids were flying up as if there were something pushing them behind.

I was listening to other riders on the race saying wow what do they eat and some saying they look very neat.

It was Sivuyile Kephelele in the second leading pack and he was looking very strong and behind him it was Sipho going very strong as well.

Sivuyile manage to stay with that pack until the last 8 km where it was a very technical down hill.

He crashed on the last 2.5 km as he was going fast on the down hill he heats the hole and that was the end of his race.

He bent the front wheel and his eye go hit his is still in Somerset West hospital and the will send him to Tygerburg hospital to have a look on his eye.

I was with him until 19:30 and he is fine just the eye and his face got very swollen.

Sipho was just about 500 m behind him when he crashed and he says it was a very bad fall he had the noise when he went down.

Sipho stayed with him until he got helped and many thanks to Meurant the races organiser who was running around and making calls for Sivuyile to get a help that he needed.

Meurant still managed to call me at 18:30 on Saturday to find out how was the boy doing? Thank you very much Meurant your support means a lot.

The rest of the kids did very well and I am very proud of the 2 girls that did very well on their first race.

On the 32 km it was a very close call between my three boys Unathi;  Siyabulela and Mava the work together all the way and it was the sprint to the finish.

Many thanks Arina and Meurant Botha from Dirtopia and Amarider for sponsoring entries for my kids.

Many thanks to Arina Botha for all your great work; when we got to the registration the numbers for my kids were put aside with the names of the kids at the back of the number.

Thank you very much Arina I was very honoured by your great assistant.

Thank you very much to Sarah Horrop for the Epic footages my kids watch that all the time on a day before the race even the new kids now know who is Christoph and Burry.

Many thanks to JAG Foundation for providing the transport for the kids into all the events that they have been doing through out the year.

Many thanks to all of you for the role you play in the lives of the kids of Kayamandi.

There are so many people that are very supportive and even on the races the riders always speaking positive to my kids thank you all.

We took 10 of them and 9 did 5 laps in the junior 17-18 and Unathi in 15-16  some did not make it as they were writing test in School.

Sivuyile, Siyabule and Sipho had anther great in junior 17-18 and they were close to one anther for the first 2 laps on the 3 lap they dropped Siyabule.

They did very well as they were still recovering from the 60km that they did in Wellington Sivuyile finished in 6th place and Sipho in 7th place.

They are now looking forward to the next one that will be on the 05-09 and 12-09.

Many thanks to Meurant Botha (Dirtopia/ Ama Rirder) for the entries and Raino (Adventure Centre) for transporting the kids to the race.

Burry called this his "heart in my mouth" moment going down the infamous Rock Garden in Mount St. Anne

I had been told that the weather is never something to be too excited about in Canada and this unfortunately turned out to be the truth at both events. In mount St Anne it rained for nearly the full duration of the womens race turning the course into a really muddy and technical affair which called for further tyre changes as well.

Susi negotiating the Rock Garden

Susi chasing after his flat tyre

Burry had a great ride finishing on the overall podium again as well as winning the u/23 division and almost wrapping up his World cup title for the season.  Christoph was going well but unfortunately burped his tyre twice resulting in a wheel change and putting him inside the top 20.

The following weekend was to be spent about 3 and a half hours away in Bromont for the next round. Most of the team were constantly on their i-phones comparing weather data for the week ahead, the previous year had been an absolute mud bath and as it eventually turned out an hour before the mens race 2009 would be nothing but the same!

Warming up in Bromont

The day began in exciting fashion for the Specialized Factory Racing outfit as Lene Byberg, the female rider on the team took her maiden World Cup win, it had been a long time coming and was a cause for great celebration to finally see her on the top step of the podium.

Celebrating in Style....

As expected the mens racewas a messy affair with many riders not even recognisable at the finish line in their mud covered kit. Burry had a slow start but slowly worked his way up the field to finish in 7th place as well as winning the u/23 division again and moving int3rd position in the overall World Cup rankings. Christoph was having a strong ride until rear brake failure in the form of brake pads that were completely worn through put him into 13th place.

A wet start line...

Riding through some of the many river crossings that had formed in the race...

Hard day at the office!

The team are now all back home and go into their final preparation block for the World Champs in Canberra!

Thumbs up for my kids as they did very well on the Die Burger MTB Challenge on Saturday on the 30km and 15km.

They all started very well as they all watching one anther from the start.

They were so many people that were doing the 30km so they had 4 start chutes for the 30km and all the kids were in group C.

As I was working on the 15km and 30km route so I go a chance to see them on route in different points.

I was on the 5km mark when they started and in the leading group it was just black, red and white as they were wearing JAG (black), Specialized (red) and Songo (white).

When I got to the 10km mark on my boy it was Sivuyile, Siphenathi, Siyabulela, Unathi, Sipho, Luzuko Bongani and Ndiphe they all very focus and pushing.

On the 25km it was Sivuyile and Sipho fighting for the Jersey and they had 50m lead from their team mates Sivuyile manage to take it just as he took the coke last time from Dylan’s challenge and Sipho surprised by finishing second from his team.

On the 15km it great to have Odwa back on the ride after a long time and I also gave 3 of the older kids from the BMX a chance and they gave the mountain bike kids a ride for their money.

Masibule finished in 4th place overall and 1st from the team Odwa in 5th place and Yolanda in 8th place and 3rd from the team.

Masibulele, Yolanda and Elton are 14 and 15 years old kids from the BMX and their performance on Saturday has boosted up their confidence.

Their BMX skills gave them a big advantage on Saturday as the were sitting in the top 30 overall when they were at 9km mark from the 10km mark there was a down hill with jumps and that gave the BMX kids a chance to cash up all the people that were in front of them as they were flying dawn.

As I was watching them going down all I could do was just to praying for their protection as they were going very fast without fear at all I was the one who was fearing for them.

Thank you for all the support very soon we will have great riders from Kayamandi watch out Burry and Susi my boys are coming up very fast!!!

9laps, 1.43h race time
4th Place, 2.20min off winner Florian Vogel

I enjoyed a weekend in the mountain city of Chur, except for my race, which was not so fun. Coming down one of the last bumpy very steep downhill corners, I saw a new fast line that got formed from the downhill Swiss Champs the day before. It was a quick instinctive decision to go down there and it was the wrong one! I came off the track, got a little back on again, not clipped into my pedals and my wheel already hit the next drop… my heart was in my pants but did not let go, and I finally stopped in a barrier. I first thought my front wheel must be finished, but all was ok, so I was off again, still my heart was pumping in the pants.

From that point on I was riding in 5th the whole time. No chance for winning, no one from behind. It was pretty boring. Well I still caught Ralph Näf and during the last lap, motivation came back after I heard that I made up much ground for second place. I saw Flückiger and Gujan just around the corners but I could not make it.

Vogel showed awesome performance today and his win was never in doubt. I really need a start of a race again, where I am up front from the beginning, where I can ride with excitement. Only this can help me to ride over my limit and be really exhausted after the race.

The Swiss Champs have been awesome this year. It was organized by my friend Silvio Bundi & friends. The race site was right in a city where we finished at the same line as the downhillers. The big and great amount of spectators found a interesting and fully packed loops of action and we racers made up for the spectacle.

“after the sardine classic last weekend i took it quite easy this week, doing mostly cross-training and focusing  on my core.this usually means less time but more aching muscles then just riding my bike.

cherise and i traveled to johannesburg on friday so she could do filming for gilette world sport. i will also take the opportunity to do some good altitude training and race in the graskop hillclimb tour next weekend. i just have to make my specialized tarmac heavier so it meats the uci weight limit…

but for now its back to more training and fighting the traffic…”

ciao

burry