Full Sus March 2014 by Full Sus #MTB

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March 2014, Vol 12

MOUNTAIN BIKE MONTHLY LI V E

N EW

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Pysch’ of MTB Partnerships pg8

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BEHIND THE SCENES AT

hen the riders line up at Meerendal Wine Estate on Sunday the 23rd of March they’ll have put in the hard kays in training, raced build-up events which most people would have to train specifically for and climbed a seemingly impossible number of meters. Preparation is key you see, we all know it. But as FedGroup-Itec team rider, and Epic team manager, Bridgette Stewart says, there is so much that can go wrong and with the intensity and the emotion of the Epic, something usually does. Like in the 2013 Epic when Neil McDonald and Brandon Stewart got separated in the dust cloud driven up by the ferociously turning wheels of the lead bunch at the start of a stage. Brandon was riding amongst the first five riders, in search of clear air, while Neil was misinformed that Brandon had experienced mechanical

difficulties and ended up turning around to look for him. It doesn’t have to be as dramatic as getting separated and being handed a time penalty to crack the team spirit. A simple mechanical failure at an inopportune moment can cost a team the race. And when a tremendous amount of time and money has been invested in getting to the Epic in the best possible form with the aim of securing a big result, failings that might be laughed off at the Sani2c become bitter divides within the team. That’s where the back-up staff becomes so important. Kandice Buys has been in the game for twelve years and her key to keeping RE:CM’s Epic bids trouble free, is meticulous preparation. Having years of experience to draw upon clearly helps and having a team where everyone knows their roles leads to a situation where, baring

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Physio Column

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Stage Race Support Crews

PHOTO SUPPLIED

THE EPIC

There’s no getting around it, March is Epic month. If you’re not riding you’ll be watching. It’s watched all over the world on television and thousands of column inches are dedicated to how tough it is on the riders. But what about the support crews? What goes on behind the scene to ensure the guys and girls on the bikes cross the finish line at Lourensford? Full Sus spoke to RE:CM’s Kandice Buys and FedGroup-Itec’s Bridgette Stewart to find out what it really takes to finish an Epic.

XCO Response

RE:CM riders, Nico Bell, Lourens Luus, Erik Kleinhans, Ariane Kleinhans and Cherise Stander all beneﬁt tremendously from Kandice Buys’ tireless work behind the scenes.

the unexpected, things run like clockwork. I watched her in action at the Tankwa Trek in February and she comes across as unﬂappable, organised and a calming inﬂuence on the riders – even when they’re all worked up.

A typical day at the Epic for the RE:CM team: The riders are up two hours before the start to eat breakfast, meaning that they’ll be up before ﬁve am most mornings. The mechanics run a ﬁnal check on the bikes. The bikes are given a full service after every stage, but in the morning before the start, they run another once over to ensure everything is tightened down, lubed

up and running smoothly. After breakfast the riders get their race food and bottles ready with the help of support crew. Ariane Kleinhans likes to go for a decent warm-up ride before the start and this did cause the support crew a bit of stress initially, but over the years they’ve got used to Ariane’s routine and have now factored her longer warm-up into their morning schedule. Twenty minutes before the race start the whole team heads down to the start chute after doing a last check to ensure they’ve got their gels and CO2 bombs for the day. If everyone has stuck to their systems, then the riders should have everything they need for the stage.

“HER KEY TO KEEPING RE:CM’S EPIC BIDS TROUBLE FREE, IS METICULOUS PREPARATION.” turn to page 4

FS Editorial

What an Epic month!

issues ago we started Full Sus. A little newspaper that had (has) big aspirations and was given very little chance at survival, but like the blokes that sleep in tents and are doing the Epic, we have gutsed it out. Realistically we are probably only on day two of the world’s most gruelling MTB stage race, but hey we like a challenge! Seamus and the crew have once again put together a really exciting issue with our lead feature looking behind the scenes at two of the fancied teams in this year’s Epic. We are excited to have two of SA’s top riders writing for Full Sus – Erik Kleinhans gives us his review on the recent Ride the Rock, in Afrikaans, in the ﬁrst of his monthly columns, and Renay Goustra responds to XCO piece in last month’s issue. Thanks guys! I’m sure our Afrikaans readers in particular, will love Erik’s monthly column. March is a busy month in mountain biking, and cycling in general… it would be amiss of me to not mention the Argus. We all know

the race and it’s certainly the one time that even the most hardcore MTBer is quite happy to put slicks on the bike and line up with the hordes. Either to race or just to chill and enjoy the vibe while meandering around the Peninsula. I hope to be watching both sides of the ride from Noordhoek Peak – any takers? Check out our Must do Events on the Calendar page, there really is something cool for everyone this month, with great events right around the country. Of course the one we all will be watching is the Absa Cape Epic – the Tour de France of mountain biking and

the one ride that all the pros want to win. The Bulls team is certainly looking like they mean business but then so do Christoph Sauser and his new partner, František Raboň, for Songo Specialized. The local hopes will sit ﬁrmly on the shoulders of Erik Kleinhans and Nico Bell riding in Specialized colours, deputising for Sauser and Raboaň, well as Team Cannondale Blend’s riders Darren Lill and Charles Key. But the race I would like to hear more about and see more credit given to, is the race amongst the tent dwellers. To me this is the real race, and we’ll publish the results of the ﬁrst three teams in all the categories that slept in tents in the next issue! Our website is looking great, go and check it out, besides our content now available online

you can also check out our MTB Calendar and also add your second hand gear to our Classiﬁeds. We have also launched our awesome Full Sus cycling gear – check out page 27. We chose to go with Craft because of their quality and stylish looking gear. Get your orders in fast! See you on the trails

SUS the winner In February we gave away ﬁve ICEdot Bands to help keep you safe on the trials. Congratulations to John Hoskin (P.E.), Erlank Folkers Nel (East London), Frank Oosterhof (Bloemfontein), Edward Cockerill (Brackenfell) and Adiel Mohamed (Ottery), your ICEdot Band is on its way to you. This month we’re giving away two pairs to adidas evil eye half rim sunglasses. Turn to page 29 to ﬁnd out how you can win!

SUS the Local Bike Shop Cornerstone Cycles – Paarl Paarl’s Cornerstone Cycles have been the beating heart of the Boland cycling scene for 18 years and they’re the first shop in the Full Sus, Sus the Local Bike Shop feature. You can find them at 225 Main Road, Paarl and along with a great service centre you’ll be able to purchase Specialized, Giant and Merida bikes from them as well as Assos and First Ascent gear and Shimano and Sram components. They’re also one of the few Bulls Bikes dealers in South Africa, so if you’d like to ride one of their great new full suspension bikes, as ridden by Epic favourites Urs Hurber and Karl Platt, then Cornerstone Cycles is a must visit. Give them a call on 021 870 1465, find them on Facebook at Cornerstone Cycles or pop in to the store on 225 Main Road, Paarl.

l To get your store featured al s here all you have to do is g p n o ensure that your clients get lli Sh a C ke a copy of Full Sus and enter the Bi monthly competition. The question

is easy and stays the same: “Where did you grab your copy of Full Sus?” The client stands a chance to win great prizes, like the adidas evil eye half rims featured in the March Competition on page 29, and you get free advertising. Make sure every customer that leaves your shop is carrying a copy of Full Sus to boost your chances of being featured.

Extra Prize for the Local Bike Shop To show our thanks to Cornerstone Cycles for promoting Full Sus in their store, we’ve organised them another prize, and we’ll do the same for your shop next month – if you get more of your customers to enter the Full Sus competition than any other bike shop. Joanna Dobinson of Biking in the Bosch has kindly given a group skills training session to Cornerstone Cycles to reward a group of four worthy customers with. The prize entails a three hour beginner or intermediate group skills coaching session for four people provided under the expert tutelage of Biking in the Bosch’s Joanna Dobinson. If you’d like to book an individual or group skills training session with Biking in the Bosch you can do so by calling Joanna on 074 169 4376 or ﬁnd out more on the Biking in the Bosch Facebook page.

SUS The team

Publishing Editor: Shayne Dowling shayne@integratedmedia.co.za Content Editor: Seamus Allardice seamus@integratedmedia.co.za Art Director: Megan Knox megan@integratedmedia.co.za Advertising: Shayne Dowling PR & Promotions: Julia Andrade julia@integratedmedia.co.za Regulars: Meurant Botha, Stirling Kotze Snr & Jnr, Jacques Marais, Dr Mike Posthumus,

Rochez O’Grady, James Thornhill-Fisher, Sarah Walker and Jeanne-Louise Wiese. Rogue Contributor: David Bristow Photography: Julia Andrade, Oakpics.com, Cherie Vale Newsport Media and thinkstock.com. Contributors: Kate Slegrova, Erik Kleinhans, Renay Groustra and Clinton Gahwiler. Printing: Paarl Coldset (Pty) Ltd Published by: Integrated Media Disclaimer: The views expressed by the contributors and columnists do not necessarily represent the views of Full Sus or Integrated Media.

Head Office | Cape Town Tel: 021 685 0285 Address: Suite WB03 Tannery Park 23 Belmont Road, Rondebosch, 7700 Postal Address: PO Box 259, Rondebosch 7701

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COMPETITION TERMS & CONDITIONS: Competition submissions should reach us no later than 20 February 2014. The Prize/s is as indicated, no alternatives or cash will be provided. The decision of Integrated Media will be ﬁnal and no correspondence will be entered into. Under no circumstances shall Integrated Media or its appointed representatives and the prize donors be liable to anyone who enters these Prize Draws for an indirect or consequential loss howsoever arising which may be suffered in relation to the Prize Draws. By entering these competitions you make yourself subject to receiving promotional information. Entrants are deemed to have accepted these terms and conditions. Prize Draw Rules: The prize draw is only open to residents in South Africa. Employees of Integrated Media and their respective advertising, media and PR agencies, as well as the family members, consultants, directors, associates and trading partners of such organisations and persons are ineligible for the draw. Prize style and colour may vary.

Remember at the Epic riders aren’t allowed outside assistance, even in the tech-zones so the team spares boxes, which the race organisers ferry about, also need to be meticulously packed and restocked every evening. If the race is moving race villages, once the riders are off the team has to pack up and move on pretty quickly to have everything set-up again in time for the riders’ return. But if they’re staying put, the support crew has a few options. Some prefer to chill, or go for a ride themselves like the Bulls back-up crew like to do, others go to the tech-

Brigdette Stewart is a pro mountain biker, team manager, wife and mother of two mountain biking grommets. She’s an ex-downhill nutter (she’s Greg Minnaar’s sister after all) and current cross country marathon suﬀerer. She describes herself as “permanently full throttle princess of note!” Follow her @BridgStewart.

Kandice Buys is a multi-discipline team manager, plying her skills for Lange-Sports on the road for Bonitas Pro Cycling and oﬀ it for RE:CM. Her work has taken her to 24 countries and she’s super-eﬃcient, once uploading a ride report in under twelve minutes. Follow her @KandiceBuys.

zones or supporters points. Kandice likes to watch from spectator points on the Epic and she’s always updating @Team_RECM’s twitter feed with race updates, so follow them if you want to know what’s happening live. At two pm every afternoon there’s a team manager’s meeting with the Epic organisers. Fifteen minutes before the riders are expected at the finish the support crew is in place and waiting. In big teams this could mean that they have to leave the final spectator or tech-zone before the last team member has passed through. As soon as the riders come in, the mechanics take the bikes off to be serviced while the riders get to the task of rehydrating and feeding. The bonus for the team manager is a pair placing in the top three of a category at the end of a stage, which means the riders are whisked off to the interviews and looked after by the race organisers. But the Epic is really good at looking after all the riders, so even if the riders don’t podium the support crew’s job is easier than it would be at most other races. For the riders at the end of the stage the to do list is: shower, massage, lunch, sleep/chill, supper at half past six. The RE:CM team like to share a bottle of wine over supper, to help everyone relax completely. They also eat supper with the masses, unlike many of the other top teams. After supper the riders stay for prize giving and chat to the other riders for a bit before turning in. The support crew meanwhile wind down after supper, if the bikes weren’t in too much of a mess after the stage. When it’s written down like that it seems rather simple. But, when you see Kandice in action you realise just how hard team managers have to work. Bridgette Stewart often jokes that she’d find riding the Epic easier than providing backup to the FedGroup-Itec riders. That’s probably because she goes above and beyond for the Epic. In fact at the 2013 Epic, while watching her pack the next day’s essentials into, husband, Brandon Stewart’s jersey pockets, Kevin Evans remarked that he couldn’t wait for that treatment too. And now that Kevin’s over his appendix issues, he’ll be getting just that when he lines up with Brandon on the 2014 start line. Bridgette says that the difference between their team and most of the others is the fact that they’re a really tightknit group of friends. She sees her role not only as organiser and facilitator but also as sounding board for tactics and a shoulder to cry on when things get really tough. As a professional cyclist herself, she knows what the guys are going through on the bike and as a result when she fulfils the role of support chief she does everything she can to make the rider’s lives easier. Virtually

“THE FIVE STAR TREATMENT THEY GET WOULD PUT MOST TOP HOTELS TO SHAME.”

The 2014 FedGroup line-up: Neil McDonald, Bridgette Stewart, Kevin Evans and Brandon Stewart with their Trek Superﬂy FS race machines. Below: The impressive Chill Box.

SEAMNUS ALLARDICE

from page 1

ALL PHOTOS SUPPLIED

FS Stage Race Support Crews

Kandice and Morne van Rensburg seeing to Ariane and Cherise’s hydration needs on the Tankwa Trek.

the only thing the FedGroup guys will have to do at the 2014 Epic is pedal. In fact the ﬁve star treatment they get would put most top hotels to shame. The party piece for the FedGroup team is undoubtedly the Crusader Logistics Pantechnicon, known as the “Chill Box”. It’s a massive fully equipped ten sleeper camper van, which makes the hassle of packing up between race villages a minor inconvenience rather than the epic logistical exercise which needs to be executed with military precision. The Chill Box doesn’t just make moving camps easier; with the fully equipped kitchen it helps the support crew prepare all the team meals in a hygienic environment. Stage races are notorious breeding grounds for bugs and as Darren Lill found out last year, they can all but end a rider’s hopes of a good ﬁnish. To help prevent the FedGroup riders picking up a nasty stomach bug, the guys won’t be eating in the race village and all their meals will be prepared in the Chill Box.

Speaking of getting sick, Kandice’s ﬁnal words on the Epic were on the aftermath. After the highs of the race with the constant adrenaline and frantic atmosphere it’s almost inevitable that everyone comes down with a bit of a cold after the big race wraps up. It takes a few days to readjust to the pace of everyday life after the manic all action week, a minor collapse of the immune system and a layoff enforced by a doctor is just the tonic for the hard working behind the scenes guys and gals.

Hump Day: Day three is by all accounts the hardest day for the support crews. The stress and lack of sleep have begun to catch up but the daily rhythm hasn’t overridden the body’s basic physiological warning signs yet. 2014’s day three coincides with the move of race village from Arabella Wines in Robertson to The Oaks Estate in Greyton so it’ll be a testing day for the support crews.

news

News

Specialized Concept Stores

in Cedar Square. The Cyclery store is the first Specialized concept store in Fourways and the grand opening was held on a gob-smacking gorgeous Jo’burg evening. Here’s what Sharlene had to say about the event: “I could wax lyrical about the weather, but I suppose I should talk about the upmarket shopping emporium that is Specialized. Let’s not pretend - the store is dazzling. With all the mod cons and interior design a premium brand store could have. I wafted my way through the well-stocked ladies section, browsed past the helmet section and landed at the bikes. Hmm... yes, those bikes. Slinky supermodel bikes, hunky six pack bikes, Harley Davidson look alike bikes and children’s rockawesome brand machines. In a moment of dazed delight I dreamt of waking in the morning and instead of putting on Gucci and Prado, slipping into something a little more stealthy and a little more super hero. Visit this store, it’s impressive, but take your wallet, your credit card, your house bond number and a rich friend if you have one.”

Cedar Square Here’s a full list of the Specialized Elite and Concept Stores in Mzanzi: Specialized Concept Stores: Concept Cyclery Ballito 031 762 1416 Concept Cyclery Cedar Square 0861 796 757 Concept Cyclery Melrose Arch 0861 796 757 Helderberg Cycle World 021 850 0082 Lynnwood Cyclery Pretoria 012 348 3132 ALL PHOTOS BY CHERIE VALE/NEWSPORT MEDIA

e all love bike shops, there’s something about that fresh tyre smell and glossy new bikes that lures you in. And Specialized do know how to ensure their dealers have all the bells and whistles to make any cyclist go weak at the knees. In January they re-launched three stores, the Elite Specialized store: Complete Cyclist Bryanston and two concept stores: West Rand Cycles and Concept Cyclery Cedar Square. The shops will all tap into the expertise of Specialized’s forty years in the retail industry, with the support of the global retail team, and all the bike shop staff have been trained by the Specialized Bicycle Component University professors so you can be sure they know their stuff. It’s not just about the sales though, the stores will also be offering all of Specialized’s aftersales services like the Body Geometry Bike Fitments and excellent bike services. Full Sus got Sharlene Vallance to go along to the opening of the Specialized Concept Cyclery Store

WestRand

West Rand Cycles Krugersdorp 011 955 4342 Specialized Elite Stores: Complete Cyclist Bryanston 086 111 6230 Cyclotec Bloemfontein 051 433 4968 Coimbra Cycle House George 044 873 0606 Cycles Direct Blouberg 021 554 2128

WestRand

s continued w e n

Rainbow Challenge

Cycling SA has finalised the details of the Rainbow Challenge that’ll allow veteran and masters age group marathon mountain bikers to compete at a similar level to their XCO and DHI counterparts. By entering the Rainbow Challenge you’ll get the chance to race for the coveted Rainbow Challenge jersey, which has long been a sign of excellence for road racing age groupers. The inaugural South African Rainbow Challenge final takes place at the Cascades MTB Park in Pietermaritzburg on the 28th of June 2014, the day before the UCI MTB Marathon World Championships. The qualifying races are the Cape Argus Pick n Pay MTB Challenge (2 March 2014, Western Cape), Sappi Mankele MTB Challenge (22 March 2014, Mpumalanga), Cradle Mountain Trophy (12-13 April 2014, Gauteng) and the Sappi Karkloof Classic (11 May 2014, KZN). You only need to enter the long ride in any of the four events or have taken part in the UCI Master’s Wold Champs in 2013 to qualify for the grand final, so it’s super simple.

To ﬁnd out more go to www.rainbowseries.co.za.

CHERIE VALE/NEWSPORT MEDIA

FS News

Wines2Whales SUS The Race Entries By early February the waiting list for the Houw Hoek Tour had topped 150 riders, so if you’re keen to take part in a particularly cool ride later in 2014 you’d better be sharp. Here’s the Full Sus list of Must Do Rides that ﬁll up fast…

Wines2Whales Don’t let the fact that there are three options (Ride, Race and Adventure) lull you into a false sense of security. If you want to ride the unique trails of the W2W you’d better be quick, entries sell out fast and before you know it you’ll be trawling The Hub for an entry and paying a premium. Entries are open already and are limited to 600 teams per event. Go to www.wines2whales.co.za to enter.

Origin of Trails 2013 saw the launch of the Origin of Trails and we’re predicting that 2014 will see the route improve (how can it not with the frantic rate of trail expansion around Stellenbosch) and with Stillwater’s usual amazing standards you can be sure riders will be queuing up for a spot on the start line. Don’t miss out go to www.stillwatersports.com to sing up for the newsletter letting you know when entries open.

visit spots. It’s a challenging 213km ride alright, but it’ll be more than worth it. To join the Full Sus team there go to www.expeditionblackberg.co.za.

Greyton MTB Tour If you read Jeanne-Louis’s Conservation Column last month you’ll have a hankering to ride the Greyton Tour already, so here’s a warning for those of you who missed it. Entries open on the 3rd of June, diarise it. Oh, and maybe you should book accommodation in Greyton so long too. Keep an eye on www.mtb-adventures.co.za for the latest news on the Greyton MTB Tour.

Expedition Blackberg

Races to put your name on the 2015 waiting list for:

Here’s a new event with a GPS navigation twist and a route that crosses private land closed to riders for 364 days of the year. It even features a crossing of the Gamkapoort Dam, which you probably didn’t even know existed let alone knew you’d soon be adding it to your must

Tankwa Trek, Dusi2c, joBerg2c, Sani2c and if you’d like to ride the Imana Wild Ride in 2017 (no jokes) sign up now.

CHERIE VALE/NEWSPORT MEDIA

Amphi Bike Park Opens Speaking of Wines2Whales if you’ve ridden Wines you’ll be familiar with the trails and bridges of the Paul Cluver Wine Estate and you’ll be pleased to hear that the trails are now open to the public. From the 15th of February the trails will be open from 7am until 7pm for the nominal fee of R30 per day (for PPA members and R50 per day for non PPA members). The trails feature the much photographed eco-bridges and the infamous Pofadder and Witklippieskloof sections. All the trails start and ﬁnish at the Paul Cluver Amphitheatre and offer a 7km loop jam packed with 17 bridges and most of the highlights of the Amphi Bike Park, a 1km technical play park, a 30km red loop and a 35km black loop with the option of a 7km extension into the Thandi Trails. The trails will be open from the 15th of February to the 31st of May, and then closed for the winter until the 1st of September. There’s a year pass available for R300 for PPA Members and R500 for non PPA Members too.

Koning

Ride Report Riverslag

VAN DIE CEDERGBERG

Selfs na drie dae van resies jaag en kampterreinpret, moet die ry na die Cederberg vir die Isuzu Ride the Rock nog steeds beskou word as Erik Kleinhans se persoonlike hoogtepunt van die naweek.

aam met my in ons RE:CM-bus was Specialized se videobemanning, JB en Etienne, ’n Switserse klimmer, Konny Looser ’n nuwe spanryer van Specialized en Tsjeggiese fietsrylegende, Frantisek Rabon. In teenstelling met die ander, was dit Franti se eerste toer diep in die Afrika-wildernis in, en die Cederberg is so afgesonder soos jy kan kry. “Geen selfoon-ontvangs?” Dit was die eerste moeilike ding waaraan Franti moes gewoond raak en terwyl hy vinnig-vinnig sy laaste boodskappe vir sy vrou en jong dogtertjie stuur, begin ons die 40 kilometer lange grondpad diep in die hart van die berge in. Ek is nog nie seker of dit ‘n bietjie vrees in sy oë of ‘n vonkel van opgewondenheid was nie, maar ek dink hy was baie gelukkig om op vaste grond te staan by ons bestemming in Sandrif! Die Isuzu Ride the Rock is in sy derde bestaansjaar en volgens my beslis een van die mees klipperige, sanderige en uitdagende skofwedrenne op die SuidAfrikaanse bergfietskalender. Maar roetebeplanner, Hendrico Burger maak seker van ’n goeie balans sodat die ryers steeds ’n luilekker middag met Cederberg-wyn in die hand kan ervaar terwyl die topryers nog ’n draai gaan ry vir Cape Epicvoorbereiding. Hoekom kom ons hier resies jaag? Vir iets anders natuurlik! Die wedren het ‘n paar ernstig uitdagende afdraandes, miljoene klippe wat jou volle konsentrasie te alle tye verg, so af en toe ’n sanderige kol en die mees ongelooflike sonsondergange en rotsformasies. Die kampterrein by Sandrif is idillies, met groot bome wat die

ALL PHOTOS CHERIE VALE/NEWSPORT MEDIA

Bo: Die pragtige Sanddrift kampplek. Onder: Lekker rustig op die Ride the Rock wegspring streep.

Cape Town

Erik op sy pad na ‘n oorwinning in die 2014 Ride the Rock.

tente teen die warm son beskerm, ’n koel rivier perfek vir die herstel van moeë bene en natuurlik ook die ongelooﬂike berge wat jou omring. Elk van die drie skofte het sy eie unieke uitdaging wat die resies baie interessant maak. Op dag een is dit die maak-of-breek skof wat normaalweg ook die algehele wenner bepaal met ’n redelike harde 80 kilometer tot by Wuppertal en terug. Die afdraand na Wuppertal is heel moontlik die mees klipperigste 4 kilometer wat jy in enige wedren in Suid-Afrika sal ervaar. Die uitdaging vir die dag is om daar af te kom sonder om te stap, ’n pap wiel te kry of te val..Maar natuurlik het elke afdraande ook ’n opdraande! En die steil klim uit die vallei uit kry die bene darem ook bietjie aan die brand. Op dag twee is enkelspoor

A F R I CA Northern Cape

◆

Sanddrift

waar is ons?

Western Cape N2

Sanddrift is in die hart van die Cederberg Bewarea, buite Citrusdal in die noordelike streke van die Wes-Kaap.

koning! Die watervalpaadjie wat vroeg in die skof sy verskyning maak is die grootste trekpleister wat die adrenalien sommer vinnig opjaag! Dit eindig wel nie daar nie en die skof het nog vele ander enkelspoorpaadjies versprei regoor die 60 kilometer. Die Isuzu Koning van die berge by Matjiesfontein laat jou sweet op dag drie, maar elke ryer word hartlik beloon met die beste enkelspoor van die naweek wat jou ’n goeie 10 minute besig hou om weer van die berg af te kom. Die 50 kilometer gaan redelik vinnig verby voor almal vir oulaas stories en middagete saam geniet. Wedrenne in die Cederberge het ’n lang geskiedenis. Ek het my eerste bergﬁets-skofresies ooit hier in 2007 gewen, so om weer algeheel te wen voel verseker goed! Wel gedaan aan Adriaan Louw en Dan Hugo met tweede en derde plekke algeheel, asook Konny Looser en Frantisek Rabon met hul skofseges. In die vroueresies het Hanlie Booyens algeheel gewen met Vera Adrian en Flora Duffy saam met haar op die podium. Die Isuzu Ride the Rock is een van vele wedrenne aangebied deur Stillwater Sport & Entertainment en met hul stempel op ’n wedren afgedruk kan jy maar glo en vertrou daar sal ’n goeie standaard gehandhaaf word! Die kamp is goed

uitgelê, die roetes is goed gemerk en die atmosfeer is rustig sonder enige selfoongeluide wat die kalmte versteur! Nè, Frantisek?

RE:CM’s se Erik Kleinhans is een van Suid-Afrika se gewildste bergﬁets-jaers. Hy het sy vrou, Switserse marathon kampioen: Ariane, diep in the Kammanassieberge op die 2010 Cape Pioneer Trek ontmoet. Die jaar ry hy in die Epic vir die Specialized-span saam met Nico Bell. Volg hom op Twitter by @kleinhansmuesli of besoek sy webwerf www.kleinhansmuesli.com.

FS Sports Psychology

CHOOSING YOUR

partner If you’ve ever entered a stage race requiring you to compete as a pair, you’ll know that choosing the right riding partner is essential. After hearing a few horror stories and with the Epic ﬁrmly in mind (though it’s too late to ditch your riding buddy now…) Full Sus roped in the expertise of sports psychologist Clinton Gahwiler to provide his expert knowledge on this tricky choice.

Many problems in mountainbiking partnerships can be prevented by making sure that both parties are on the same page well in advance of the event. Unfortunately we don’t like to rock the boat, and so we often avoid dealing with this crucial aspect until there is a crisis. And then we muddle through that too. To ensure optimal output from a relationship, you need to be prepared to rock the boat, albeit in a respectful manner, and in advance of the actual event. This is crucial to achieving a solid, stable and trusting partnership for when it is needed most. There are many factors that partners need to get on the same page about, but here are a few key ones. If the two of you agree in advance on the following six points, then I believe the partnership will be off to a great start:

Troubleshoot: This point is not strictly speaking about relationships, but is worth including as all teams should consider it a part of their preparation. People think that preparation is about developing a perfect plan for how you want things to go. In reality, however, perfect preparation is also about planning for what could go wrong. Once you’ve done all the obvious things, then the ﬁnal stage of preparation is to brainstorm what you haven’t thought about yet what could go wrong, and how you plan to respond to each of these scenarios. For example, what if one partner is struggling,

what if we experience equipment failure, etc. Also, what could go right, and how will you respond to that. I have seen plenty of cases in which people panicked and started doing things differently because things were suddenly going much better than expected.

Plan regular de-briefs: I cannot over-emphasize the importance of feedback. Feedback is gathering information around what is working and what is not working, on the physical, technical, strategic, equipment, interpersonal or emotional levels. Don’t wait for a crisis to discuss

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ate y

Celebr

The what: What are your goals? Be clear about what you want to achieve. If you are not both in agreement with this right up front, it can result in subtle differences in attitude and approaches to decisions and circumstances, which ultimately result in very unsubtle and unnecessary conﬂict.

You’ll need to put in the hard yards both physically and mentally to complete the Epic. There’ll be some serious environmental adversities to overcome in the eight days.

The how: What are your values? Why are you doing this? How much are you prepared to sacriﬁce? What kinds of risks are you prepared to take? Each individual needs to think about these things and discuss them openly and honestly upfront. This gives the partnership a chance to either address any signiﬁcant

“CRACKING A SLY JOKE WHEN THINGS ARE HURTING CAN BE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TEARS OR CHEERS.”

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any factors go into building a successful MTB stage race team, but broadly we might divide them into: fitness and strength, nutrition, technical skills, knowledge and strategy, equipment and the mind. Good preparation implies doing all one can across all six levels, yet typically it is the last of these – the mind - that is left to chance. While we all acknowledge the important role that it plays in multi-stage events, only very few ever fully exploit that factor by purposefully developing it like they do the other five areas. This is why the mind, in a sense, is the final frontier of sports science, and potentially offers athletes the greatest opportunity for ‘going where they’ve never gone before’. In team-based stage events, there are in fact two minds to consider, and the dynamic between these two presents yet another element to factor into your preparations. Typically we just muddle through this randomly however, hoping that we’ve picked someone who we’ll get on okay with and who will respond okay to the inevitable crises that arise. But that’s not how you chose your bike. And if you did choose a bike that’s not functioning optimally, you keep working on it. Your partnership should be no different. Ensuring an optimally functioning partnership should be considered just as much a part of routine preparation as ensuring that your bike and fitness levels are up to scratch. After all, it is the mind - and in partnerships also the interaction between the two minds - that determines whether or not everything that you’ve trained in is accessible during the event, when it matters most.

discrepancies, to accept them, or in fact to choose not to partner up.

Sport’s Psychology

Work together not against one another

ffering,

is su am mate te r u o y rn. te when Apprecia might be your tu it w tomorro

the above. Rather schedule brief but regular (eg daily) times during which you pose yourself certain useful questions - absolutely routinely. That way you are more likely to prevent a crisis. Questions should include: What’s working? What isn’t? How am I doing? Any concerns? This debrief structure needs to be clariﬁed and practiced in advance.

Value feedback: This is worthy of elaboration as a point in and of itself. You get two types of feedback – positive and negative. Positive feedback is when you tell me to keep doing something as it’s working. Negative feedback is when you tell me to stop doing something as it’s not working. Both are crucial to your partnership achieving its goals. As soon as you do not give useful information for fear of rocking the boat, you are compromising the partnership’s success. Note that negative feedback is different from criticism. While the former is useful and important, the latter is simply a label given by the receiver of a communication, which seldom serves any useful purpose. If feedback is not useful, just let it go - don’t waste time and energy interpreting anything as a criticism.

Value difference: Any partnership that does not respect difference as an absolutely core value, is doomed to frustration and unnecessary in-ﬁghting. Personality is a classic example. Extroverts get energized by engaging socially on a chit-chat level, but this can become very draining for introverts. They are energized by either having quiet

time by themselves, or by engaging more in-depth one-on-one. The latter is on the other hand more likely to be experienced as quite intense and draining by extroverts. Another example is a person’s quirks and routines off the bike, (eg preparing for each day’s riding.) Just remember that the greater the difference in a partnership, the more the potential for conﬂict. However, if you respect this difference and manage it well, you have more options, a greater source of ideas and ultimately a stronger team.

Humour and perspective: Two important things to keep with you at all time! You have a life outside of this race – regardless of what happens – and as my brother-in-law says; “don’t sweat the small stuff” - cracking a sly joke when things are hurting can be the difference between tears or cheers. Finally, remember that when you chose a partner in mountainbiking - as in life - you are choosing a total package, with strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons. Too many relationships are unnecessarily destroyed by supposedly choosing a total package, yet not in reality accepting the cons that go with it. In such cases you are fooling yourself, being less than honest with your

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If she says yes, it couldn’t have gone that badly…

“IN REALITY HOWEVER, PERFECT PREPARATION IS ALSO ABOUT PLANNING FOR WHAT COULD GO WRONG.” partner and potentially setting the relationship up to fail. This is not to say that we shouldn’t strive to improve ourselves, but it only really works when the person makes that decision for themselves. So, in conclusion, do have the courage to discuss the above, and make sure that you do so well in advance of your event. It’s not always comfortable, but then again if you were all about comfort, you probably wouldn’t be reading this article.

Clinton Gahwiler runs the psychology practice at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa. Since 1995 he has worked with many of South Africa’s top individual athletes and teams. For further information, and for an e-mail based mental skills training programme, see www.performingmind.co.za.

FS Renay’s Response

Renay Groustra navigating one of the many challenges he had to face on his way to a 47th place at the 2013 UCI World Champs

XCO

Renay Groustra was milling around his local bike shop last month, killing some time when the latest copy of Full Sus caught his eye. On the cover it advertised an article about the recent World Championships in Pietermaritzburg, and made some bold statement about where XCO is going wrong. Having participated in the Elite men’s race at World Champs, he couldn’t help but turn to that page.

fter reading the article I was slightly upset, to say the least. The writer acknowledged some of the good results, while asking some tough questions about the other results of riders in the South African Team. Naturally my first reaction was to go on the defensive. In 2013 I invested a lot into XCO racing. I funded a three month trip completely out of my own pocket (which I am still paying back) to Europe where I based myself out of Germany and raced four World Cup events as well as a handful of smaller races. The result was that I came back to South Africa, raced the World Champs in Pietermaritzburg, and was the highest South African finisher in the Elite men’s race. How is that not good enough? To those looking in from the outside, having never raced an XCO race before, 47th place seems pretty far down, especially with a home ground advantage. Even to me, with the amount of work I put in, I can’t help but think that surely I can finish higher up? Truth be told, XCO racing is a brutal sport. 2013 was not the first time I had invested in an overseas trip. I spent four months racing the Swiss National series in 2006. In 2009 I made two overseas trips and raced four World Cups, and again in 2011 when I raced two World Cups as well as a couple of smaller UCI races. All of which I funded out of my own pocket. In total, I have raced fourteen World Cup races and

DARREN GODDARD/GAMEPLAN MEDIA

DIFFICULTIES from the rider’s perspective

only managed to ﬁnish three (Bromont 2009, Pietermaritzburg 2012 and Andorra 2013), without getting lapped. Luckily my World Champs record is better as I have managed to ﬁnish all my races (France ‘04, Italy ‘05, Italy ‘08, RSA ‘13). Having been in the sport since 2002, I have seen many top South Africans pit themselves against the best in the world, almost always out of their own pocket, only to come back with their tails between their legs.

So the big question is: “Do we have the talent?” Undoubtedly yes, we do. One only has to look at the amount of good U23 riders we have and developing elite riders. So what are the other countries doing that we aren’t? Take a look at the country of cows and chocolate: Switzerland. Although it’s one of the smallest countries, at any given World Cup you will see at least three Swiss riders in the top ten. I’ve seen it happen twice where the top three riders in the Elite men’s race at World Champs have all been Swiss. 1, 2 and 3. That seems almost impossible. Why is that? I ﬁgured this out for myself when at a regional XCO race in St Gallen, Switzerland last year. The elite men’s race was smallish but competitive, but what really struck me was the amount of kids racing at this small, very local event. There were literally 50 kids racing in their equivalent of the Nippers category. This was one event of a ﬁve race series, and every Canton (Province) in Switzerland has a series. Switzerland has 26 Cantons. Another thing the Swiss do very well besides making cheese and chocolate is developing talent. Riders like Christoph Sauser, Nino Schurter, Vlorian Vogel, Ralf Naf and the Fluckiger brothers have all come through development programs that Switzerland have put in place to develop talent from a

SO THE BIG QUESTION IS: “DO WE HAVE THE TALENT?” UNDOUBTEDLY YES, WE DO. very young age. Training camps are held regularly with national coaches heading different categories such as training, bike skills and various other components that go into developing world class cyclists. Riders that don’t cut it get kicked out of the programme so that more attention can be paid to the promising ones. It’s a harsh environment, but who said being a pro athlete was easy?

So back to the question, where are we going wrong?

very strong marathon series, where there are large numbers of people competing creating an ideal place to create brand exposure. This is fantastic news for riders wanting to focus on marathon, and it’s actually quite proﬁtable, but it leaves riders focusing on cross country in a bit of a pickle. Race marathon, or focus on the Olympic discipline where support is limited. I’ve made my decision, and I paid my rent with my credit card last month.

One thing that I can say, is that in my whole career as a cyclist, from beginner to professional, I have never seen any type of program like that in South Africa, put in place for any extended period of time. Any effort to start such a process quickly gets shut down due to funding issues or politics, and the good people behind these efforts get disheartened and often walk away. The issue here is continuation, which requires a huge amount of vision, passion and a lot of funding. How effective are we being when we stop and start this process, and on the way lose people with valuable skills and knowledge? The other issue here, which was touched on in the previous article, is the pressure felt by athletes to compete in high exposure events to create “value” for their sponsors. We have a unique mountain bike industry in South Africa. We are one of the few countries where corporate companies put huge amounts of money into our sport. They do so because TV coverage is cheap in South Africa, so corporates get a lot of exposure for athletes they sponsor doing races with TV coverage. These being stage races and our

Renay Groustra is a professional mountain biker, bike ﬁtment specialist and wannabe surfer from Cape Town. He rides for the Team RSA Web and you’ll see him ﬂying up and down the tracks of Table Mountain on his Rocky Mountain steed. He’s also a prodigious blogger and you can read his latest views and experiences on his website: www.tablemountainbiker.co.za.

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You owe it to yourself to live your dream and you do after all want to enjoy both the ride and the magnificent scenery which only mountain biking can offer.

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FS Trails

Enjoy the stunning views, hard and fun riding at Tranquilitas Trails.

A tranquil getaway and magic riding in the place of the

crocodile

Fantastic riding, riveting rock climbing, world-class trout ﬁshing and some of SA’s best hiking trails … damnit, what are you guys waiting for?!? Photographs and words by Jacques Marais. Local Buzz: Waterval Boven (now Emgwenya – or the ever-so-scary sounding ‘Place of the Crocodile’) used to be an old railway town, but now masquerades as a scenic tourist spot perched on the very edge of the Highveld escarpment. The Elands River plunges over the cliffs here right alongside this little Mpumalanga dorp, situated roughly 260km from Jo’burg. Locals say it is a ‘drinking

town with a climbing problem’, and the dramatic crags immediately make it obvious why Boven is internationally famous as a rockclimbing destination.

Trail Low-Down: There are a handful or so guys out here in South Africa who you can trust implicitly when it comes to all things mountain biking. Glenn Harrison is one of them and, if you know the name, you will immediately understand why you need to make a plan to go and ride his new trails at Tranquilitas. Most of the routes consist of a rollicking combo of purpose-built single-track, hiking trails and gravel roads, and will therefore suit all levels of rider. Enjoy the super-tight, fast and ﬂowing sections, especially through the Zorro swerves in the forest and take occasional breathers to enjoy the many viewpoints and historical landmarks. There will be climbing (yes, I am warning you), but the ascents are pretty smooth and rideable, following the contours of the landscape. The

up-side of it is that the elevation gain is pretty quick - and very achievable - without too many gear changes. Plus, you get to zig into those goodly downhills once you reach the top… Again, the descents are 98% rideable, even for a dodgy codger like myself, and those of you with a dare-devil attitude will blast the wooden bridges and drop-offs I agonised over. All in all, the routes are extremely well marked, and the Blue Trail is perfectly suitable for even kiddies with geared bikes. And as a back-stop, there are also those jeep tracks around the campsite to keep the young ones occupied…

Routes for all: Forest Loop – 7km (Intermediate): Start at the entrance to Tranquilitas Farm and follow the blue arrows up the single-track via the forest and onto the escarpment. It’s an enjoyable ride with great views, followed by 3km of fast downhill singletrack through forest and grassland until you get back to the farm gate.

Old Coach Road – 11km (Intermediate): Follow the Red arrows along a solid climb, then enjoy the speedy sections of trail through the forest. A newly completed addition

takes you out onto the high plateau with endless views down the Elands valley. A steep climb to the top of the koppie follows before you blast back down to the farm gate.

Big Dipper – 4.5km (Intermediate): The trail has some rocky drop offs and steep bridge drops and a fast downhill Endurotype track looping back to the start.

Follow the Dog – 3km (Easy to Intermediate): A cool little warm-up from the campsite, with a circular loop up behind the camp and around the front of the escarpment. It’s short and fun, with superb views over the valley towards Waterval-Onder.

The Tranquilitas Rim – 8km (Intermediate to Advanced): This route runs close to the cliff edge and has some fantastic and fast runs through the grassland. Rocky dropoffs are encountered at speed, so be sharp. (Can be ridden both ways).

Boven Mountain Loop – 11.5km (Strenuous): This superb trail contours along the steep mountain overlooking Waterval Boven. (Can be done both ways).

Getting there: Follow the N4 towards Nelspruit, then turn right after Machado Toll Plaza into Boven. Pass under the bridge in town (down the main road - 3rd Ave), then turn right to follow a road up the mountain. This becomes gravel after about 2km, but keep going for another 7km until you see Tranquilitas Farm on your left.

SUS the Tranquilitas Trails Stats Grading: Intermediate to Advanced Duration: 30min – 4hrs Conﬁguration: 6 trails: both circular and out-and-back options

Start Point: Tranquilitas Adventure Farm Terrain: Forest Trails, 4x4 track, technical

Post-Ride Beer: Shamrock Arms – (013)

Accommodation: Tranquilitas has

257 0888

four rustic, S/C chalets, six permanent

Must-Do Event: Switchback Series

tents, a stunning 3-bedroom farm house

(Sept); Boven Rock Rally if you’re a

and a campsite with a large pool - www.

climber (Sept) – www.rocrope.com

tranquilitas.com

Access: Day permits available from

Local Contact:

single-track and bridges

Tranquilitas Farm (R30)

Glenn Harrison - (082) 7601218;

Beware: Rocks on Rim Trail; extreme heat,

Cell Reception: Reasonable reception

Gustav / RocnRope - (013) 2570363

so stay hydrated; lightning in summer

along most of route

GPS: 25°40’38.29” S / 30°21’48.56” E

www.themapstudio.co.za

Trails

Rim Trail to Mountain Loop

Start Camp site

Reception

Jacques Marais is the author of Top MTB Trails, and will be keeping you up to speed with the best rides in SA. You can ﬁnd out more at www.jacquesmarais.co.za

T R A N Q U I L I T A S

M T B

T R A I L S

Forest Loop [7km]_ start Follow blue arrows on single track, through the forest, out onto the escarpment. Enjoyable ride with good viewpoints. 3km fast downhill track through the forest and down through the grassland switch backs.

reception

Old Coach Road [12km]_ slate Follow red arrows into the forest. Runs through a good forest climb, passing Boer War graves and through a gap in an old stone wall. Then a fast flowing trail through the forest towards the top of the koppie with a 360 degree view of the countryside. Fast drop through the old quarry returns to the forest to steep descents, drop-offs and fun berms.

“ENJOY THE SUPER-TIGHT, FAST AND FLOWING SECTIONS, ESPECIALLY THROUGH THE ZORRO SWERVES IN THE FOREST”

high speed bridge

Follow the Dog [3km]_ forest Warm up trail starting either at the campsite or the gate above the dam. A circular route climbing up behind the campsite and around the front of the escarpment. Short and fun with great views of the valley below and into Waterval Onder.

ridge/view

Big Dipper [4.5km]_

cliff/rim

An easy climb up through the field. It crosses the log ride and climbs up the gap in the stone wall. Hereafter splitting through a rock garden for a short section. Down rocky drop offs, followed by steep bridge drops, narrow bridges, and fast downhill enduro type track.

technical main road

Rim Trail [8km return]_

full sus

The trail starts and follows the cliff edge for 9km to the old Elandskrans resort. Running close to the cliff edge, it has some fantastic fast sections through the grassland. Beware: rocky drop-offs encountered at speed. Can be ridden both ways.

The single track MTB trails start from cut to cater for all skill levels from be master, Glenn Harrison has designe past as many landmarks and histor The climbs are smooth and follow resulting in a quick elevation gain changes. Expect kays of ﬂowing single track.

Website: www.tranquilitas.com__Email: book@tranquilitas.com__GPS 25°40'38.29" S 30°21'48.56" E

M T B O NLI NE

Get your MTB fix online now at www.fullsus.co.za. FullSus.co.za is growing. Read the latest MTB News. Organise your MTB life with our comprehensive MTB specific calendar. Browse for health care professionals in your area to treat your MTB induced injuries or find a coach to help you outperform your mates. And now you can also use www. FullSus.co.za to buy second hand bikes and gear or sell your old bikes and gear. Check it out at www.FullSus.co.za/classifieds

M TB race

Kate Slegrova did the ﬁrst Tankwa Trek last year and loved it, so it was on her to do list for 2014. Plus it’s great preparation for the Cape Epic, which she’s been training for and it’s organised by Dryland… which makes it a race she just couldn’t miss.

he word spread quickly about the Tankwa Trek last year and this year entries were up from 100 to a sold out 350 riders, including the Bulls team. The beautiful Kaleo Manor, 20km outside Ceres, in the Kouebokkeveld was the base for three days of camping and the best mountain biking I’ve experienced. The event was fully catered with delicious, healthy breakfasts, lunches and dinners, plus lots of fresh fruit, supplied by Du Toit, to snack on. And Dryland never forgets to cater for vegetarians and even gluten free dieters too. I teamed up with my Transalp partner Caren Henschel. She has been working more than riding lately, so after me pushing her up many hills on stage one we decided to ride separately on the last two stages, so I could push myself to see how the Epic training was coming on.

Stage 1:

88km/1 890m of climbing Stage one was a proper MTB day. We did lots of single track through beautiful rock formations and apple and pear orchards in the Witzenberg Valley. We passed small villages with school kids cheering us on and that was really very special. Amazing views awaited us on top of the climbs and proper steep rocky sections followed, where I bought my ﬁrst, but not last, Tankwa bruise. More single track and a few sandy sections awaited us in the last 30kms. Climbing out of the Witzenberg Valley back into the Kouebokkeveld, we rode up the single track that we used to descend into the valley and it was nice challenge, even though I think Caren and other tired riders weren’t quite so happy about it. Back at the ﬁnish at Kaleo, everyone was happy to dive into the cold pools thoughtfully prepared by Dryland to cool the riders down after the 40 degree Celsius temperatures out on the trails. I was really happy with my new full suspension Scott Spark too! It was great not to have to bounce around on my old hard tail on the rocky sections and I’m really happy with the Spark. I don’t think I’ll be riding my hard tail again soon!

Stage 2:

91km/2 300m of climbing After a good rest and great breakfast with a strong coffee, we were ready for another hot day in the saddle. The stage started with the Du Toit Drop, a new and challenging downhill single

Stage 3:

63km/860m of climbing Stage three started with a 26km neutral zone to the race start at Morester. It was great to get the legs going and chat with fellow riders about the Trek so far. We waited for about 45 minutes (which could have been shorter) and started in three batches to spread the ﬁeld out for the tight single track ahead. I started with Caren in the B Group and got to the front to get a good position for the single track. Charl van der Merwe has built an amazing route, with lots of narrow bridges and rocky drop offs. The trails of Morester are reason enough to ride the Tankwa Trek! I saved some energy for the last climb of the day when the route reached the gravel road through the orchards, and was surprised to note that Charl had added more single track from last year. The last climb was now on single track which was great even though it was pretty hot by the time I got there. I think I was losing my patience a bit by the end of the stage and lost

concentration and control of my bike on the very last downhill. I ﬂew off my bike and landed right on the side of my head. Luckily my bike and I were ok and I managed to ride to the ﬁnish. I was lucky to escape with only have few bruises and a black eye. It shows you, you must concentrate all the way until you get off your bike…

where are we? Kaleo Manor, in the heart of the Kouebokkeveld hosts the clover leaf formatted Du Toit Tankwa Trek. The route takes in the rugged Cederberg mountains and the fertile orchards which produce much of South Africa’s export quality fruit. Find out more at www.tankwatrek.co.za.

A F R I CA Northern Cape N1

◆Kaleo Cape Town

Western Cape N2

WWW.OAKPICS.COM

Doing the Tankwa lift at the Tankwa Trek.

Kate Slegrova has quickly become a Full Sus regular. She’s incredibly active on the local racing scene and when she’s not racing herself she’s coaching others to achieve their racing goals through her business: Cycle Training. Look her up at www.cycletraining.co.za or follow her on twitter @KateSlegrova, in the next few months she’ll be riding the Cycle Tour’s MTB Challenge and the Cape Epic.

Taking the new Scotty on a proper

track, with lots of switchbacks that I didn’t find easy at all. I still have to get used to my new bike… Some faster kays on the gravel roads of the Warmbokkeveld brought us to a good climb up the old Theronsberg Pass wagon trail. After the Theronsberg climb, water point three at the foot of the Merino Monster, awaited us. The Merino Monster is an eight kilometre climb with an ascent of 800m and no shade to hide in. I filled up my bottles, grabbed a banana and got climbing. The beautiful view helped and I knew it was the last hill so I pushed where I could. It took me exactly an hour to get to the top. I downed a 500ml juice at the water point at the top and started the new steep descent. It was a 10km downhill with some very technical rocky sections. I finished the stage in 5 hours 45 minutes, which was an hour behind the stage winning ladies, Ariane Kleinhans and Cherise Stander.

FS Ride Report Tankwa Trek

Hows and Watts Part II

Development evelopment

current 2014

AT WARP SPEED

Dave’s current ride, what a change from the Lava Dome…

In his follow up to last month’s piece on the history of the mighty bicycle, loose cannon columnist David Bristow makes a bold prediction about how the battle of the wheel sizes will be resolved…

t is generally accepted that mountain biking (or bundu biking as I think it should be called), was invented by Gary Fisher and his band of long-hairs back in the 1970s, when they started bombing down steep hillsides in northern California on home-modified dikwiel contraptions. But that’s not the truth of it. Back in 1896-7 the 25th US Infantry Regiment – the fabled Buffalo Soldiers – tested all-terrain bikes, riding hundreds of miles from Fort Missoula to Yellowstone Park. Fast forward 100 years when I bought my first mountain bike in the early 1990s. It was a Kona Lava Dome in luminous green and I thought it was volcano hot. It cost a whacking R3 000 at a closing down sale. Not many of us brave few had suspension but we’d bomb down any track like fearless time travellers. Bones were broken and gashes were stitched. Beer and laughter were good medicine. Ant used to wear a “Wounds heal, chics dig scars” T-shirt. One day Don arrived on a new bike with elastomer front suspension and we thought that was really racy. When Ant fitted bright orange Manitou compressed-air front shocks to his Giant we were enormously impressed. Things were moving at warp speed. I went from the Lava Dome to a Kona Explosif Pro with first generation XT drive train, and I still have it, just so. It’s fitted with “town and country” semi-slicks for road riding and still gets taken out on dirt

track in times of need. It’s got Kevlar tyre liners and I’ve not had a puncture on it in 10 years. I ﬁrst rode the Cape Epic course on my chromemoly Kona, but since then MTB technology has really gone astral. It was sound engineer Matthew, on his brand new Santa Cruz, who looked at my trad bike and said: “Once you have tasted the forbidden fruit of rear suspension, you can never go back.” He was right: riding a mountain bike without full sus is like riding a road bike with square wheels – why would you want to! I bought a new generation GT with its hip iDrive cam-action bottom bracket; it was a brave innovation to overcome rear suspension bounce. The fashion did not last, but it was a brave move at the time. Since then there’s been

“I FIRST RODE THE CAPE EPIC COURSE ON MY CHROMEMOLY KONA, BUT SINCE THEN MTB TECHNOLOGY HAS REALLY GONE ASTRAL.”

a Diamondback, a Scott, a much beloved Morewood, and now a Rocky Mountain 29er. I could go on and on about the developments in suspension, new materials, rear suspension pivots, frame triangulation and the arrival of things like lockout and intelligent rear suspension (not so, it kicks in after you need it), and gear ratios, but the boys from Revolution Cycles have already taken us down that path (and taken us in other ways too: sure SK and SJ, carbon fibre is nice if your bank or ex-wife has not extracted your wallet through your saddle bone). By and by aluminium replaced alloy then carbon fibre replaced metal. Things got lighter and lighter, and more and more expensive. Imagine a newcomer breezing into a bike shop and asking: “how much will a really nice mountain bike cost?” “Thirty, fifty, seventy thousand, how much have you got?” And finally, when everything seemed to be in place, the product developers looked back at the old pictures and wondered (as humans will): what if we made a bigger wheel…?

SUS David’s ﬁrst MTB I bought my ﬁrst mountain bike in the early 1990s. It was a Kona Lava Dome in luminous green and I thought it was volcano hot.

circa 1990's

David Bristow has buckets of MTB experience having ridden and written “The Spine of the Dragon.” He’s also the webmaster of www.dragontrax.co.za, a site which aims to be the country’s go-to, free, repository of GPS’d MTB tracks.

I believe this battle of the wheel sizes is just one small step in the giant leap of mountain biking development. It too shall pass, when we bring cold logic to bear on the problem: small bike frame, 26; medium frame, 27.5; large frame, 29. And for ex Springbok rugby forwards, maybe 31. Morné du Plessis once passed me on the Argus and it looked like he was riding a doublestorey bike with a one-metre seat post and BMX wheels. So my prediction is that the most brilliant of inventions is yet to be unveiled by the clever boys in California. You can bet, given its efficient use of energy and our obsession with the new, we’ll be throwing good money after Osymetric groupsets within a year or two. From there it is just a small intellectual hop and skip to reason that an elliptical wheel would offer the best of 26, 27.5 and 29 inch rolling options. To counter the dead spots it would have to be rolled out synchromeshed with Osymetic chainrings and caming iDrive bottom bracket. Remember, you read it here first. But, like the iDrive, it might not last. My next prediction is in the region of gears, and in particular that Achilles heel of mountain bikes – the rear derailleur. Internal gear hubs have been around for a long time. Some of us rode Sturmy Archer 3-speed bikes to school some time way back in the past century. On the first Cape Epic there was a tandem ridden by two German Rastas that had internal hub gears. It looked like the future to me, but weight seems to have been the barrier to market entry. But now we have Niners, and single speed world champs, and SRAM XO1 and the like, so it does looks like the acceleration to more and more gears is starting to reverse itself. So why not a single chainring with simple three-speed rear hub? One for up, one for flat and one for down. If Sturmy Archer still holds a copyright, buys shares now. But remember, you read it here first.

Superfly FS 9.7 SL Epically fast! When Shayne Dowling first got onto the really pretty Superfly 9.7 SL he knew that something was different. Anxious to get riding he checked a few of the usual fitment settings, clipped in and sped off – big mistake. The Superfly is a race machine and like most performance vehicles it needs some special attention. Photography by Julia Andrade.

Bike review

SUS The Geometry

“THE BIKE HAS A GEOMETRY THAT IS BUILT WITH ONE THING IN MIND AND THAT’S SPEED.”

Medium frame: All measurements in mm or ° Seat Tube ...........................445 Top Tube ............................ 588 Head Tube ............................ 115 Bottom bracket height ...330 Head tube angle ..............70° Seat tube angle ...........73.8° Chain Stay .........................452 Wheel base .........................1131 Stand over height .............771 Stack ................................... 603 Reach ....................................421

he Superfly isn’t built for a comfortable jaunt up and down the mountain. It isn’t a bike that wants to comfortably take you through the trails and with minimum input glide you around your local riding track. The Superfly needs your full attention. You need to understand and respect the machine – spend some time fine tuning and setting her up and then once you have all the numbers dialled in, you’ll find that the Superfly is super-fast! There is nowhere to hide on this bike, it’s stiff, responsive and always seems to be chomping at the bit. The bike has a geometry that is built with one thing in mind and that’s speed. This is a bike for race snakes and it won’t disappoint. 100mm of travel is your first clue, light and stiff carbon, through axles and aggressive geometry are clear indications of what to expect. The 9.7 SL is a XC speedster and doesn’t apologise for being one. The bike comes with all the Trek techware you would expect on a bike of this calibre including their Active Braking Pivot system which is designed to keep the suspension active even under braking, a removable down tube guard that protects the underbelly, and of course the frame is made in the proprietary OCLV Mountain Carbon which is Trek’s answer to tougher yet lighter carbon frames. The Superfly climbed smoothly, efficiently and fast. The geometry of the bike not allowing one to chill out and I found it more comfortable to be working the machine than just cruising. It is a bike that is meant to be ridden fast and hard all the time and the only time I felt particularly out of sorts was on the gnarly, technical downhills. Being used to more travel and trail bike geometry I learnt my lesson the hard way – hitting the deck hard on a small fast drop-off that I have done a hundred times - this bike wants its wheels on the ground, is twitchy and of course fast. The 9.7 SL comes with Bontrager tubeless ready wheelsets and would be the only thing I would consider changing if I was a weight weenie looking to lighten the bike further. Or you could look a price point up at the Superfly FS 9.8 SL, with full Shimano Deore XT groupset. The X7/X9 combination with SLX brakes on the 9.7 SL are more than adequate though and operate perfectly. Overall, I would highly recommend the Superfly FS 9.7 SL to anyone who is looking for speed and to whom racing is important – even if the racing is only to improve your PB’s or to beat your mates on our local ride. Trek’s patented OCLV (Optimized Compaction Low Void) build process allows for light, strong and durable carbon frames.

FS Coaching

WHAT ARE

I MTG rides and how can

they beneﬁt you? In this issue Dr Mike Posthumus discusses the how nutritional strategies may help those who are time-strapped get the most out of their training.

n previous editions of this coaching column I have discussed topics such as polarised training, periodization, tapering and most recently high intensity training. But as I previously stressed, every session can’t be a key high intensity training session. A well-balanced training program requires easy training rides, which stimulates our aerobic system, but remains easy enough to recover from the high intensity training sessions. Although some may argue that the aerobic system is best trained doing long steady endurance rides, or LSD (Long Steady Distance), as they are often referred to, recent research has highlighted that altering nutritional intake may have added endurance training benefit. More specifically, performing fasted rides, or riding with low glycogen levels, may have far greater benefit and has been proposed to mimic the benefit of longer (5 hour) endurance rides. These IMTG rides, as they are referred to by the Science to Sport coaches and others, predominantly use IntraMuscular TriGlycerides, and have several benefits. Yes, they increase fat oxidation and may enhance fat oxidation for when it is required during long endurance races, but more importantly, these rides trigger the most important molecular switches to create the adaptations to endurance training. The specific key molecular switch in our muscles, which causes adaptation to endurance training,

such as increased mitochondrial (energy manufacturers) and blood vessels, is called PGC-1a. As IMTG rides are fasted, your starting glycogen (carbohydrate storage) levels are low. Training with low glycogen is one of the ways to turn on the endurance adaptation switch. Therefore, riding in a fasted state may have, in certain aspects, similar benefits to when performing long 5 hours training rides. During long training rides glycogen normally gets depleted halfway through the ride. Part of the benefit of these long rides is to switch the endurance adaptation trigger on through having low glycogen. Therefore, when training time is limited, include IMTG rides. In addition, to further the potential benefit of IMTG rides, ingest caffeine (3mg/kg of bodyweight) before your ride. Again, this has a dual purpose, caffeine assists the endurance trigger to be switched on, but also decreases your rate of perceived exertion during the training session and thereby makes the ride, which is normally quite challenging, much more bearable. Caffeine can be ingested either in pill form or obviously through coffee.

Dr. Mike Posthumus is an accomplished academic with UCT’s Exercise Science and Sports Medicine faculty and a coach with Science 2 Sport. He was a provincial rugby player before switching togs for cleats and taking up competitive mountain biking. He has an exceptional knowledge of training periodisation and scientiﬁc training principles. Find out more at www.sciencetosport.com

CAFFEINE CAN BE INGESTED EITHER IN PILL FORM OR OBVIOUSLY THROUGH COFFEE.

“TRAINING WITH LOW GLYCOGEN IS ONE OF THE WAYS TO TURN ON THE ENDURANCE ADAPTATION SWITCH.”

Summary and further practical guidelines:

Between your High intensity training sessions, include IMTG rides. Aim for 2 IMTG rides per week. Example of IMTG Ride: ◆ Do not eat breakfast. Drink 2 x Espresso Caps (or 3mg/kg bodyweight) or a very strong cup of coffee with no sugar. Ride 90 minutes zone 2 only. Drink only water while riding. After the ride have a recovery drink to restore glycogen and ensure recovery. ◆ Further strategies which may be used by advanced riders include sleep low training and/or the use of double sessions. Both these strategies involve performing a high intensity training session. After the high-intensity training session, do not have any carbohydrates. Thereby remaining glycogen depleted. Perform the IMTG ride, as described above, 6-18 hours after the high intensity training session. This may be done the following day (i.e. Sleep low strategy) or later in the same day (Using double training sessions). Again, this should only be done by experienced athletes

NOTE: AGAIN, THIS SHOULD ONLY BE DONE BY EXPERIENCED ATHLETES.

HOW TO BE

Epic

Nutrition

For this edition, Rochez O’Grady has decided to hand it to you on a platter: how to be epic at the Cape Epic. This means what to do before, during and after an event - particularly for a long distance ride, so that you can perform at your peak. You know what they say, we are what we eat. What to do before the ride? Yes, you guessed it, eat breakfast. You should tuck in at least 30 to 60 minutes before exercise. The best breakfasts are low-GI, but low ﬁbre mixed with ﬂuid. Let’s cut the lingo down to what this is in food terms it sounds way more appealing, have a look at these easy ideas: ◆ Smoothie: 2-3 fruit, fat-free yoghurt/milk topped up with a couple of tablespoons of oats and some honey to taste. ◆ Future Life with fat-free milk (enough to make it into a shake), add a banana to make a smoothie ◆ Oats with honey, cinnamon, banana, a handful of almonds and a fat-free yoghurt/milk ◆ Pronutro with fat free milk topped with a fruit

When to refuel when you’re on the bike? Don’t wait too long, that’s the key. If you ride for too long without refuelling you deplete the energy

(glycogen) stored in your muscles. This is when you run the risk of getting cramps or ﬂat lining. This is why you need to start refuelling within an hour of riding.

What to take on the bike? On a long ride take sweet and savoury - this variety will ensure refuelling on a regular basis without getting sick (literally) of your snacks. If you can, go for real food options ﬁrst before opting for manufactured products. It’s more economical and provides you with the nutrients you need.

Have a look at these ideas and get planning: ◆ Dates or date balls ◆ Raisins ◆ Banana ◆ Cereal bars ◆ Fruit bars ◆ Nougat ◆ Sandwiches (rye works well with blood sugar control) with peanut butter/marmite/honey ◆ Baby potatoes with salt ◆ Sweet potato with salt ◆ Savoury or sweet muffins (not high ﬁbre types - can upset your stomach on the ride) ◆ Fruit cake ◆ Banana Bread ◆ Jelly Babies ◆ Super Cs

Tip on how to choose a good bar: Aim for between 20-30g carbs per bar. Watch out for bars that are high in fat, it slows down digestion, possibly leading to stomach cramps. Fat needs to be less than 10g per bar.

How much fuel do I need?

Rochez O’Grady (pronounced r-OH-shay) is a registered Dietitian and runs her own practice called MunchWize. She focuses on educating and motivating her clients in practical ways to follow a healthy lifestyle and achieve personal health goals. You can ﬁnd out more about MunchWize at www.munchwize. co.za or ask Rochez your nutrition related questions at rochez@munchwize.co.za.

The ideal is to have 30-60g carbohydrates every hour. A great way to work this out would be to start familiarising yourself with how many carbs each of your snacks and drinks contain. Try and make your own combos, have a look at the examples:

Examples: 20 – 25g carbohydrate 1 Large Banana ½ jam sandwich (1 slice of bread) ½ peanut butter sandwich (1 slice of bread) 5 Super C’s OR a handful of jelly sweets

3 - 4 large dates 1 x sachet of sports gel or GU Chumps (jellies) 1 x Cereal bar: Oatsli Berry Burst or McNabs Energy food bar (Cape Orchard or Cocoa) 1 x Hammer Almond Raisin Bar 2 x mini banana muffins 1 x Woolworths 2 Go Pure Fruit Smoothie

Examples: 30 – 45g carbohydrate 1 x Marmite sandwich (2 slices of bread) 1 x Woolworths Low GI Snack bar 1 x large Mule Bar: Mango Tango, Hunza nut or Pinacolada 300ml Woolworths Low Fat Berry, Strawberry and Banana, Mango and Passion or Kiwi and Apple smoothie (dairy based) 1x sachet instant oats (34 g carbohydrate)

Here are some combinations that will give you a good idea on how it works, choose one every hour: ◆ 1 cereal bar + 250ml Sports Energy Drink OR 250ml grape juice mixed with water ◆ 1 large banana + 250ml Sports/ Energy Drink ◆ 1 jam or marmite sandwich + 250ml Sports/Energy Drink ◆ Handful of Jelly Sweets PLUS a fresh fruit + 250ml Sports/Energy Drink ◆ A few dates PLUS ½ peanut butter sandwich + 250ml Sports/Energy Drink ◆ 1 fruit bar + 250ml Sports/Energy Drink

How much water do you need to drink? Hydration during exercise reduces fatigue, and replaces water and electrolytes that we lose when we start melting on the bike. People have different sweat rates, this will affect water and electrolyte losses. Make sure you having at least 400-800ml every hour; rather don’t wait until you’re a puddle. A good idea would be to try and get a drink that would fulﬁl three functions, providing energy (at least 30-50g carbohydrates per 500 ml), electrolytes and hydration. For the

last few bottles of the ride try drinks that contain peptide proteins, some great examples are PeptoPro or Epic Pro and Perpetuem.

What to do once your bum is off the bike? Well done, you’ve made it! Now it’s time for recovery. Carbohydrates, protein, electrolytes and ﬂuid – any of these will help replace your lost nutrients during your ride. Try to do this immediately afterward. Here are some recovery meal ideas: ◆ Sports recovery drink that includes peptide protein and electrolytes ◆ Large fruit and yoghurt based smoothie with a cereal bar ◆ Fruit salad with low-fat fruit yoghurt, nuts and cranberries ◆ Chicken or salmon wrap with salad greens ◆ Rye or seed bread spread with cottage cheese or marmite, and a few thin slices of cold roast beef and fresh fruit ◆ Pasta with tuna and tomato based sauce We are all epically different – So make sure you test your nutrition plan so that you can master your own epicness.

“TEST YOUR NUTRITION PLAN SO THAT YOU CAN MASTER YOUR OWN EPICNESS” SUS The research Did you know? Research has shown low-fat chocolate milk is one of the best recovery drinks.

FS MTB Skills guru

The single most important Riding Tip for every mountain biker

he natural tendency within every mountain biker is to tighten up their grip when things start to get rough on the trail or they start to climb. I am pretty sure it all stems back to the brain wanting to protect the body by making sure your hands don’t come loose from the bars. However, when you do this, you create problems for yourself on the trail that not only keep you from riding at your best, but also allow dangerous situations to develop.

Here’s what goes wrong when you white knuckle: 1) You are exerting more energy When you grip the bars too hard, you are exerting much needed energy on the top half of your body that could be used later down the trail. Think about it… when you grip your fist, your arms tense up, your shoulders get tighter and everything else in your upper body starts to use energy, just because you don’t want to loosen that grip. If you start adding this up, over the course of your entire ride, it’s a lot of wasted energy that could have been used somewhere else. 2) Your body tenses and locks up Just as you observed the energy being wasted in your upper body when you made a fist, your upper body also tenses up and prevents fluid movement (you moving like fluid, not the movement of fluid in your body) when you put the

white knuckle, death grip on your bars. This creates a dangerous situation on the trail as your biggest suspension component (your arms) and your ability to move the bike up and around obstacles is basically gone. As you negotiate rocks, roots and other trail obstacles, you are not going to be able to make the

WWW.OAKPICS.COM

There is one tip for riding your mountain bike that every rider needs to do and it is one of the most abused mistakes in riding. If every mountain biker on the trail would take this one tip to heart, their riding would improve drastically writes the MTB Guru James Thornhill-Fisher: Loosen Your Grip and Stop White Knuckling.

tank, and once it is gone… bonk. So anything I can do to use that ﬁtness/ energy more efficiently… the better I perform on the trail. 2) You open up your entire upper body When you loosen your grip, you open up your largest amount of suspension travel and the ability

fingers to make sure I do not tighten up from being tired. You have to find what works for you, but in the end, if you loosen up your grip on the bars you will ride a hell of a lot better on the trail and have more energy to finish the ride strongly. Remember loosen up and open up!

“LOOSENING UP YOUR GRIP ENABLES YOU AND THE BIKE TO ACCOMPLISH THIS BY BEING MORE DYNAMIC.” necessary adjustments as your upper body has minimal range of movement available. So ﬁght the urge and loosen your grip. The trick… You have to consciously remind yourself to loosen your grip during climbs and downhills. After a while, you will start to do it naturally and it will become less of a forced action and more second nature.

What happens when you loosen the grip on your bars: 1) You save energy All of that energy you were wasting previously, on removing all of the blood from your hands by gripping the bars too hard is now preserved for other riding activities… like getting up that super steep climb. I like to think of my body much like a fuel tank. I start each ride with a certain amount of ﬁtness/energy in the

to move the bike fluidly under your body. Your arms are the second most important riding tool after of your legs. It is not about the equipment… it is all about how you move that equipment on the trail and your ability to adapt the bike to changing trail conditions. The bike is not meant to stay perfectly in line with your body while you ride. It needs to move left, right, forward and backwards in relation to your body in order to function correctly and safely. Loosening up your grip enables you and the bike to accomplish this by being more dynamic. There are times that I keep an extremely loose grip on the bars where it feels like my fingers are floating around the grips to keep the bike completely fluid underneath my body. There are also times, mostly on climbs, where I physically open my hands off the grips and wiggle my

James Thornhill-Fisher James Thornhill-Fisher, the MTB Guru, has over 25 years of MTB experience and has ridden over 60 000km in the last 5 years, leading numerous Cape Epic training camps along the way. You can book a one-on-one skills session or repair course by going to www.mtbguru.co.za.

Physiotherapy

READY, steady,GO!

Have you had your eye on a stage race for a long time? Or have you lost a bet and are feeling awfully hung over, wondering how are you possibly going to get through this race? Either way, you need to get going with some good preparation to ensure a successful and fun ride to cross the ﬁnish line. To help you out we’ve asked Sarah Walker, of Walker Physiotherapy, to provide a monthly column based on her years of treating riders. She knows a thing or two about what hurts mountain bikers.

aving been part of many Epics, Sani’s and Wines2Whales races, I have seen what happens when there is not enough race preparation – it’s a nasty sight. Read these tips, taken from countless physio sessions spent with many experienced mountain bikers who have survived to tell their tale.

Is your bike suitable for the race? Talk to those in the know about what bike will survive the terrain you intend to ride. Make sure it is correctly set up for you.

Who should you choose for your race partner? You must know each other’s strengths, weaknesses, oddities and routines before you venture into a stage race together. It could turn out to be a grizzly end to a good friendship!

How physically prepared are you for an intense training programme? Have a mountain biking speciﬁc physical assessment to detect any weaknesses and imbalances in your body before you start your training. Get going with an exercise programme to iron these imbalances out.

SUS Sarah’s Epic Checklist of Must Haves: ◆ Sunscreen (Solarx works like a bomb!) ◆ Bum cream (Chamois cream from your local bike shop) ◆ Rehydrate sachets to use after a super-hot, long, sweaty day ◆ Ear plugs – block out snoring neighbours and noisy generators

on a training ride as your body could react adversely to meds when taken under physical stress, the like you’ll be under in a racing environment.

How can you get your muscles prepared for the onslaught of the race? Book a massage session for each race day. If possible go for massages up to once a week in the last few weeks leading up to your race. Sports massage speeds up muscle recovery and reduces the incidence of injuries. It’s a no brainer.

What about my support team? Prepare your support team! It’s going to be a strain on you, those close to you and those supporting you. You will need them on your side at all times, and you’ll need to be happy to see them at the ﬁnish line. They need to know to expect irritability, exhaustion and possibly irrational requests from you during the race. Good luck and make it an adventure, have fun!

What training should you do?

◆ Probiotics to avoid a runny

There is never enough training time as we all lead busy lives, so go for quality not quantity. You will be amazed at what a structured scientiﬁc programme will produce. The ﬁtter you are, the less time you’ll spend in the saddle on each race day and the more time you’ll have for recovery.

tummy during the race ◆ Immodium – there’s not always a tree in sight ◆ Valoid ◆ Buscopan for tummy cramps ◆ Eno’s for muscle cramps ◆ Mozzie repellent

How can you avoid getting injured?

Book a massage session for each race day.

Prevent injuries by working on your problem areas with core and strength exercises; allowing recovery time and having regular sports massages to speed up recovery.

What should you eat?

SARAH WALKER

Eat sensibly. See a nutritionist for advice as we are all different and not everyone’s remedies work for all of us.

What about medication? Test any medication you may need to take during your race before the time

Sarah Walker is a sports physiotherapist who has been involved with treating cyclists for 15 years. She’s worked at many MTB stage races around the country and from her Cape Town practice sees many a sports person. She teaches Pilates and is ﬁtness trainer for a tennis academy. Sarah believes that a thorough sports speciﬁc assessment followed by a well-planned exercise programme to treat the cause of the problem is the key to getting her patients back to full health and sporting success. Go to www.walkerphysiotherapy.co.za for more info or send your questions to sarah@walkerphysiotherapy.co.za.

FS Amarider

The economics of TRAI L BUI L DI N G While it is entirely possible to build a trail with no budget - by building some afternoons, weekends and relying on volunteers, most big projects completed today are done as contracts and with budgets writes AmaRider’s Meurant Botha. How much will it cost? This is certainly not an easy question when it comes to trail building, as you are not dealing with exact volumes and quantities as you would when constructing a house off plans. Is it wet, steep, sandy, inaccessible or far from the closest contractor? Would you need bridges or other interventions to make the route passable? Would you need new fences and gates to manage animals or people? We are currently building extensive sections of bench cut singletrack to access large tracts of forest made up of invasive species and the vegetation type plays a major role in the cost per kilometre. In pine stands you are dealing with a soft wood that cuts easily, while in a dense wattle plantation you can really get held up with hard, dry material that needs serious chainsaw intervention.

A word on maintenance

show annual investments upwards from R200 000 per annum. Being involved in the new Knorhoek Valley trail system has given us a very accurate handle on costs as we are building with an in-house crew. Over the past seven months we have invested more than 110 trail build days with a team of eight to ten. This gives us roughly 1 000 man-days at R140 - R150 per day! Then there are vehicle costs, supervision, chainsaws, brushcutters etc. Trail building is certainly not cheap!

A good rule of thumb is that your trail system will require maintenance of between 10-20% of construction cost per annum. Contour singletracks in clay soil with good water management can be maintained for half that, but a heavily used downhill track though sandy fynbos could easily be double the cost to maintain.

Revenue Considering the cost of trail construction it should not require a mathematician to realise that a R30 - R50 permit is a difficult way to recoup some of your investment, unless you are close to a major centre and can attract over 500 riders a weekend. And not many trail system are drawing these numbers. Tourism initiatives should see the trail as an asset to supplement existing guesthouse or restaurant infrastructure or as an enabler that could facilitate the hosting of events. The expense of establishing and operating a trail system is one of the reasons why one sees quite a few mountain bike clubs stepping up as trail owners and developers as they can do so without the proﬁt monster guiding all decisions. Most large US and Canadian trail systems are operated by non-proﬁts and it is nice to see local clubs stepping up and operating some of our best riding sites.

How do I bring the cost down? Due to these wide ranging cost inﬂuences, I have long advocated that contractors and clients rather revert to a day rate instead of trying to come to a ‘per kilometre’ rate. Experienced trail crews will be able to gauge the time frame involved with a project and therefor the client can budget and plan for a build accordingly. The day rate covers the expenses like labour, vehicles, tools, team management as well as proﬁt margin for the contractor. Singletrack construction is currently costing anything from R12 000 to R25 000 per kay depending on terrain. If you are brush-cutting a few existing cattle paths you can probably go as low as R5 000/km, but if you need to bring in clay, it could be as high as R50 000/km. A quick look at the budgets of big trail systems like Karkloof, Jonkershoek and Tygerberg will

MEURANT BOTHA

“WHILE A CONTRACTOR MIGHT SOUND LIKE AN EXPENSIVE OPTION, NOTHING IS MORE EXPENSIVE THAN BUILDING IT WRONG!”

The easiest way to keep the cost down is to design the route to ﬁrst incorporate sections where the construction costs will not go through the roof. Perhaps a good rule is to ﬁrst test the popularity of the trail system before investing in expensive trail zones. Hybrid-contracting is another way to keep costs down by supplying additional labour to the contractor. On a farm this could be during a quiet time in between harvests or a club could look at volunteer projects. On many schemes, we have done skill development projects where we teach local labourers to build and maintain the trail. This is by far the most cost-effective and sustainable long term solution. While a contractor might sound like an expensive option, nothing is more expensive than building it wrong! A reputable trail builder with an experienced team will cut trail at a rate that you cannot believe. Work with your contractor to keep a handle on the costs, determine which components can be done in-house and leave the contractor to do the expensive and expert components like design and the initial cut.

Meurant Botha is the founder and director of AmaRider. AmaRider is a South African non-proﬁt company with the aim of improving MTB opportunities on the African continent. Contact them at 021 8844547 or info@amarider.co.za or visit the website at www.amarider.co.za

Conservation

Paarl Mountain Reserve - NOT JUST A PRETTY ROCK

PHOTOS BY JEANNE-LOUISE WIESE

The author enjoying the views over Paarl from the Moab like granite formations which characterise the Paarl Mountain landscape.

Jeanne-Louise Wiese has visited her in-laws numerous times in the past year and always looked up at the Paarl Mountain where the granite boulders shimmer like a pearls after a rainstorm. After riding up to take a closer look on Saturday morning she decided to share some interesting environmental facts about the Paarl Mountain Reserve with you.

id you know that the massive granite outcrop is the second largest in the world, is over 500 million years old and looks down on the third oldest European settlement in South Africa, the town of Paarl?

Jeanne-Louise Wiese is a Senior Environmental Practitioner for engineering, management and specialist technical services giant Aurecon. As an avid MTBer she has the good fortune of consulting on the Provincial Department of Transport to upgrade and maintenance programme for gravel roads, so she gets to visit secluded areas and take her bike along.

These huge outcrops fall within the Paarl Mountain Reserve which was established in 1977 and is administered by the Drakenstein Municipality. Amongst numerous mountain biking routes, the reserve proudly hosts the Klipkers Nature Trail which is a circular route set out by local schools and takes about two hours to walk. On a very hot Saturday morning in January my hubby and I decided to cycle up Jan Phillips Mountain Road and have a quick trip through the Mountain Reserve. Starting from Paarl in the early morning hours you have no choice but to adopt the “stay alert, stay alive” attitude as noises that sound like gunshots ﬁre into the fresh air around the vineyards surrounding the town. The sound, which is meant to scare birds and other grape eating creatures, had me shooting up the hills in record times. Only much later did I realise that this is probably the most environmentally friendly way of diverting birds from the vineyards to protect the grapes - certainly a better solution than the historical ways of poisoning, capturing and shooting birds to prevent damage to any crops in the area. A trip up the mountain could include a stroll over the recycled plastic path which looks like wooden slats on the way to Bretagne Rock (known as Paarl Mountain) or a visit

to the Millwater Wild Flower Garden where 15 species of protea may be viewed. All of these can be accessed via gravel roads which offer cycling routes between four and twenty kilometres in length and cater for all levels of ﬁtness. I would recommend that an early morning attempt is best to get to the top of the mountain where great views of the Boland Mountains and across False Bay towards Cape Point can be enjoyed. It can however become a struggle for hydration as the temperature can climb to above 30 degrees Celsius before lunch time. On the plateau on the top, you can cycle the gravel roads which wind through fynbos vegetation, ancient wild olives, wagon trees and rock candle woods. Conservation efforts in the reserve of the indigenous plant and animal life involve, among other things, eradicating exotic

plants and implementing a program of controlled burning. Large water storage dams have also been built on the plateau and are easily accessible and used to provide water to the surrounding residential areas. For this reason, swimming is not allowed in these dams, no matter how tempting it is when cycling in the hot summer months. Other recreational activities in the area include ﬁshing, for which permits can be obtained from the Paarl Municipality, hosting a braai at Krismis Kamp or visiting the famous Taal Monument, which was built in commemoration of the Afrikaans language. Hiking or cycling in this area would probably be the best way to interact with the unspoilt ecosystem which ﬂourishes on top of the mountain. You might come across animals such as baboons, caracal, dassies and porcupine, amongst others. So next time you decide to stop by Juno Café or visit any of the wine estates in the Paarl or Wellington area, get up earlier, pack your cycling gear and consider starting your day with a bang. Because it’s not inside, it’s on top where the trails and views of the Paarl Mountain Reserve are on offer…

“ON THE PLATEAU ON THE TOP, YOU CAN CYCLE THE GRAVEL ROADS WHICH WIND THROUGH FYNBOS VEGETATION, ANCIENT WILD OLIVES, WAGON TREES AND ROCK CANDLE WOODS.”

FS Stirling Revolution

Sometimes you’ll laugh, sometimes you’ll cry, but don’t ever panic! When trouble hits on the trail-side, stay calm and ﬁx the problem effectively and efficiently with these handy tips supplied by our local bike shop guru, Stirling Junior.

struggle to seal. The first is a large hole in the tyre within the tread pattern and these can usually be fixed with a plug. Bigger holes need either 2 thin plugs (installed at the same time) or a thicker plug, and all plugs will be more effective if you smear a blob of rubber glue on the plug before inserting it. Similarly, a small hole on the edge of the bead where the tyre seats on the rim can sometimes be repaired with a plug. Check both sides of the tyre bead similar to the pinch flat snake-bite puncture on a tube. Unfortunately, if you get a big hole or cut on the bead or any hole in the tyre sidewall, a plug generally aint gonna cut it. Remove the tubeless valve (put it in a safe place for later), fit your emergency tube and don’t forget to put a gator/tyre-boot between the new tube and the hole in the tyre. Wrapping duct tape around the tyre and rim will get you home when the damage to the tyre is really bad. Top trick: The above is all best achieved with the bicycle upsidedown, and if you need to remove a rear wheel, first drop to the smallest gears before flipping the bicycle over.

Bust or bent derailleur hanger:

If all else fails a tube works wonders as a tow rope (remember no towing is allowed in the Epic though).

Try to backtrack the chain to un-jam it.

You must carry a hanger/dropout specific to your bicycle and the tools needed to remove and install it. First remove the remnants of the old hanger from the frame and the derailleur. Inspect the derailleur for damage and if bust, see below. Then fit the new hanger and run through the gears under no pedalling pressure to ensure a perfect fix. Top trick: Practise changing your hanger at home when time, light and cold beers are unlimited.

PHOTOS BY SJ KOTZE

Broken rear derailleur:

Snapped, bent or jammed chain: A clean break can easily be fixed with the correct masterlink, just make sure that you thread your chain through your rear derailleur correctly. If you have bent or twisted some links, you’ll have to remove all the damaged links leaving 2 female links to reconnect with the quicklink. If your chain is jammed, calmly but firmly try removing it by reversing the action that jammed it in the first place. Breaking the chain may be your only option, and make sure you haven’t damaged the chain where

CO2 bombs are a must for trail-side tubeless puncture repairs. it was jammed. If you have had to shorten your chain, remember that the big half of your rear cassette gears are out of bounds when in the biggest front chainring. Top Trick: After installing your masterlink, roll you cranks backward to place the new link above the chainstay. Hold your back wheel by applying your rear brake and slam the crank forward to ensure the quicklink engages fully.

Tubeless Puncture: There are 3 common serious punctures that your sealant will

Eish. This is an expensive and unpleasant situation. Look if the chain is damaged and break it at that section. Remove the rear derailleur and stick it in your pack. Now it is time to go singlespeed. The best ratio for someone who is not used to riding a single is to have the front cog about 1.5 times bigger than the chosen rear cog. Try always choose the middle front cog (32) of a triple or the big cog (36 or 38) of a double and try keep the chain-line as straight as possible. Shorten the chain remembering that the tension is vital and too slack is better than too tight. Choosing the rear cog correctly helps with all these factors. Top trick: Remember to keep the extra bit of chain you removed to go

Stirling-James Kotze, aka SJ Years in the saddle: 17 Favourite ride/trail: Jonkershoek, Stellenbosch Recurring MTB nightmare: Noisy, squeaky bikes The Stirling Revolution Bio The father and son combo of Stirling senior and junior are avid cyclists and owners of a local bike shop in Cape Town. In their monthly column they’ll be oﬀering their uniquely phrased views on the ins and outs of mountain biking from negotiating a discount to locating that weird noise your bike keeps making, but won’t make when you take it to the workshop, they’ll cover it. singlespeed as you’re going to need it again when you get a new rear derailleur.

Snapped spoke: One or two broken spokes shouldn’t be a problem. Wrap the broken spokes around the adjacent spoke and carry on. If the wheel is a bit buckled, it is usually still safe to ride, just get it repaired properly after the stage/ride. Top trick: Know what type and length of spokes and nipples your wheels use and make sure you have a few spares back at the race village.

A few other tips: ◆ Slightly used brake pads are the best spares as they are easier to fit. ◆ Zip ties and duct tape will fix a lot, such as broken saddles or damaged brake/shifter handlebar clamps. ◆ Carry a spare cleat and cleat bolts, an extra gear cable, and a seat post clamp. The bolt in the seat post clamp is also very useful. ◆ Check your tyre pressures and tubeless sealant level regularly. ◆ In a stage race, both riders shouldn’t both carry the unlikely spares. For example you carry the first aid kit, gear cable and seat post clamp and I’ll carry the space blanket, zip ties and duct tape.

“REMEMBER TO KEEP THE EXTRA BIT OF CHAIN YOU REMOVED TO GO SINGLESPEED AS YOU’RE GOING TO NEED IT AGAIN WHEN YOU GET A NEW REAR DERAILLEUR.”

SUS The reviews

ICEdot Crash Sensor The ICEdot Crash Sensor is a really great concept for riders how ﬁnd they are doing a lot of riding by themselves, either on unfamiliar trails or outside the busy times on their local trails and want some peace of mind. So we got Richard Pieterse to give it a through test.

had some issues with the initial Crash Sensor. At ﬁrst I thought I was technically challenged or, as my wife put it, a bloke ‘who thinks he does not need to read the instructions’ as this is so basic anyone can set it up… A quick call to Patrick Cawood and his team, and some remote fault ﬁnding to ascertain if it was a device issue or the bloke behind the device, revealed I didn’t have to read the instructions. Patrick and his team were on the ball and replaced the faulty unit with a new one, and have been great in following up to check if all is still ok. So the back-up support is excellent, thanks Patrick.

How it works: The Crash Sensor device itself is a small compact unit that one mounts on ones helmet using cable ties and is paired via Bluetooth 4.0 with your smartphone. So make sure your phone is equipped with the Bluetooth 4.0. The basic concept is that the Crash Sensor can detect motion, changes in force and impact, so in the event of

an impact, the sensor will trigger the smartphone via low energy Bluetooth, which in turns sounds an alarm and activates an emergency countdown. Unless the countdown clock is stopped, the app will then notify your emergency contacts, sending a pre-deﬁned message created when you set-up your ICEdot proﬁle, plus more importantly, your GPS co-ordinates on a Google Map.

packs for those only looking to load an emergency ID proﬁle, comes with a one year membership included. So, in essence, your ﬁrst year is free.

ICEdot App: The app is available for free on the App Store. Search for ICEdot and download. Be careful as there is a similar app ‘ICEdot Medic’ which is not the correct one.

Getting Started:

Device Support:

This is a simple process whereby you create an ICEdot ID profile by activating the PIN code found on your ICEdot product by following the instructions on www.icedot.org. The ICEdot profile allows one to share information such as who you are, medical aid, doctor’s details, medications or allergies and how to reach your emergency contacts. It also allows you to set-up a list of emergency contacts that will be notified by SMS with your location and relevant personal and medical information.

The Crash Sensor app is currently only supported on iPhones 4S and later and an Android version is available for Nexus 4 and 5 phones (Google). There are some apps for other Android devices running 4.3 or later but these are considered public beta (the third phase of testing). Currently there is, unfortunately, no support for any Samsung phones. The reason for this is that sensor requires Low Energy Bluetooth to communicate with the phone and at present Samsung does not use Google’s code for this so it won’t work at all until they implement the full code from Google. I am also using the ICEdot silicone arm band. This has a PIN etched into this silicone bracelet, which can be used to

Membership: ICEdot membership is R100 per year, per person. Each product, there are also ICEdot Bands and ICEdot sticker

identify you and notify your emergency contacts. Currently there are only US and EU emergency contact numbers, but there is a South African number in the pipeline for mid-2014. The ﬁrst responder will simply SMS the PIN to either number on the band and they will receive an SMS with your proﬁle plus a short URL that will provide access to your personal and medical information. The fact that the emergency contact number is an international number could potentially be an issue for some people, but it is only an SMS fee.

Richard Pieterse is a qualiﬁed Mechanical Engineer and is a solution architect at Dimension Data - he has been mountain biking for 8 years.

Woes of a cycling widow

When Karen Visser’s husband (Ryan) ﬁrst got a bike, she thought “this is going to be great!” We had been married just under a year and due to all that puppy love, he had picked up roughly 10kgs. She thought cycling would be a fun thing to do together and would provide a new topic of conversation for him and her father to engage in…

can laugh now at my naiveté. Yes, he did slim down and my husband’s relationship with his dad-in-law did improve. But I didn’t have any idea how commonplace the whirring of wheels would be in our lounge, or how adept I would become at folding down the seats in our Golf to make way for his two-wheeled ‘other half’. As he grew in his knowledge of cycling and bicycles, he began fixing things and trying things out. I will never forget the first time he tried to put slime into his tyres. Being an engineer, I was fully confident in this guy to get it right. It didn’t cross my mind that we would be cleaning up trails of green as they shot across our passage tiles for the next hour. Other memories include him teaching me how to ride a bike. Now I had learnt in school but had fallen when I was fifteen and not ridden since. Whoever said that you never forget how to ride a bicycle is a jerk. While I was wobbling all over the road and hurling verbal abuse in his general direction, he sucked it up and tried to only snigger when my back was turned. I smile when I think of that (terrifying) day now. Of course we have had our spats about cycling. Leaving parties early because of a race the next day; constantly tripping over bicycles in the house and trying to convince

WWW.OAKPICS.COM

FS Cycling widows

As a cycling widow you might well be expected to man a water point or two…

him (unsuccessfully) to not cycle down a stupidly steep hill with a Go Pro on his helmet in the middle of the desert, were just some of the obstacles we have had to overcome. But when I think of the last ﬁve years, I don’t want to forget the crazy hairstyles I have seen from helmet hair or the cheering in the middle of the night as he did another round at a 24 hour race. It has been a wonderful, upside-down, cyclingenthused ﬁve years, and I wouldn’t want to take any of those bike memories out of it.

“IT HAS BEEN A WONDERFUL, UPSIDE-DOWN, CYCLINGENTHUSED FIVE YEARS, AND I WOULDN’T WANT TO TAKE ANY OF THOSE BIKE MEMORIES OUT OF IT.”

Karen Visser is a laidback, ride-on-the-cycle-lane type of girl. She is married to crazy, cycle-til-you-drop Ryan Visser. They stay in Tableview, Cape Town and are expecting the newest cyclist in their family at the end of May this year.

RIDE YOUR OWN RACE Liqui-Fruit Vineyard MTB Race 51km and 26km races

Lourensford Wine Estate 30 March 2014

RUN YOUR OWN RACE Liqui-Fruit Vineyard Trail Run 16km and 6km races Liqui-Fruit hampers to the ﬁrst 1000 entrants Entries are limited Register online now: www.vineyard-races.co.za

RIDE IN STYLE IN

full sus

Full Sus Kit

CRAFT GEAR

The great look of the Full Sus kit is backed up by Craft’s advanced Swedish design and construction which is sure to have you feeling comfortable for hours in the saddle. There are men’s and ladies’ speciﬁc jerseys and bibshorts in the Full Sus range so why not order matching kits?

HERE ARE THE SPEC HIGHLIGHTS: Craft Active Jersey: Ergonomic construction for freedom of movement ◆ Lightweight, soft and ventilating fabric ◆ Soft sleeve ends ◆ Full Length zipper ◆ 4 back pockets, including one with zipper closing mechanism ◆

full sus

Craft kit will also be available in selected local bike shops! Trade enquiries contact Julia at sussed@fullsus.co.za

FRONT

BACK

Craft Performance Bibshort:

FRONT

◆ The Craft Bibshorts are made of highly elastic, Lycra Sports fabrics that provide freedom of movement and excellent moisture transport. ◆ Body-control fabric with 4-way elasticity that reduces muscle vibration and focuses power for optimal comfort and control ◆ Ergonomic construction for a perfect riding-position fit ◆ Single-layer sublimation printed leg ending with Craft silicon print on inside ◆ Bib construction for great support and fit ◆ Ergonomically placed seams follow the anatomy of the moving body ◆ Gender specific Performance Pad

BACK

Craft Performance Pad:

Building on the great popularity of the old Performance Pad, the new version features the same pressure zones but has been upgraded with a refreshing moulded design, higher density and EVA Anti-shock System. Moreover, Craft have increased the precision of the Lasercut Tech® technology for improved comfort. The Performance Pad is a 3-layer, seamless, anatomically moulded, antimicrobial and gender-speciﬁc pad made of Oeko-Tex® fabrics and foams of the highest quality. For more on the Craft Performance Pad go to www.craft.se/ergonomics.

full sus Chamois Cream

Beat the terrors of saddle sores with Full Sus Craft Performance bibshorts and Full Sus Chamois Cream. With a subtle sandalwood aroma, mild antiseptic, vitamin E enriched and a satin smooth feel the Full Sus Chamois Cream will keep your sensitive bits protected. Available soon in a bike shop near you, or get your hands on a free tub by ordering a set of Full Sus Craft kit before the 17th of March.

SUS the Craft Sizes Men’s Sizes (in cm) XS

XXL

XXXL

Chest

105

111

119

127

Waist

107

115

Seat

101

107

113

121

129

XXL

XXXL

Chest

102

110

118

Waist

102

Seat

104

110

118

126

Ladies’ Sizes (in cm)

Place your order today by dropping us a mail to sussed@fullsus.co.za. If you place your order by Monday 17 March you’ll receive a free tub of Full Sus chamois cream! ◆ Active Jersey: R790 ◆ Performance Bibshorts: R990 ◆ Full kit: R1 690 Note: Prices include VAT and nation-wide delivery. Expect delivery by the 20th of June 2014. 3XL carries a 10% extra cost.

FS Gear

EPIC supporter’s gear With March being the month of the Epic we thought we’d put together a little something for those of you who’ll be spending many hours on the side of the trails cheering on your nearest and dearest. Willow Picnic Basket

Let’s start with the basics, you’re going to need a picnic basket, and while you’re at it you might as well get the best looking one… So the Willow Picnic Basket is ideal. It comes stocked with knives, forks, spoons, plates and wine glasses for four people; all of which stow away safely to avoid breakages. There’s also plenty of room left inside to pack the food that doesn’t need to be kept cool and a picnic blanket. It also has space for three bottles of wine, or if you’re a really dedicated supporter two bottles of wine and an extra bottle of race fuel for the rider you’ve come to support. Available from Cape Union Mart for R550.

Canon EOS 1 100D

If you’re looking for an entry level DSLR camera that can do it all and comes in at a good price, then look no further than the EOS 1 100D with the twin lens kit. The twin lens kit provides you with a 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens and a 75-300mm f/4-5.6 lens, along with an eight gig memory card. The 1 100D is equipped with a 12 megapixel CMOS sensor and a 2.7 inch LCD screen, is capable of shooting at three frames per second, has nine auto-focus points and an ISO range from 100 to 6 400. It can also shoot 720p videos. It does all you need it to do well, is simple to use and takes great photos. Plus if you buy it from Orms (www.ormsdirect.co.za) you get a free training course in the retail price of R6 495.

Bushnell 10 x 50 Falcon Armoured Binoculars

Spot the difference between your favourite rider and a plastic packet caught in a fence at 300 paces (okay I’ve got bad eyes) with these built to take the knocks binocs. Featuring 10 times magniﬁcation and 50mm objective lens diameters, the Falcon’s will have you tracking the rider you want even in the low evening light. The lenses are fully coated, the housing is non-slip rubber coated and there’re equipped with Bushnell’s InstaFocus system for fast focusing on moving targets – like mountain bikers. You can purchase them online from www.capeunionmart.co.za for R899.

SolRx Spray Dry Sunscreen

SolRx Sunscreens come highly recommended from Full Sus’s new physio columnist, Sarah Walker and with their wide range of products there’ll be something for you regardless of your outdoor pursuit. For the spectators however the top choice is the Spray Dry formulation. It offers all the UVA and UVB broadspectrum sun protection without the greasy pour clogging cream or gel. It’s designed with the active user in mind, so you won’t leave greasy ﬁnger marks on your camera or drop your binocs through slippery hands. It has a paraben free formulation and comes in a continual spray bottle for easy application. Find your nearest SolRx retailer at www.solrxsa.co.za.

Shooting Stick

Cobb Premier Cooking System

If you’re really going to settle in for the day and would like to do a trail side braai (please don’t set the veld alight!), then the Cobb cooker is the way to go. The Premier is their mid-sized offering. It will braai a whole chicken with just 3-5 pieces of charcoal or one Cobble Stone and allows you to grill, boil, fry and roast all with one mobile cooker. It’s a must have for any regular camper so this could be the perfect excuse to get your hands on one. You can buy one from www.yuppiechef.com for R1 195.

If a folding chair is just too much of a mission to carry along, then you should keep an eye out for a shooting stick, or as they’re known in some circles, a seat stick. Shooting sticks are a must have in the UK, especially for spectators at point-to-point races (a nonprofessional form of steeplechase horse racing). The shooting stick is basically a sturdy walking stick with a handle that folds out into a seating platform, and some models even incorporate an umbrella into the mix. Golf fans here in SA might already be familiar with the device and you’ll ﬁnd endless uses for it once you have one. They’re hard to come by locally in stores, but you can buy online from www.seatstick.co.za for R399 excluding shipping.

K-Way Women’s Brenta Down Jacket

If you’re going to be stuck out in the ﬁckle Cape weather for hours on end then you’d better have a decent warm jacket to pull on when Mother Nature turns against you. It’s windproof, water-resistant and is ﬁlled with 211g of high-quality goose down. The nylon and polyester construction makes it lightweight but still rugged enough to survive camping trips or hikes to view points on the Epic. Speaking of hiking, the shell is vapour permeable too, so it won’t collect sweaty odours and to cap it all, it is hypoallergenic so you won’t get the sniffles from it (or in it because you’ll be kept toasty warm). The Brenta Down Jacket, and the male counterpart the Ortler, is also available on Cape Union Mart’s online shopping portal for R1 799.

’s lend B e l k a c d olco nond Can ylon Wo per-size ns. u e a s W the gard ying ek rock o j n r e wa T Tank

photo of the month

Oakpics is a Strand based photographic company. They shoot a vast array of events, covering everything from wild horses to weddings. But it’s in MTB that they’ve carved out a niche as one of the leaders in the ﬁeld. If you spot them on the trails, usually when you’re picking yourself up after an unexpected brush with the ground, you can purchase the photos directly from their website. Or book them to shoot your event. Call them on 021 854 8723 or visit www.oakpics.com.

Stand a chance to win one of two pairs of adidas evil eye half rim pro’s worth R2 499 each!

wi n Comp

Tell us where you grabbed your copy of Full Sus. Email your answer with your ID Number, Full Name, Physical Address and Contact Number to comp@fullsus.co.za.

DOUBLE your chances by liking and sharing us at www.facebook.com /fullsussa

Biking without compromises

HOW TO WIN: Drop us an email by the 20th of March, with the subject: “Where I grabbed Full Sus” to comp@fullsus.co.za with the following details: Where you picked up Full Sus, ID Number, Name, Contact Number and Physical Address. Please note that style and colours may vary.

From road racing to mountain biking, the eyewear specialist adidas eyewear is ensuring perfect vision this season with a new addition to its biking family. The versatile evil eye halfrim model guarantee’s clear view for all professional and amateur cycling enthusiasts. Biking without compromises - this is the philosophy behind adidas eyewear’s evil eye models for more than ten years. There is no question of half measures, with the exception that it is a halfrim frame. The new evil eye halfrim model takes design and function to the highest level, turning the phrase “half measures” on its head. The halfrim design and the frame material make the evil eye halfrim models especially light, ideal for both mountain biking and road racing. The flat temples ensure a perfect fit under a helmet, while individually adjustable nose pads and temples promote optimum comfort. From technically challenging downhill sections to sweat-inducing asphalt roads, the halfrim design and strongly curved filters provide the wearer with a consistently clear view all round. The LST™ filter technology also guarantees optimal vision: contrasts are increased, helping you to identify bumps faster and more accurately. Disturbing fast changes from light to shade are compensated. The result: the rider can concentrate completely on the sport and his or her eyes tire less quickly. The filter can easily be swapped in the event of a sudden change of weather during a tour. 29

CALENDAR SUS THE BEST OF April 2014

Advertise your event in Full Sus and we will send you copies of the paper for your goodie bags or registration table. Call Julia on 021 685 0285/6

6 Columbia Mountain Bike 10 UCI World Cup #1 XCO/DHI 26 KZN Provincial Champs XCO/

KZN

3 Mascor Greytown MTB Festival 3 Newcastle MTB Family Race Series 3 or 4 3 Greytown MTB Festival 4 Zini River Estate Buffalo Classic 9 Sappi Karkloof Classic MTB Festival 13 Sani2C Trail 14 Sani2C Adventure 15 Sani2C Race

DHI/Enduro

MPUMALANGA

9 Lowveld Quest 19 Cefas MTB Race

OUT OF AFRICA

EASTERN CAPE

5 XCO Provincial #2 6 Harcourts WCFM MTB Challenge FREE STATE

24 Nedbank Save The Rhino MTB 26 Rhino River Run 26 Anatomic Southern Skies 24 hour MTB WESTERN CAPE 11 36One Extreme MTB Challenge 12 Bien Donne kids MTB 13 Dirtopia Enduro 20 Delta Trap 25 Mad Mountain Marathon 26 Trans Karoo 26 Arabella Challenge 26 WCAD Summer Series #3 KZN

6 International Enduro 6 Triple Challenge MTB 6 Sugar Rush Classic

(Lesotho)

May 2014

NORTH WEST

24 The FNB Magalies Monster MTB Classic OUT OF AFRICA

18 Windhoek Namib Quest (Namibia)

31 Red Island Ride (Madagascar)

List your Event in the Full Sus Calendar

RACE CALENDAR MPUMALANGA 25 SA Cup Series XCO & DHI #3

Get your event, big or small, from the ABSA Cape Epic to your LBS weekly training ride listed in the Full Sus calendar. If it’s a MTB event, be it a ride or race, we want to list it. And it’s free!

LIMPOPO 24 MTN National MTB Series #5 Rooiberg 31 Nissan Trailseeker #1 Cullinan 31 Rooibokkop MTB Rally

All you need to do is go to www.fullsus.co.za, click on ‘Event Calendar’ and ﬁnd the submit event bar, ﬁll in your event details and click submit. Then Robert’s your mother’s brother, your event will soon be live on FullSus.co.za to be seen by thousands of mountain bikers from the furthest corners of South Africa.

It’ll automatically be included in the newspaper too. And best of all, it’s FREE. Just like Full Sus.

GAUTENG 1 ASG Night Series 7 Kia Over the Moon Series 25 Bell of Hope Cycle Challenge for Mental Wellness FREE STATE

3 MTN National MTB Series #4 Clarens 31 Rhino River Run May WESTERN CAPE

3 Houwhoek MTB Tour 10 Gravel Travel 10 The “X” MTB Expedition 11 Tripping On The Wild Coast 17 Darling Brew Extreme 17 LEAP Challenge 23 Hex Valley Autumn Splendour MTB 24 Amarider 100 Miler & 50 Miler 31 Montagu Mountain Mania

SEAMUS ALLARDICE

GAUTENG 2 Kia Over the Moon Series 3 ASG Night Series 5 XCOSA #1 11 Moon Treadle Nigh series #4 12 Emperors Palace MTB 12 Delta Dash MTB Endurance 13 Bouer Broers MTB #1 20 Mice 2 Provinces MTB Race 25 joBerg2c

5 Malealea Monster (Lesotho) 19 SA Cup Series #2 XCO & DHI

18 Husqvarna Mid-Illovo Classic MTB

From Karl Platt to the weekend fun rider there’s something in the Full Sus calendar for everyone.

MARCH Must do events ■ 22 March: Sappi Mankele MTB Challenge

The Mankele MTB Challenge is now part of the Rainbow Series so if you’re keen on racing for national honours in an age group category this year you’d better sign up. The 65km main event is billed as featuring tough climbing and ﬂowing single track, providing a real treat. There are also 35km and 12km rides on offer and a 2.5km kiddies fun ride. All of which take place on the amazing Makele trails! All the information and route proﬁles

CALENDAR KEY

Mpumalanga

Free State

Limpopo

Western Cape

Northern Cape

KZN

Gauteng

North West

Eastern Cape

Out in Africa

are up on the event website at www.mankele.co.za and you can enter online too.

can ﬁnd out more on Facebook by searching Kingﬁsher MTB or going to www.hoekwilprimary.co.za.

■ 22 March: Kingﬁsher MTB Marathon

■ 29 March: ASG 24hr Ride

If you’d like to get away from the Epic chaos then there’s no better place to go riding in the Western Cape than the tranquil trails of the Garden Route. And if you need another excuse, you can enter the Kingﬁsher MTB Race! It’s the annual fundraiser for the Hoekwil Primary School, and goes a long way to helping raise the R135 000 shortfall in the school’s budget, so there’s a feel good factor to entering too. 2014 also marks the centenary of the Hoekwil village so there’ll be an added buzz around the start/ﬁnish area. There are 20km, 40km and 70km MTB options as well as 8km and 16km trail runs on offer and you

Ride ASG’s legendary Rosemary Hill MTB track for 24 hours… okay maybe you’d like to do that as part of a team to really get the most enjoyment possible out of the day. You can enter either as a solo rider or in teams of two, four, six or eight riders and compete in either the twenty four or six hour formats. There are two 10km routes around which you’ll race to see how many laps you (and your teammates) can complete. You’re welcome to race until you drop or take it easy spending more time around the campﬁre than on the bike. It’s intended to be a fun day and night out and all the information is up on www.asgevents.co.za as well as the entry information, so go check it out.

■ 30 March: Liqui-Fruit Vineyard Races Come experience the buzz of the ABSA Cape Epic ﬁnish at the Lourensford, Liqui-Fruit Vineyard Races, on Sunday the 30th of March in Somerset-West. The Vineyard Races feature 51km and 26km MTB distances as well as 16km and 6km trail runs which take in sights of the beautiful Lourensford Wine Estate, which is usually inaccessible to mountain bikers. The 51km route offers a stern challenge with some serious climbing, but with all the Epic razzmatazz you’re sure to perform above and beyond your normal levels so give it a shot. Entries are open until the 20th of March and you can enter through the RaceInterface portal by going to www.vineyard-races.co.za.

Classifieds

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Bicycle Tours

We have a tour just for you! 021 511 4766

www.daytrippers.co.za

Too busy to take your bicycle in for a service?

We Collect, Repair and Deliver!

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