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September 2014, Vol 17
HASHTAG MOUNTAIN BIKING
Laikipia
pg 24
Trails
pg 12
Bike Revamp
pg 16
Kleinhans Muesli
pg 22
CYCLING ADMINISTRATION
just recap on the Commonwealth Games. In the mountain biking Mariske’s pre-race fall and Phillip’s puncture were terribly unlucky; do you regret not being able to convince SASCOC to take a bigger contingent of riders, especially seeing how well the Kiwis worked together in the Men’s race?
BC: Yes, there’s absolutely
no doubt that Mariske’s fall was rather disastrous for us, she was in good form and confident. Only the Canadians offered any real opposition. As it is, her injury was worse than we thought (In Mariske words she “managed to tear almost every abdominal muscle and then some other things as well.”) and she is now out of the Worlds team as a consequence. We all wish her a speedy recovery. Phillip had
no mechanicals on the day, it was assumed by the Twittersphere that he had, but he actually just couldn’t find his legs, it happens to the best. We’ve had a long discussion and it transpires he was still suffering from the “lingering effects of full blown influenza” (his team’s words, not mine...). I’ve gained a much deeper understanding of SASCOC over the last month and can now understand why they apply the ‘top 5 in Commonwealth criteria’; they are administrators with dozens of sporting codes banging on their door demanding that they become experts in their particular field. RSA hasn’t the money to send 500 athletes so an equitable method of judging a code’s potential for medals has to be found and as it stands this is it. Moving forward we need to look at how we structure our racing and how
FS
LARRY BENTLEY \ GAMEPLAN MEDIA
FS: Before we chat about CSA let’s
pg 8
CSA Q & A
It’s not a Dark Art
As the media we have the ability to present you the story through a filter of our beliefs, agendas and opinions. And though here at Full Sus we make every attempt to offer unbiased perspectives, we have fallen short on occasions, especially when it comes to CSA. Sport administration is a difficult job, fraught with conflicting politics. CSA walks a tightrope governing the sport we love and takes flak from all sides. So to let CSA present their case, unfiltered, we posed the Director of the mountain biking portfolio of Cycling South Africa, Brett Coates a few open ended questions. Here’s the official word from CSA:
Body Geometry
Mariske “lucky I bounce” Strauss is no stranger to big crashes, like this dramatic one at the 2013 XCE World Champs
we advise our athletes in order to do the best for them but also keeping in mind our qualifying criteria. I’m also excited that we will be able to build on the positive relationship we have now established with SASCOC, they are not without reason which is shown in the fact that we only qualified one female road cyclist but they allowed a support team to go with. Building to Rio 2016, do you think Mariske and Phillip will be better off after their Commonwealth Games disappointments?
FS:
BC: Both of these athletes are
professionals and Philip was at London in 2012. It is however a different level of BMT that is required at CWG and more so at Olympics. I think they’ve learned a great deal and although their results were disappointing they can now focus on both the physical and mental requirements at this level of competition. What is heartening is that neither has been lured away by the easy money of marathon racing and remain focussed on Cross Country, it’s the pinnacle of our sport but remains a poor cousin to the
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