sa road and time trial champs

by dart under



this week i got back to some real racing.cherise and i made the trip downto pe on monday with alot of luggage.its always hard to fly to an event like this as we had four bikes with us and loads of wheels,helmets etc.

on thursday the racing kicked off with the time trial and cherise had a cracker,winning the womans national title by 70 seconds over the 30km distance! i had a solid ride to place 5th,just 20seconds of the silver medal on a pan flat and windy course.

on saturday we took to a very hard road loop with 2 very steep 500m climbs.the loop was only 8.6 km long but had around 150m of verticle ascent per lap.the womans race was contested over ten laps and at the end it was cherise and team-mate merissa van der merwe against two girls from nashua-toyota.merissa won the title with cherise tacking the bronze medal for team usn.

our race kicked of at 1 30pm with the mercury hitting around 40c!after the first two laps it was obvious that the race was going to be one of attrition.the bunch witled down very quickly.after around 6 laps there were only about 40 guys left in the race and a break of 5 were up the road.as we approached lap 10 i was worried that the break was going to stay away and i made the racing hard on the climbs.it wasnt long before we had a select group going and the break came back with around 5 laps remaining.the real battle started with around 4 laps to go and i could feel the earlier efforts in my legs.the group split again and we were now 4 upfront.myself,christoff van heerden,darren lill and johan van zyl.we entered the last lap of 18 together and it was darren lill who made the first move.johan dropped first as christoff and i tried to respond.in the end darren got the best of us by 3 seconds and i managed to just edge out van heerden for the silver medal.

im realy happy with how my form is after just 6 weeks of training and i feel inspired for what lays ahead.i traveled back home on sunday and get to prepare my mtb for this weekends african continental champs in stellenbosch over the coming weekend.

cheers

burry
Posted by dart at 5:14 AM 0 comments

kzn road and tt champs

by dart under
this weekend was the first time i realy had to stretch my legs,i must say it felt great.training went well last week for most part and i was feeling good leading into the weekend.first up was the tt on saturday.we raced around the toyota test track close to eston for 40.5km.i started off realy fast and payed for it midway through before recovering and surging again near the end.my equipment worked great and ive realy been enjoying my tt sessions aboard the new specialized shiv 3.i finished the 40.5km in 52min 30 seconds giving me an average of 46.5kmh and my first tt win.

on sunday we arrived in eston with the rain pouring from the skies.with low moral i took to the start line for the 120km race.we were a good sized bunch with kzn's only pr team tasol/gt lining up with a full compliment of riders.in the first 30km there were loads of attacks as it kept pouring but everything seemed to stay together.i was determined to not let anything get away ans i was up for some good training so i made sure to set a high tempo at the front of the race.at around the 50km mark there was 2 riders off the front and with no one else willing to close the gap i drove hard on a long climb.by the top the group was split to just five and we soon joined the two up front.along umbumbulu road i gain forced the pace on a long climb and we entered the 10km van der merwes circuit with just four rider.myself,luke roberts,brandon stewardt and richard baxter entered the last 40km together and i could sense the fatigue in the group.as we hit the hard climb on the circuit i attacked and managed to open a gap on the other three.i slowly opened the gap until the elastic finally snapped and i got a good gap.i time trialed the last 35km to win my first kzn road champs.

thanks alot to westville cycling club for an awesome event!

ciao

burry
Posted by dart at 10:23 PM 0 comments

a new year...first blog

by dart under
man this site has been hurting,in a nutshell ive had an awesome off-season so far.i moved house,got my bike shop (concept cylery powered by burrystander)off the ground and training is going well.im now missing racing though and cant wait to get going with some road stuff soon.

happy new year to all,hope its a cracker for everybody

another solid week in the books...

rain,rain,rain and some more rain.my mtb got alittle dirty this week and i even had to sit out a few training sessions due to bad weather.rest is always good though and after some good rebuilding ive done some power workouts over the weekend.

this weekend sees the start of the racing calender in kzn.the first round of the lassen road series will kick off at van der merwes garage on sunday.also on the calendar is the kzn road and tt champs next week.for more info go to the kzn cycling website.

for the kzn tt champs ill be on a new shiv machine and also a new co-sponser from usn nutrition.the guys have realy come on board to support me this year.my specialized shiv 3 is currently stuck in customs but i hope it arrives soon as i have some work to do on it. big thanks to specialized for always hooking me up with the best gear.

thats all for this week.let hope the sunshine continues!

cheers

burry
Posted by dart at 10:42 PM 0 comments
by dart under



Posted by dart at 4:03 AM 0 comments

final event for 2010...

by dart under
the final event of the year took place in johannesburg on the weekend.the 94.7 cycle challenge that started in 1997 has grown to be the worlds 2nd biggest timed cycel race behind the cape argus.

for the last few years now a mtb race has been incorporated and has enjoyed alot of success.i always fit it in at the end of the year to give my sponsers one more good batch of publicity.this year i also tied it in with the launch of the first cycling concept store in south africa.concept cylery in melrose arch,a specialized concept store is the first of its kind in sa and ill soon be opening my own in waterfall,kzn.congrats to all involved,the store is spectacular!

joining me for the mtb race was cherise and specialized team mates dan hugo and conrad stoltz.conrad set a blistering pace from the gun but was soon slowed by a slow puncture.i dropped him my spares and tried to get a big lead as i knew the flat and fast nature would suit the powerful and inform "caveman"!around the halfway mark stoltz got back to me and i hung on for aslong as i could,in the end the 4times and current xterra champ powered away to take the win.i was happy with 2nd and look forward to gwetting fit again.cherise won and has shown awesome form over the last few weeks.

on sunday it was the big day for 24000 roadies as they took to streets of jhb.i followed the womans race as usual and witnessed cherise winning it for the first time.its a great way to end the season and payback usn who has realy backed her this year.

tommorow im back at home and will stay put until next year.cant wait!

cheers

burry
Posted by dart at 6:07 AM 0 comments

wines2whales

by dart under
another busy week in the books...after two days at home cherise and i headed down to cape town for the songo.info ride and dinner on wednesday nite.the event was a great success and thank you to all those who attended and showed their support.

on thursday i spent most of the day shooting in jonkershoek for the march issue of bicycling in which ill be the guest editor.gary flipper was behind the lens and did an awesome job as always.i also got to enjoy some singletrack which was in great shape.in the afternoon the songo.info group and i made our way to erinvale hotel in somerset west for the start of the wine2whales at lourensford.i was partnered up with johan roos and was looking forward to sseing the bunch from a difirent side.thanks to johan for putting up with me and supporting our cause.
the weekends riding was awesome and i got to enjoy all the cape epic routes without the pain.cherise and her usn team mate killed it in the womans section,winning overall.

on monday i met up with jeroen swart who put me through some paces.got some realy clear and helpfull feedback.im realy looking forward to working on my form for the upcoming season,but i have one more busy week and then a holiday one before i get going.

cheers

burry
Posted by dart at 11:44 PM 0 comments

a big week...off the bike

by dart under
this week i didnt get up to much riding but it was a very big week in my life.i did alot of work for my new concept cycling store in jhb which meant being stuck in traffic alot of the time.i did manage one or two very hot rides and a couple of runs.wow running hurts!
on friday we celebrated cherises 21st birthday with her family as we had to travel to bloemfontein for the ofm cycle classic on saturday which was realy on her birthday.i had a bit of a surprise up my sleeve and booked us into a serious hotel with all the romantic extras.i did all this as i proposed to cherise as we got there.to my excitement she said yes and is now my beatiful fiancee.
this week im back home for two days before heading to cape town for the wine2whales race.ill be riding in the colours of songo.info for another time this year.
ciao
burry
Posted by dart at 10:55 AM 0 comments
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