Wow some of the takes on this forum have been wild and read like bitter old men who don't want to let the kids have fun because "back in my day we worked hard".
Dismissing Theo's skills on a bike is so out of pocket but at least after a statement like that everyone can see that every other opinion should be taken with a dumptruck of salt. Saying he is the epic rider is crazy, Theo is probably pulling more of a gap on those riders down the ~1min30sec track than what he is losing by on a full length world cup circuit.
But besides all that, I also have a 2 cent to throw in.
Having read through the forum, articles and also just knowing a lot of the people involved, I see where they are coming from. I also to some degree agree with the keyboard warriors going on about knowing the rules and needing to play by them to get points to make the cut but it feels like a lot of those people are missing what the riders and their supporters are trying to say.
No one is saying it should be easy to get into the world cup team and it shouldn't be, but the rules are out of touch with the reality of trying to make it as a professional gravity rider starting out in South Africa. CSA said they didn't want riders to go over and then not make the qualifying cut which shows how out of touch they are as world champs doesn't have elimination after qualifying.
We simply do not have the level of tracks we need in order to train to compete in the world cup circuit, the only way to get experience to ride those is to go train overseas but that has been repeated ad nauseam here now.
The take that riders should just not go or come back or whatever to partake in our national series to try get the very few points available is so out of touch. The budget for the riders to do so does not exist, as well as that time being better spent riding overseas and getting experience on more suitable terrain.
My argument is not that all the slots should be filled just because we have them, I don't think we should just be handing out consolation prizes, BUT at the same time I think that winning SA champs should get you automatic qualification on its own to represent the country at world champs.
And no Theo being able to ride Hardline and Darkfest does not qualify him to ride world champs, but being the only other South African rider than Greg to qualify for Semis(TWICE) probably should, even if it isn't necessarily in line with exactly how the rules are written, there should be grace within the rules to make such exceptions.
