LazyTrailRider Posted October 23, 2013 Share yup, totally agree! Our national DH champ placed 23rd overall on his second hand bike that he paid for himself. (not to mention the other 2 SA riders we had in 16th and of course 1st... but they are sponsored) Our fastest XCO rider placed 47th. And the big name sponsored riders in SA MTB, placed 53rd and 54th. I think Julias needs to get onto this and redistribute some wealth. The problem is that the big name sponsored riders "sell" the kind of bikes that all these stage-racing heroes buy. I don't see the typical J2C entrant buying a V10c anytime soon... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salty Posted October 23, 2013 Share My view is unless ladies are given proper sponsorship they are going to struggle to compete consistently at an Interantional level. There may be the odd one that can make it, but as far as I unedrstand sponsorship for ladies is not very popular in SA. I base this on a friend who has been struggling to get sponsorship to ride (has won two stage races as a team)and another friend who does sponsorship saying that the exposure ladies get in the media does not make it worth sponsoring them and they prefer to sponsor guys since tehy get more media attention hence more value for the sponsorship. So to get to the top requires talent, training and money..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tumbleweed Posted October 23, 2013 Share There have been a few of recent (fairly recent) times, mostly saffas living / racing abroad Anka MartinJoanne Petterson Not sure what they have been up to lately There have been a few XCO / marathon ladies in Europe but its hard coming here and having hundreds of competitors to race against vs just a few in SA. It would take more than spending one summer in Europe to get anywhere. There some promising young ladies but they going to need to come live here for a few years.... What's happened to her? Is she still racing? Met her in 2009 at the WC in PE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wyatt Earp Posted October 23, 2013 Share The step up from U23 to elite is huge and will be very tough for them, but at least there seems to be some potential ... I just hope they get support to continue riding overseas so they can gain experience and improve their technical skills Agree It would be good if they could spend time on the international circuit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Omega Man Posted October 23, 2013 Share What's happened to her? Is she still racing? Met her in 2009 at the WC in PE.I think she's racing still but in the states. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escapee.. Posted October 23, 2013 Share So do you guys know of any up and coming ladies??? Surely someone must be carving up the Spruit by now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wyatt Earp Posted October 23, 2013 Share My view is unless ladies are given proper sponsorship they are going to struggle to compete consistently at an Interantional level. There may be the odd one that can make it, but as far as I unedrstand sponsorship for ladies is not very popular in SA. I base this on a friend who has been struggling to get sponsorship to ride (has won two stage races as a team)and another friend who does sponsorship saying that the exposure ladies get in the media does not make it worth sponsoring them and they prefer to sponsor guys since tehy get more media attention hence more value for the sponsorship. So to get to the top requires talent, training and money..... Yeah, talent 1st. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kranswurm Posted October 23, 2013 Share Yeah, sorry, I shouldn't have left her out :-) And not to mention a damn good bookeeper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patches Posted October 23, 2013 Share The problem is that the big name sponsored riders "sell" the kind of bikes that all these stage-racing heroes buy. I don't see the typical J2C entrant buying a V10c anytime soon... Yup... totally true... it does boil down to "what's in it for the sponsors"... But I'd say that sponsors could still keep their big names... but drop their 11th and 12th team riders... the ones who do almost nothing on an international level, and aren't looked to as "heroes", ie not influencing the SA masses who are in the market for a new bike. Then send some of that money the way of the top few DH riders, like our SA champ, who did pretty darn well at world champs! So yeah, by all means, sponsors need their show ponies... but do they need a dozen of the same kind, some that are practically unheard of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tumbleweed Posted October 23, 2013 Share I think she's racing still but in the states. Yeah, I knew she split her time between here and Hawaii. I wonder if this is current? http://www.clifbar.com/teamclifbar/jojo_petterson/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwissVan Posted October 23, 2013 Share But even she was outclassed by the tech abilities of the foreign ladies Hmm, I don't know.... the races I saw her riding in she was just as good if not better than the majority of the ladies. I wonder how well she could have done if she could have lived in Europe for a couple of years? One problem is the Saffa ladies (men as well) often have to start near the back of the field due to having insufficient points and that makes it very difficult to get into a point scoring position when you ride in internation level races that have +100 riders on a XCO course that might have 5 minutes of open (but still very congested) track before the single track (bottle neck) starts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwissVan Posted October 23, 2013 Share My view is unless ladies are given proper sponsorship they are going to struggle to compete consistently at an Interantional level. There may be the odd one that can make it, but as far as I unedrstand sponsorship for ladies is not very popular in SA. I base this on a friend who has been struggling to get sponsorship to ride (has won two stage races as a team)and another friend who does sponsorship saying that the exposure ladies get in the media does not make it worth sponsoring them and they prefer to sponsor guys since tehy get more media attention hence more value for the sponsorship. So to get to the top requires talent, training and money..... Yes but it requires more, something called DESIRE as well, after talent its probably the most important of all. Just look at Conrad Stolz and see how he did it when he started racing in Europe. There are 1000'nds of talented athletes trying to make it big and coming from the outside you have to be prepared to struggle for a long time (not just a few months) to get your foot in the door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patches Posted October 23, 2013 Share Hmm, I don't know.... the races I saw her riding in she was just as good if not better than the majority of the ladies. I wonder how well she could have done if she could have lived in Europe for a couple of years? One problem is the Saffa ladies (men as well) often have to start near the back of the field due to having insufficient points and that makes it very difficult to get into a point scoring position when you ride in internation level races that have +100 riders on a XCO course that might have 5 minutes of open (but still very congested) track before the single track (bottle neck) starts. I watched her live, on that course and she didn't look comfortable. She finished 34th out of 43. In fact if I remember correctly ALL our SA ladies got lapped. (I may be wrong on that one, but many of them did) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwissVan Posted October 23, 2013 Share What do you guys thinkWould the results looked different if more international riders turned up for the race?Specially with the XCO Hello Ma'am Yes I think there would have been more international riders on the podium. Unfortunately I suspect that many age groupers in Europe / North America / Australia are still feeling the financial crisis and don't want to take leave just for age group WC's doer onder in Afrika.They have families and probably need to take their leave during school holidays and spend the $ £ E on the family holiday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patches Posted October 23, 2013 Share Hello Ma'am Yes I think there would have been more international riders on the podium. Unfortunately I suspect that many age groupers in Europe / North America / Australia are still feeling the financial crisis and don't want to take leave just for age group WC's doer onder in Afrika.They have families and probably need to take their leave during school holidays and spend the $ £ E on the family holiday. One notices this trend when they look at the Mens DH masters age vs number of participants spread. My guess was that the 30-35 group is probably where there could be the most participants in DH masters, but this age group is probably full of those still paying of student loans, saving for houses, or newly wed. So as the age increased, so did the number of participants, until it hit an age where most think that downhilling isn't a good idea anymore. Then numbers taper off again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwissVan Posted October 23, 2013 Share I watched her live, on that course and she didn't look comfortable. She finished 34th out of 43. In fact if I remember correctly ALL our SA ladies got lapped. (I may be wrong on that one, but many of them did) I don't think the last year or so are a good reflection of YS ability, she has not been racing at her previous levels for awhile. I may be wrong but her international XCO career is probably not a priority any more, she must be in her mid 30's now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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