Stretch Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 its what the industry in SA sees as a market. DH is limited with small participation.Only have regional races in KZN and CT, so the depth of riders is not there. Also - Minnaar went overseas when he was 16!! ... so it takes a while for the riders to adapt and learn to race at that level, and you need to start them young! ...All the current guys are doing us proud, but started too late ... 22 is too late these days. Id say the next guys (if they get over there and stay there) are the Philogene brothers. .. Chris is first year Junior (so one year down the drain already as he didnt go overseas), and Jono is last year Junior - ... so they need to go over and race there ASAP! so how do we get them there? first step would be to compete in the british national series would it not? - sure there are England based hubbers who could put up some young juniors for a season
Capricorn Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 im sure you saw it - was the quote by lacondeguy saying "enduro? WTF is that...its called mountain bike!" hahahah yeah, saw that last night i think it was. some pretty heavy sentiments there.
nigelhicks Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 so how do we get them there? first step would be to compete in the british national series would it not? - sure there are England based hubbers who could put up some young juniors for a season They are both going to Worlds as Juniors this year - so hopefully, if they do ok, they may get picked up or spotted. If not, they need to go over and sleep on okes couches, or buy a camper and travel the Euro circuit racing next season ... Check out http://2bros.co.za/ for their website. The best thing to do is to be in Europe from May onwards ... then they would be there for the races highlighted in bold. Here it is then, the 2016 UCI MTB World Cup calendar: April 9-10: (DHI) Lourdes, FranceApril 23-24: (DHI/XCO) Cairns, AustraliaMay 21-22: (XCO) Albstadt, GermanyMay 28-29: (XCO) La Bresse, FranceJune 4-5: (DHI) Fort William, ScotlandJune 11-12: (DHI) Leogang, AustriaJune 28-July 3: (XCO/XCE) UCI World Championships, Nové Mesto, Czech RepublicJuly 9-10: (DHI) Lenzerheide, SwitzerlandAugust 6-7: (XCO/DHI) Mont-Sainte-Anne, CanadaAugust 20-21 (XCO) Olympic Games, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil September 3-4 (DHI) Vallnord, AndorraSeptember 6-11: (DHI/4X) UCI World Championships, Val di Sole, Italy
Shebeen Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 how do you get another Greg Minnaar?First you need to accept that he's a bit of a freak occurrence. You think cricket australia haven't tried to find the next Shane Warne?! Not for lack of trying, but they've probably missed the generation of teenagers that was inspired by him. For me the best sort of thing is just grow the sport at the bottom, increase your pool of total riders and the cream will rise to the top - don't put all your focus on the best of a small crowd and expect them to be world beaters. and i would think bmx is probably the best place to start.
Headshot Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 too much focus on marathon here...not enough pump tracks...and bmx is neglected im sure this has a bit to do with it too https://instagram.com/p/6NQcCPGZRF SA is marathon bev#k. People don't learn how to ride properly or go for skills training. We need to change the culture... Happily I think it is slowly.Enduro is actually where its at Lecondeguy - get with the programme muchacho! :-)
Stretch Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 They are both going to Worlds as Juniors this year - so hopefully, if they do ok, they may get picked up or spotted. If not, they need to go over and sleep on okes couches, or buy a camper and travel the Euro circuit racing next season ... Check out http://2bros.co.za/ for their website.The best thing to do is to be in Europe from May onwards ... then they would be there for the races highlighted in bold. Here it is then, the 2016 UCI MTB World Cup calendar: April 9-10: (DHI) Lourdes, FranceApril 23-24: (DHI/XCO) Cairns, AustraliaMay 21-22: (XCO) Albstadt, GermanyMay 28-29: (XCO) La Bresse, FranceJune 4-5: (DHI) Fort William, ScotlandJune 11-12: (DHI) Leogang, AustriaJune 28-July 3: (XCO/XCE) UCI World Championships, Nové Mesto, Czech RepublicJuly 9-10: (DHI) Lenzerheide, SwitzerlandAugust 6-7: (XCO/DHI) Mont-Sainte-Anne, CanadaAugust 20-21 (XCO) Olympic Games, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil September 3-4 (DHI) Vallnord, AndorraSeptember 6-11: (DHI/4X) UCI World Championships, Val di Sole, Italy ok - I have a mate in Avanne Aveney in France who would happily have some guys on his couch - only problem is Lenzerheide is on the opposite side of Switzerland to where he is..but if the requirement is there he would relish in chatting with some saffers
Stretch Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 SA is marathon bev#k. People don't learn how to ride properly or go for skills training. We need to change the culture... Happily I think it is slowly.Enduro is actually where its at Lecondeguy - get with the programme muchacho! :-) lol - i get his point - he just got it across wrong - its because we all marathon befok that people aren't getting the skills they need...lo0k at the howick classic - has very few competitors because people are scared of the rocks
nigelhicks Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 how do you get another Greg Minnaar?First you need to accept that he's a bit of a freak occurrence. You think cricket australia haven't tried to find the next Shane Warne?! Not for lack of trying, but they've probably missed the generation of teenagers that was inspired by him. For me the best sort of thing is just grow the sport at the bottom, increase your pool of total riders and the cream will rise to the top - don't put all your focus on the best of a small crowd and expect them to be world beaters. and i would think bmx is probably the best place to start. Yes and no ....I agree that Minnaar is a "different" rider due to the longevity of his career and win tally, but if you look at the depth of the British and French riders, there is a lot of scope for really really good rider development, IF its dont right at regional and national level. The key is to start them young. ... and I think we are slowly getting there again ... same happened in the USA with the death of the NORBA's ... that basically put paid to a generation of top riders coming out of the stars and stripes. BMX is a good building block (thats where I started), but it becomes a focus rather than a cross-training discipline. I would say that by 13 you need to be racing Nationals DH to be at the level for worlds when you are 16. Then GO OVERSEAS!!!! ... its the only way!
sias Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 so how do we get them there? Surely the south african government can help with this? I mean their excellent high performance centres for rugby, netbal, swimming, athletics and other sports have grown and helped several promising young sports people to get onto the international scene! Oh yeah, right , they don't give a sh!t...Sorry, they are on their own and dependent on people's goodwill.
nigelhicks Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 To give you an idea of what a poor or non-existant National series can do to a sports development, if you look at Windham's results, ... remembering that its in the USA, so they have the opportunity to enter twice the number of riders as federation riders ... USA 1st Aaron Gwin27th Luca Shaw31st Loggan Bingelli44th Neko Mulally then 54th59th61st63rd65th72nd ----- compare with the Poms or Frogs Poms14 riders in the top 50 French8 in the top 50 ... So that accounts for almost half of the top 50 riders!!! Their federations are doing something right
Stretch Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 They are both going to Worlds as Juniors this year - so hopefully, if they do ok, they may get picked up or spotted. If not, they need to go over and sleep on okes couches, or buy a camper and travel the Euro circuit racing next season ... Check out http://2bros.co.za/ for their website.The best thing to do is to be in Europe from May onwards ... then they would be there for the races highlighted in bold. Here it is then, the 2016 UCI MTB World Cup calendar: May 28-29: (XCO) La Bresse, France Nige This venue is right by mate (150km away) if we can get it on their schedule next year - I can chat to him and make it happen
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