National Champions dominate third XCO Cup at Wolwespruit

[News bot]

South African Mountain Bike Champions James Reid and Cherie Redecker took the respective titles in the Elite Men and Women’s races at the third round of the Stihl 2016 SA XCO Cup Series hosted by City of Tshwane at Wolwespruit Bike Park in Erasmuskloof, Pretoria on Saturday 26 March. Pleasant skies and warm mid-twenties temperatures greeted the riders as they tackled the challenging course.

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[Sitting slip]

he prices of the youth mens bikes are to damn high. when i was 15 my cd walkman was the most expensive thing i owned. 70k plus bikes at that age is shocking. there should be a restiction to level the play field so that the boys with the rich daddy's can compete fairly to the boys with the lesser bikes and cant afford the rs1 forks full carbon speznaz duel sus toys.

[Milkman]

he prices of the youth mens bikes are to damn high. when i was 15 my cd walkman was the most expensive thing i owned. 70k plus bikes at that age is shocking. there should be a restiction to level the play field so that the boys with the rich daddy's can compete fairly to the boys with the lesser bikes and cant afford the rs1 forks full carbon speznaz duel sus toys.

I agree with you that the bikes are flippen expensive ,but Unfortunately the 70k for the bike is actually the least of your expenses when your child competes at national XCO level ! The SA cup races are all over the country. Nelspruit , Cape Town , PE , Pietermaritzburg , Lesotho etc. , and with XCO you cannot just rock up the day of the race and start racing. The tracks are moerse technical so you have to at the very least be there a day before the race to practice the track otherwise you are gonna see your butt in the race.Add to that a day or 2 for traveling . Obviously a minor cannot travel and stay by themselves so a trip like that with food , accommodation and travel expenses start to add up. Never mind the fact that they miss some school as well ! But to be honest , I think it is the same with most other sports. I just don't see how it will be practical to implement some type of limit on how much a bike is allowed to cost . Also we won't be able to compete against international junior cyclists that come and compete here to get UCI points , because obviously they'll be riding much better bikes than our kids.

[TheJ]

MTBing in general has become to commercialized. When I started racing in 1994-1995 and doing the national circuit I'd go to nationals with either my chromoly steel XC bike or a 2.5" travel full suspension bike that I won in a lucky draw. I'd never have enough money to have both bikes in a ridable condition at the same time. So I'd either be a XC rider or a DH depending which bike had wheels on. And I won SA medals in both disciplines. My DH bike had a retrofitted suspension fork from a DT50 motorbike. It weighed more than the rest of the bike. I agree with the the OP though, my folks had to work their asses off to get me a bike that could be raced, a 1994 Kona Hahanna with zero suspension for the first few years. Steel. I had to beg to get a suspension fork, a sucky Marzocchi Zokes with more front/back play than up/down travel.

 

Like the OP says, these days kids entering the sport rock up with RS1 forks and full carbon rigs. Just doesn't seem right.

 

Let them ride a medium-crappy bike for a year or two and then if you see the bug has bitten then get them something better. Half these nippers and sub juniors on their XX1 rigs will probably quit the sport by the time they get 20, flying too high, or too much pressure from mom and dad.