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[Event] Western Cape XCO Series 2017 XCO#1 Slanghoek


Morne Veer

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Sorry to hear man - I saw you went down big time !! 

 

Thanks for positive comments.

 

Regards

 

Morné

 

Hey Morné

 

I saw on FB that Louis was concerned about guys crashing on his course. Please reassure him that the course was perfect and he must not change a thing.

 

My crash was totally my own fault and was because I was pushing way too hard. I should have headed the "Extreme caution" sign advice and taken that section a little easier. I had been jumping that rock garden all weekend, just that lap it all went wrong in the slight left hander after the rock garden. The track had changed quite a bit from practice, as it should, and I should have adjusted my speed accordingly, but I lost my head and was hitting everything at 110%.

 

I really do hope we go there again this year with the series as it is a quality track.

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I agree, the numbers in the very young categories was low. Unfortunately we are right in the middle of athletics season, and critically, inter-schools. We had a number of parents indicating this as their reason for not being able to join. 

 

Also, the event was further away to what most parents are used to - with very young having to start at 8, and reg closing at 7h30, some parents were not prepared to get up early on the morning to bring their kids through.

 

Lastly, some parents still believe xco bike racing is too dangerous for their children, which most of us will strongly disagree with. Even those kids who went down in a pile of dust on Saturday, go up, dusted themselves off, and just got on with riding their bikes.  

 

We are continuously looking for ways to address the stigmas of the sport and seeing how we can get more youngsters to join - we have made big strides up to now, but there is MASSIVE potential still. 

just to latch onto that as well, there was an outbreak of measles at paul roos gymnasium in the week leading up to the event, where majority of the youngsters hail from & the organizers duly asked that the kids not attend as to avoid spreading the virus i suppose.

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I agree, the numbers in the very young categories was low. Unfortunately we are right in the middle of athletics season, and critically, inter-schools. We had a number of parents indicating this as their reason for not being able to join. 

 

Also, the event was further away to what most parents are used to - with very young having to start at 8, and reg closing at 7h30, some parents were not prepared to get up early on the morning to bring their kids through.

 

Lastly, some parents still believe xco bike racing is too dangerous for their children, which most of us will strongly disagree with. Even those kids who went down in a pile of dust on Saturday, go up, dusted themselves off, and just got on with riding their bikes.  

 

We are continuously looking for ways to address the stigmas of the sport and seeing how we can get more youngsters to join - we have made big strides up to now, but there is MASSIVE potential still. 

 

Maybe use the Spur Schools MTB as a platform to market the XCO events. I am going to try and get my daughter racing Sprogs next year.

 

Unfortunately you can't delay the series to get clear of the athletics season, since you need to finish the 4 provincial races before the SA Champs, and still somehow fit one SA Cup race in there somewhere also. And the SA champs must be done before the World Champs, and so on.

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There was a guy, I think it was the coach of the Mr. Race team, with ginger hair and beard, that behaved in a very unsportsmanlike way, and in general like a chop. He swears at the kids that he trains on the track, and is generally considered by me to not be a good role model for the kids that he trains.

 

Who of you here knows him?

That sounds like Petrus Malherbe. Maybe ping him on Facebook and have a chat with him? Or chat to him at the next race?

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That sounds like Petrus Malherbe. Maybe ping him on Facebook and have a chat with him? Or chat to him at the next race?

 

How do one approach a guy like that? He seemed quite aggressive, even on the starting lineup when the riders were seeded.

 

On the other hand I had a really nice chat with the Granny Gear trainer. Very nice chap that. Wish I had such a trainer for my boy. Unfortunately he is in Bellville/Durbanville area.

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This was an awesome event and venue. Loved everybit. Was racing at its best.

 

I started in the subvet category and was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. My last xco event was 12 years back and did not know what to expect. Really enjoyed every minute of it. Nice and hard racing. Can really recommend this format of mtb

 

If all goes well I will be on the start line at rhebokskloof on the 25th of Feb.

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Quite a bit of hubbers racing subvets.

 

Great to see the increase in numbers in Vets and Sub Vets - lets try and all work together to get even more of our mates to join.

 

XCO has such a lot of potential, and I am confident that we have a very good foundation to work from, as a result of a VERY special committee, that has made huge strides in the last two years.

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Great report. Hopefully my boy will also be wearing Pure Savage colours, although not officially part of the team, and do it proud. The Juniors rides last with the Elites at the hottest time of the day and the racing is brutal. They were lucky to get a bit of coolness with the front moving in during the night. It could have been much hotter.

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Great report. Hopefully my boy will also be wearing Pure Savage colours, although not officially part of the team, and do it proud. The Juniors rides last with the Elites at the hottest time of the day and the racing is brutal. They were lucky to get a bit of coolness with the front moving in during the night. It could have been much hotter.

 

We have a ladies team so maybe a junior team is on the cards. If we get a lekker sponsor on board we can even try and emulate the Team Genasys vibe. 

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We have a ladies team so maybe a junior team is on the cards. If we get a lekker sponsor on board we can even try and emulate the Team Genasys vibe. 

 

 

Talking about MTB Teams, few out there that can compete (on various levels) with these boys :

post-17350-0-80710300-1486719267_thumb.jpg

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The first guy in the photo is now a full time Savage! Bottle!! :P

 

Yip, sadly we lost our mountain goat, to the dark side - simply could not compete with the savage contract he got offered !! 

Edited by GoFastORGoHome
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