Journey

Hi guys and girls!

Lots of things have happened during the last few months and as you all know, I was referring to the fact that me and David de Backer planned together to do the ABSA Cape Epic in 2013. Sadly we could not find any sponsors to do so. But once again, thanks for all the wishes and support. We are disappointed but we know the right time will come for us to take part in the event.

For those who don't know, I'm a Bike Pure Ambassador in which I support a drug free sport. Now as we all know, cycling and doping doesn't go well together and there is always negative publicity regarding this issue in the media. In fact, everyday more athletes gets caught for using banned substances which is great because we know World Anti-Doping Agency do its work to clean up the sport. Some athletes do not believe in our movement however we do our best from our side to protect current and future champions.

This year however, I was fortunate enough to have an interview with John-Lee Augustyn. Great South African cyclist who signed a contract with British based squad, Team Sky. I was very interested to hear what he has to say and I was inspired by the words. We always think that professional athletes have the life while they are also under heavy pressure during the racing season yet they are passionate about what they do.

Now I have been a cyclist for quite some time now and I know the pain cyclists go through every single day and as you get injured, you want to give up after a while yet you know that your friends are there to support you through the good and bad times.

Besides cycling, I found a new passion and that is photography. In August after flying back home from Joburg, I decided to chill and take some pictures at the MTN National Series - Gravel Travel. After a got home and downloaded over 300 pictures I took on the day, Kevin Evans of Team 360 Life, used one of my photo's in his blog. This inspired me and I knew this is my chance to shine. So I decided that I want to go and study photography next year and take it from there.

I'm pretty excited for what is lying ahead and hope to go big not only in my cycling but photography too.

Well that is all for now folks. Once again thanks for all the great support.

Till next time!

Yolande

Kevin Evans - Team 360 Life

Never say never.

One thing I have learnt is to never say never and today this is what my blog is all about.

We give up to easily and when it comes to fighting the battle between you and your compatriot, if you give up, you lose the battle to quickly because your rival is stronger than what you are. Normally we trust ourselves and never listen to the negative things others says around us but one day, you walk down the road and next to you someone would say, you know what, you will never succeed in anything you do nor will you ever reach the top. Maybe that is why, when we woke up the following morning, we would just sit there in a corner and tell ourselves, is it worth it to get out of the bed of the morning? Many times we fall but rise again. Many people said to me that I will never ever succeed in life with anything, and I just told myself that no matter how hard it will be to win the battle, giving up is definitely not an option to anyone of us no matter what is standing in our way such as illness, injuries, the lost of friendships or relationships or simply family issues, just go out there knowing that even if you don't cross the line first, you are still a champion.

There is times when I thought life only treat me unfairly but I realized that I'm not the only person going through tough days, but I'm holding on tight and enjoy the journey. I have never thought in my life that I will go this far as a cyclist nor will I get the chance to represent our country and be an ambassador for an organisation named Bike Pure. Today I'm involved with lots of projects that supports the movement of anti-doping. I work with great international and local cycling teams and it opened lots of doors for me. Being an Ambassador for Bike Pure means that you have to share stories on why not to use banned substances to perform well against top athletes and yes this will not open sponsorships for you. You do research on every banned substances on the WADA lists and write articles about these things in order to open athletes eyes on these subjects.

For me personally, it open my eyes as an athlete yet will I never consider myself one day as an athlete to use banned substances to perform well at an elite level just to keep sponsorships. It ruins not only your own reputations but everyone around you as well. But coming back to my blog, I used to say to myself that never in my entire life will I participate in the ABSA Cape Epic, but in 2011, my views just changed and I picked up the greatest partner for the 2013 edition and we have never been so excited in a very long time. This time we are taking our mountain biking to a whole new level. They say you are not a true mountain biker until you have finish this grueling event. But yet the training is very difficult especially after you had a serious injury that have put you on side line for over a year.

This will definitely be a life changing experience for me and David. I do realize at a certain point of the race, your body will be in pain and you will be extremely tired after spending nearly 7 hours on a bicycle going over mountains and very technical course but with the ABSA Cape Epic celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2013, this will be a really special one for all the riders out there. I still keeping my fingers crossed for being accepted to volunteer next year in order to have a bigger chance of getting a entry ticket for 2013 but so far, the main focus is to get into good shape and take everything from there.

Just would like to thank Paul van Zweel, David de Backer, the great people at Bike Pure and my family for all their support and to all my great friends from around the world.

Be sure to watch this space!

Till next time!

Yolande

ABSA Cape Epic - A dream about to become a reality.

For any typical human being, we use the word "Never" on a regular basis but who knows what the future holds in for us?? In 2007 the Cape Epic visited Robertson back in 2007 and from hearing all the stories on this event, makes you wanna see all the action happening in front of you. Things like a broken bone or a bleeding arm makes you ask yourself "Do I really wanna do this??" Some of these riders participating in this event, have a reason on why they are doing it. Yes its a very painful week of racing but in the end it makes you stronger as a person. In my case, I used to say "I will never do the ABSA Cape Epic in my life!!" A couple of years later, he I am with the greatest partner of all time David De Backer getting ourselves prepared to take on this journey.

You watch from a spectators point of view that it looks so easy and that riders aren't going through any physical pain yet as you are a cyclist sitting in a saddle for a period of 6-7 hours, your body is really tired and sore as well. Months of good preparation goes into this and hours of doing training day in and day out. Reading the blogs of some of the professional riders, not only do amateurs suffer on these tough conditions but the pro riders as well. Watching the live broadcast of some of the stages, you see how they dump of their bike and push it up on some of the steep climbs. Every day they faces new challenges but yet they conquer each one of them.

For a very time, I sat down and made the decision on whether I should do this or not. Its always a thing that you must think about carefully before making a decision. Not only do you have to think about yourself but as well of your teammate. With strict regulations on the Cape Epic and its riders as well, we can't have a time gap of 2 min between us otherwise we find ourselves being disqualified and no outside assistance so any mechanicals you do get that must be fixed by a mechanic, have to wait till the next water point. Determination, strength and motivation will take us from one stage to another. Its all about not only have faith in yourself but in your teammate as well and its important to train with that person to see whats each other's weak and strong points and how we can work on it.  Support is also a very important thing for anyone. Hear the crowd scream as you finish and feel proud of what you have achieved and see those people who you love such as family and friends. 

I'm very excited to take on this journey with David and experience something different from the most races we normally do. Discover new places, meet new people along the way and just enjoy what the nature has to offer. We look forward to see ourselves on the start line of the 2013 ABSA Cape Epic.

Thanks to everyone for all the great support!

Till next time!

Yolande 

South African Track Championships 2011

Hi guys, sorry for the delays in updating my blog. Here is some photo's of Callen Watson at the South African National Track Championships at the Bellville Velodrome. He got a silver and bronze medal and will represent South Africa at the World Junior Track Championships in England later this year.

Random moments

This is a story of when I'm of the bike doing random things for fun. Each day that passes by, I did something super randomly just for the fun thats when I'm not on the bike going up a climb or on a downhill (thats what Robertson has to offer for cyclists such as me.) Robertson is known for the words "A small town with a big heart.) For me its all about having fun when the days arrive when I don't really feel like head out and train. While I sit with a couple of crazy friends who really are fun to hangout with, such as David De Backer who is my ABSA Cape Epic partner, he started a thing called "TDH" for those who don't exactly know what I'm talking about.. they take a GO PRO camera and film where they go downhills on tricycles. Now thats one funny/random thing to do. So while I checked the films they took, I decided well maybe I should do it myself although I need to buy myself a tricycle in order to do it. I arrived at a food store named Shoprite and well there was two tricycles up on the shelf (one in plasic and other one not in plasic) so I took one off and decided to sit on it and well yes there was other people standing there to pay for the things they bought and everything came to a stand still when I was sitting on it. Felt like I was the Queen who rule the world haha.

While I love track cycling, I decided to take my family on a Tour in the Bellville Velodrome to show them around on how it looks inside etc, I found myself in the middle of the track walking around on the slippery part, while I was standing there, the track was covered in bird poop so I found a cleaner place and actually kissed the track. Wanted to leave something behind for fun. While I was on a camp in January, I clearly didn't know what I'm getting myself in to, there wasn't really time to get some rest and on the last night of our camp, we had a war where its a battle (guys vs girls) and it was going on in the middle of the night and all you hear are screaming and my cabin mates was rushing in just to protect themselves. You couldn't even go to the bathroom as guys where hidding there with water balloons etc. I wasn't prepared to be thrown by some sour milk or eggs that time of the morning so I just sat and listen to the stories of others what was going on outside.

While me and my friend Callen Watson made a promise on throwing each other with eggs, its super crazy to throw each other with 21 eggs or 18 eggs. I'm not scared at all in fact I will need a good shower afterwards. That shows exactly how crazy I can be when I feel like it. While I'm on the bike, I can crash without breaking a bone, till today the most serious injury is hurting my ankle ligaments. Don't ask me how I get it right but I ask myself the same question. I always got time on my hands to do crazy things and I actually enjoy it. One day while traveling in Cape Town, I rode in a taxi to the Cape Argus Expo, now to be squashed and hold on for your dear life on your belongings is one of a story and the music they are playing is.. very strange. When people stands next to the sidewalks, the taxi driver thinks you actually need a lift so they will whistle as loud as they can. That was honestly the most random thing ever and thats to find yourself in a taxi. When me and family traveled back with a other small taxi, we were impressed to see no one was in the taxi, no one! We wasn't too impressed when it makes the strangest noises coming from under the taxi. That was serioulsy scary stuff and we were relieved when we arrived safely back to our destination.

Well thats all for now.

Till next time!

Yolande

When things might not go according to your plans.

Today I just realized that bicycles and cars sharing a narrow road is not such a good idea and why? It can be very dangerous especially when it involves a traffic circle. Now from my house to the traffic circle is downhill all the way and some motorist simply ignores the stop sign cos of the fact that they are to lazy to brake and they simply just carry on. To be honest that's Robertson people for you.

Now while going down this bumpy road all the way to the traffic circle before heading up a fairly steep short climb, you don't really think of braking at a high speed and take your one foot out of the pedal as fast as you can. In my case the traffic was fairly good until someone decided to brake in the middle of the road near the circle which backed up the vehicles going in the same direction causing drama as you hear hooters and people shouting for the car to get out of the way. I just watched it as it happened.

Now a few meters from our house is the provincial hospital and yes I don't recommend people to go there but the drama continues as I couldn't brake in time to miss the car standing in front of me. Its either braking and lose control or just head straight into the car and well at that point I braked as fast as I could and ended up crashing. Yes not the best choice but I wouldn't dare seeing myself going through someone's car back window and ending up getting major injuries.

After a while lying there in pain, I just picked myself up and carrying on and well that wasn't the easiest thing. With the grind on my face explaining the pain, all that was going through my mind was to get back home as fast as possible. At that point, you just really hope for the best. Sadly some people don't have any respect for cyclists using the roads and most of the town roads don't have any yellow lines only the main roads. Lots of discussions went into this for safety reasons and till today no feed back.

So I see myself for a couple of days getting rest and recover to start training again. Its a very painful story but sometimes you simply can't avoid anything.

Thanks everyone for the support as it means a lot.

Till next time!

Yolande

The Journey to the ABSA Cape Epic 2013

To all my readers, sorry for taking to long to update my blog due to the fact that lots of planning is going on these last couple of days but here I am to update everyone on what's going on these couple of days. Hope you guys enjoy it.

In my last update, I wrote on the ABSA Cape Epic, the 2011 edition just finished on Sunday at Lourensford Wine Estate outside Somerset-West. Like they say you aren't a mountain bike until you finished it and that's what I'm about to do. In this blog I will write on some of my journeys that I experienced the last couple of days.

For any typical person such as me, we take some time to write our goals down and do anything to achieve it but it takes lots of courage, determination and motivation to achieve it. While the ABSA Cape Epic is known for its grueling challenging courses layed out by Leon Evans known as Dr. Evil, its not always as easy as watching it from a spectator side and if you are not a cyclist yourself the you won't understand how that guys feels and that's when no one have respect for us as they don't get an idea of how it effects our bodies in many ways. For a week, these guys don't get a chance of seeing their families nor friends if they don't live in this areas but with so many spectators lining up at the start/finish areas, this do mean something for each of them taking part on this endurance event.

From professionals to just amateurs, finishing this event is a huge honor and the feeling of crossing the line is something they can't describe to anyone. With this being a team event, its not all about having not only faith in yourself but in your teammate as well and team work is a must. The thing I love of team events is the bond between two persons and they exactly know what's your strong and weak points as you race over a part of the Western Cape.

South Africa have a beauty of its own that attracts people to visit the country and with a rich history and culture makes our country special in a way. With beautiful areas, we have amazing routes for mountain biking and road. It brings international riders to our country as the ABSA Cape Epic shows what we have to offer for international tourist and showcase our beautiful nature as well.

Recently I decided to search for the right partner to team up with me to do this event in 2013 and as I was thinking on whom to ask, the name David De Backer came to mind. He is racing for Team Senqu and have a passion for the sport of mountain biking. While he had to miss out on the South African XC Championships and African XC Championships, this was the perfect opportunity for him to experience different from what we are used to with me.

With training starting soon, long hours on the bike awaits for both of us and with the cost of the 2012 ABSA Cape Epic stands on R35 400, its important to get a sponsor who will back you with everything you need during the 8 days of racing. While I'm waiting for confirmation on whether I'm accepted to volunteer next year in order to stand a better chance of receiving an entry, a couple of things need our attention such as training and sponsorships before next year as the entries for 2013 opens next year April.

While watching the repeats of this years edition, the questions pops up “Are you sure you want to do this” but then on the other side you think by yourself at the end of the day its all about the experience and what you have learned during that 8 days. Its not as easy as it looks but it change your views on life and proves to you that no matter how tough it is, anything is possible. By thinking how welcomed you will feel deep inside crossing the finish line with a big crowd supporting you is an amazing feeling.

While training is crucial to prepare mentally and physically, the thing that scares you the most is the part of accidents. If you fall then there is a chance you must withdraw and illness is also a big factor. This is not a one day race but 8 hours of long hours in the saddle and anything can happen at any time and its important to go in with lots of preparations is crucial.

With lots of planning going on, it can be very stressful at times. That's when you sit down and think of lots of things that need to be taken into considerations. No one said it will be easy at all but the fact is that so many people is supporting you can help you in so many ways.

Till next time

Yolande