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