Posts Tagged ‘south africa’
Christmas day training
Wakey wakey. Its Christmas! And there is some training to be done.
A hearty breakfast to put the POW in Power. Some of us has Avia AVI STOLTZ for breakfast…
“We expected Greg Bennett, but its the South African, Conrad Stoltz, who wins the only ITU leg in France” 1999
[“I’ll bet this is the strangest interview you’ve ever done,” says Conrad Stoltz as he locks his Specialized road bike to a lamp post outside a Stellenbosch coffee shop.
Thirty minutes earlier, he had to duck out from our conversation to visit his physiotherapist for a good working over: a couple of niggling injuries needed some soothing.
The “Caveman” has certainly been through his fair share of ups and downs over a career dating back to 1991. In fact, he may just be the longest serving professional sportsman in South Africa (if one thinks back to the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Conrad was already a “veteran” of the French triathlon circuit).
CRANK was fortunate enough to sit down with Conrad recently and talk about his early days as a professional triathlete in South Africa and continental Europe.
CRANK: Conrad, you had your “breakthrough” race aged 17 at the SA Champs in Langebaan way back in 1991. Could you talk us through your build up, expectations and the race itself?
CONRAD STOLTZ: That was indeed a “milestone” race for me – something just “happened” that day and I moved up the next level.
It was the first year that we had a heated pool in Pretoria – they built a Health and Raquet Club in Pretoria in 1990; I bought a life membership costing something like R700. So that was the first year that we were able to swim right through the winter, which had always hampered us in the years before.
My aspirations then were to win the junior category – there was great depth within the junior ranks with Greg Lunderstedt, Bryan Mellville, Cameron Jones, Dave Hyam; to name but a few.
On race day, there was a “more than” gale force southeaster which resulted in huge waves in the swim- very intimidating for us “Vaalies”. Back then we swam out the marina out to sea – or so it felt. – Kevin Richards had a huge lead out of the water, which he extended on the bike to over four minutes.
I was a complete “tri geek” and rode… ]
Click here for the rest of the classic interview on www.crank.co.za
France Iron Tour- the 10 stage one- in 95 or 96? Stage 2 start in Marseilles. That’s me in the middle, (silver sleeveless suit) hogging the start line. Back in the days I could still swim…
Jan Frodeno was here
2008 Olympic Triathlon Champion, Frodo, as the likable African German is known, has been a constant fixture here in Stellenbosch, South Africa over the past few months.
You often bump into the smiling face at the local coffee shops and street restaurants. It wasnt always song and dance though, along with some friends (Christian) he did some serious training and I even joined in on a few swim sets.
Jan calls is informal swim group the “Lunch Time group”, but after a few sessions I called it the “Skin Cancer group”, but yes, other than the hole in the ozone and my weak skin, (German ancestry) lunch time is the best swimming time in Stellenbosch.
All the best for the upcoming season Jan, we are rooting for you!
(not the Australian way)
Here is an older post on Jan
South African Specialized rider, Burry Stander, wins u23 World MTB title
Pictures by Rob Jones and CyclingNews.com
Burry just won his 1st rainbow jersey at UCI MTB Worlds in Australia. This kid is amazingly talented, really nice, good with business and we will see him go a really long way. He is currently ranked 2nd in the UCI World Cup series.
Burry is a fellow Specialized team mate and Afrikaans speaking South African. Earlier this year we rode the 3 stage Sani2C race as a pair. Read my blog here: Sani2C with Burry
We (he has 1700+ Facebook “friends”!) are really stoked for that rainbow jersey!
I wish I made my breakthrough at 22 instead of 29…
Read the Cyclingnews.com race report here. Stander wins u23 Title Down Under
10 Questions with South African XTERRA athlete, Dan Hugo
For starters, and the reader’s benefit, write a short paragraph about yourself:
I’m evading reality but painting a canvas with all the colour I can find. There’s a definite lack of technique, more just splashing lines and blobs of colour and allowing them to take on a story of their own. I was inspired, you see, by this blog’s animate owner. So the canvas is life, and the paint is sport, specifically triathlon, mixed with travel, odd characters, brilliant brands and the dream that perhaps, at the end, the canvas will look like a master piece (which it doesnt right now). I’m 24, feel somewhere between 15 and 40, depending on the time of day and how hungry I am. I base in Stellenbosch South Africa, and Truckee in California when over to the USA.
