Posts Tagged ‘specialized’
TriLanai- triathlon on the island of Lanai, Hawaii
On the ferry leaving Lahaina (Maui) for the island of Lanai
After the crazyness and a whole seasons’ build up to XTERRA Worlds on Maui, we were looking forward to a low stress travel & racing experience at TriLanai. We had such an amazing experience at the race (Liezel’s 1st triathlon!) and on the island- read the last years blog here.
TriLanai is about charity:
This year $20 000 was raised from the TriLanai off road triathlon!
10% of the island’s population voluteer at the race. A large part of them from the islands only school- Lanai High and Elementary.
All proceeds from the race goes to local charities, incl buying the sporting equipment and sending the school kids to other islands for sport meets.
Lanai PONO Softball team: “Thanks for the $1,160 to Lanai PONO Softball 12u for ferry tickets to play games on Maui thanks to TriLanai sponsors, athletes, and volunteers!”
The Kamalii softball team looking good!
Lanai High and Elementary school art.
School sport and getting kids active from an early age is close to our hearts, so Liezel and I did a motivational talk at the high school.
“Follow your passion, dream big, be active and healthy for life by enjoing sport.”
Todd Winston (in black shirt) is taking over organization from Chris Levvorn- whos done an amazing job growing the event till now.
Race morning, fresh off the ferry, I saw were my friends from XTERRA Italy- they heard about the race the day before and quickly took the ferry race morning. Forza Italia!
Familiar faces in volunteer shirts. Mahalo!
Being injured and watching XTERRA Richmond from the sidelines.
“Having a bad day is all about perspective…”
A story about being injured and watching XTERRA Richmond from the sidelines.
Richmond is where I fell in love with XTERRA. Thanks to Rich Cruse for the picture.
It was the summer of 2001. I borrowed a monstrosity of a bike from Joe Umphenour, covered the logos with electrical tape (endorsed by no one) put my own yellow tires and road pedals on it. Rocked the timeless speedo, running camel back and rookie number 27. My total monthly income from sponsorship was $400. I finished 2nd behind Mike Vine, and passed Ned Overend and Steve Larsen -legends unknown to me- on the run.
Just a few months earlier, a picture of Steve Larsen, in that same river crossing, pulled me out of a post Olympic slump and gave my spirit for adventure and racing wings.
Caveman crash and burn in Las Vegas
XTERRA Las Vegas started off pretty normal- Christine Jeffrey chicked us all, then the 3 usual supects beached – Craig Evans, Brandan Rakita and myself. Josiah fell asleep somewhere in the swim and lost 2.30- more than usual for him.
When I still thought riding no gloves is OK… I started racing (only racing) without gloves- to save time. The new Specialized lock on grips at so sticky- I figured I dont need gloves for grip. And even though I always encourage people to wear gloves all the time- in case of a crash- I thought it I crash, I’ll just take it like a man…
Kayamandi (unofficial) World Mountain bike champs hosted by Songo.info
Nino Schurter (current XC World Champion) Songo Fipaza, (Songo.info founder, visionary, legend, gentleman) Caveman.
Qoute from the Songo.info website: [It all started out with Songo Fipaza’s dream to provide children of Kayamandi with opportunities and a fun and safe place to grow up away from the troubles on township streets. Songo is an exceptional role model for everyone as he works tirelessly in the community to create opportunities for the children. His dream has come a long way over the years where the BMX club and mountain biking group are fully established, participating in numerous events in the Western Cape, and across South Africa. We are all so privileged to work, learn and interact with Songo Fipaza. He demonstrates actions that dreams are possible to achieve.]
Christoph Sauser (who won this 30min plus 3 laps exhibition race) and Songo Fipaza, came up with the vision to create a team with budding star Burry Stander – to race the Cape Epic under the charity – named Songo.info
Songo personally welcomed every rider. I lined up with ex roadie Darren Lill
Clinging to Florian Vogels‘ wheel on opening laps, but after a few steep climbs and hard sprints I was drowned in lactic acid and was relegated to the more realistic part of the race…
After training for the Adu Dhabi Triathlon (3k/200k/20k- blog to follow soon) and seemlingly months of long hours in the saddle at relatively low intensity, the shock of 30min at a 100% Lactic Acid mixture was quite severe!
Railing berms and jumps on the Songo BMX track- built by the funds raised by Susi and Burry on that first Epic in the Songo jerseys .
Kayamandi’s kids make for enthisiastic supporters.
Up to my ears in lactic acid… Pics by Gary Perkin (Flipper)
Songo development riders railing some “Kayamandi singketrack”.
What an amazing story of inspiration (by Susi, Bury and Songo) and judging by the recent success of the Songo development riders at the 2013 ABSA Cape Epic, there certainly is hope for another rider to follow in Burry Standers‘ big footprints…
