Posts Tagged ‘triathlon’
Being a novice again. 2009 Wilseyville Hare Scramble
2009 Wilseyville Hare Scramble write up, pics and video here.
The entry form says AMA championship series, so maybe it was a big race? All I know is I was as green as it gets. The newness of this unfamiliar sport opened my eyes to what athletes new to triathlon and XTERRA experience. Nervous, excited, clueless, scared of the unknown, scared of being last, scared of the mass start, and yes, just plain scared.
I grew up riding a little Yamaha PW 80 on our farm in South Africa, later a YZ 100, but when I got really serious about triathlon, (age 15) I sold the dirt bike in order to fund this new triathlon passion thing. I always promised myself, “the day I retire from triathlon I’m buying a dirt bike.” After winning XTERRA Worlds in 07 I thought “screw that, its been 18 years, I cant wait anymore”, so bought a used Honda CRF450 in South Africa. Click for one of my fave blog posts. This summer I bought a new KTM 450 EXC in the US. (my 1st new motorized vehicle ever) Could someone please explain to me how a new top end dirt bike costs the same as a top end mountain bike? How does a huge, knobbly, 30 pound dirt bike rear tire cost the same as a 500g mountain bike tire?
Anyway, Wilseyville is in the scenic Sierra Nevada mountains. Yellow trees everywhere and beautiful country side made for an amazing course on private land. No pre riding allowed, which was quite intimidating.
The C and Ladies class was HUGE. I guess 350+ riders in 7 starts 1 min apart. Apparently in this sport I’m an old dude, (Vet plus) so I was in the 6th row. I thought the C class is the hack class, but I didnt see a single jean pant! Shiny pimped bikes, custom what what, new tires. – I was the only guy with indicators and a cute license plate. At least I could honk the horn to overtake. Mostly people on the ground, and a fat guy cramping.
Interview with Triharder.co.za
Triathlon is booming in South Africa. Ironman in PE, the 70.3 in Buffalo city, the XTERRA Series in its 6th year, a budding ITU programme and various off road multisports events.
Triharder.co.za is a cool new South African based triathlon website and here is an interview I did a few weeks ago.
TriathlonTeam.com, (of which I’m a member) is currently doing a series of interviews on Triharder and here is an excerpt from the 1st interview with Nikola Tosic, the brain and motor behind TriathlonTeam:
[All the logos posted here were custom-designed for each of the athletes after working 1-on-1 with each of them. The ultimate goal is for the athletes to gain exposure and be able to brand and market themselves effectively. The site has become a hub for all the athletes’ pages and almost a bit of a “playground” for the athletes to share the lighter side of being a pro and to interact with each other.]
Read the rest of the interview here.
The Caveman Cometh (and he’s on a 29er)
So, you are a trail mashing mofo; gnarliest of the gnar. Yes, you are a fit machine and can ride. You have skills. Skills, eh? How about swimming, mountain biking and running — as in consecutively… in one day… at race pace?
Whaddya say? That off-road triathlon stuff — Xterra — isn’t for true mountain bikers? It’s so easy even a caveman could do it?
Straight-up fact: The Caveman does make it look easy. And the Caveman will make it look easy as he smokes you out on some technical singletrack — on a big-wheeled bike, no less.
He isn’t racing Xterra — yet — on a 29er, Conrad Stoltz rides his Specialized Epic 29er the rest of the time. CHECK OUT MORE PHOTOS IN THE SLIDESHOW BELOW Photo by Seth Lightcap
A couple of weeks ago I did an interview and shoot with Singletrack.com editor Jamie Bate (and photoman Seth Lightcap) in Truckee. We talked 29er, kicked some ideas around and I have to say I’m quite stoked with the result. This website has some real meat to it. Informative, technical material for the serious trail rider.
Here is the complete article from SingleTrack.com
Visit Stoltz29.org for my 29er manifesto
10 Questions with Nikola Tosic
For starters, and the reader’s benefit, write a short paragraph about yourself:
Born in 1977 in Belgrade. Grew up in Lagos, lived in Serbia, USA, Italia, South Africa and a bit in France. I love internet and work with online content for living. I enjoy doing sports and art (same stuff). I love good food. I like living close to my parents and have been together with Martina, my girlfriend, for eleven years.
[Note from Conrad: Nikola is The Master, The Brains and The Teacher behind TriathlonTeam.org. Before I met him I could only read emails and attach photos. Nikola started putting the team together about 2 years ago. Dan Hugo was 1st, who introduced me (over a great seafood linguine on the Cape Town ocean front) and from there on the team grew quickly to 8 guys. We are still looking for a worthy girl blogger… (send applications here)
Nikola has helped me with brand building, logo design, race kit design, technically correct blogging and so much more. We also share a mutual love for good food and coffee. All our brain storming meetings go hand in hand with culinary delight.]
How you feel about your season so far?
Six years ago I started with 30kg overweight and somehow managed to finish Ironman in a decent time in my fifth season. This, my sixth season, is a complete failure when it comes to results. I am fat lazy and stupid. But I have managed to spend great time training in Stellenbosch, Greece, Switzerland and I still have Croatia and few nice places left. I have met really cool people and had a lot of fun. So from numbers side its shit, from emotional side it could be the most dynamic and interesting season ever. Since results mean very little to me it is a great season.
Winning All African ITU title at Club Mykono 1998
Club Mykonons on the West coast of South Africa is 2 hrs north of Cape Town. It used to be a quiet, quaint rip off of the village Mykonos, Greece. The ocean always freezing- the swim was in the marina- for one of the turn buoys you had to go between the hulls of a huge catamaran. Once you go inland it gets very hot, glaringly bright, with the wind always pumping.
