{"id":18227,"date":"2016-05-04T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2016\/05\/04\/van-dyk-focused-ahead-of-pietermaritzburg-world-cup-r4712\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T08:18:46","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T08:18:46","slug":"van-dyk-focused-ahead-of-pietermaritzburg-world-cup-r4712","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/van-dyk-focused-ahead-of-pietermaritzburg-world-cup-r4712\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Dyk focused ahead of Pietermaritzburg World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although having now returned from the busyness of wheelchair racing abroad, the pace has by no means lessened for the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games\u2019 gold medallist, Ernst van Dyk, who now heads to Pietermaritzburg for this weekend\u2019s UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup at Alexandra Park from 7-8 May.<\/p>\n

Van Dyk\u2019s talents extend beyond just cycling and he is equally highly resected in the athletics discipline as well. He stays on top of his game despite crossing over from wheelchair racing to hand cycling, and vice versa. The ten-time Boston Marathon winner said of the two sporting codes: \u201cThey were both super competitive, and I\u2019m happy with my results overseas, but then again I think you\u2019re kind of expected to do well in this Paralympic year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-63651100-1462367009.jpg\"<\/a>2008 Beijing Paralympic Games\u2019 gold medallist, Ernst van Dyk (front) heads to Pietermaritzburg for the opening round of the 2016 UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup, which takes place in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, from 7-8 May. Photo: Darren Goddard<\/span><\/p>\n

Although a cold front is predicted to hit Africa\u2019s Bike City this coming weekend, Van Dyk doesn\u2019t seem too phased about the weather. \u201cI don\u2019t mind the cooler weather, but having said that, it is a little bit tougher to get going when it isn\u2019t warm. It takes much longer for our bodies to warm up, the air is denser, so everything is slower, and we have to work much harder, so it\u2019s never pleasant in the cold. But I\u2019ll be happier if there isn\u2019t any wind \u2013 that makes everything difficult,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Van Dyk is delighted to see the first round of the World Cup in his own country, which is a feeling not often describable by athletes in any sporting discipline playing a home game. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a great one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The H5 hand-cyclist is looking forward to battling it out for important UCI World Cup points in this ever-important Paralympic season, even though the field this year will be slightly smaller. \u201cBecause a lot of the athletes have had to be specific this year in terms of the chosen races, many have opted not to come to the first World Cup, which is a little bit disappointing, but the field is still awesome and we have a large national team competing, which is fantastic as well,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Opting out of the next World Cup round in Belgium, Van Dyk is now fully focused on the Rio Paralympics. \u201cI have decided to give Belgium a miss and put in some solid preparation instead. So next for me will be the World Cup in Spain in mid July, and then after that, Rio,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

The opening round of the 2016 UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup takes place at Alexandra Park in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 May. More information can be found here: http:\/\/www.cyclingsa.com\/2016-uci-para-road-world-cup\/<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Spectators are welcome to come and support the local and international riders that will be participating, and the pit area is open for people to meet their cycling heroes. For those that cannot attend, the full days\u2019 racing will be live streamed on www.streamit360.tv.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although having now returned from the busyness of wheelchair racing abroad, the pace has by no means lessened for the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games\u2019 gold medallist, Ernst van Dyk, who now heads to Pietermaritzburg for this weekend\u2019s UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup at Alexandra Park from 7-8 May. Van Dyk\u2019s talents extend beyond just cycling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":42877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2220,1725,2810],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-18227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-ernst-van-dyk","tag-para","tag-pietermaritzburg-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18227"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=18227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}