![\"ccs-62657-0-51525100-1441868375.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-51525100-1441868375.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nSays Hein Wagner: \u201cIt was a very proud moment when I received confirmation after the National Championships in February this year that I was selected to be part of the national team. There is something so powerful in wearing your SA kit. It makes me feel bulletproof! As this is my first international Para-cycling competition, I don\u2019t really know what to expect. Just looking at the international line-up for the blind tandem men\u2019s race is enough to make me eat more pap! We\u2019ll give it our best and then some!\u201d Wagner\u2019s co-pilot and training partner, Alwyn de Kock adds: \u201cI\u2019m very excited. This is a project Hein and I talked about and planned a year ago. It\u2019s wonderful to see the plan coming together.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Wagner, a top 3 finish will bode well for their future. \u201cIf we perform well at the upcoming World Cup, we hope to get invited to more international events in the future. We dream of going to the 2016 Rio Paralympics. Obviously, it\u2019s going to take a lot of hard work and although it\u2019s our ambition, we\u2019re taking this one step at a time.\u201d De Kock reckons a top three finish will give them a lot of satisfaction. \u201cIt will prove that the effort was worth it and also that we can progress to the next level. In order to participate at Rio, we need international points and hopefully podium finishes.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Wagner, he and De Kock are on a very intense training program to improve both power and speed. \u201cWe aim to train together three times per week and for the rest we train on our own. A typical training week will see us doing one long ride of around 110 km and 5 sets of intervals at different intensities. So in short 6 days per week.\u201d<\/p>\n
De Kock comments that they have been on a twelve week training plan. \u201cI feel we\u2019re in good condition. We\u2019ve never raced against any of the world\u2019s best Para-tandem racers, so we\u2019re a bit in the dark. We\u2019re just going to give it our best shot and try to race smart. We both have fulltime jobs but try to train together whenever it is possible. When we can\u2019t train together, we do identical programs with separate trainers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Wagner and De Kock follow a balanced diet. Adds Wagner: \u201cHowever, due to the intensity of the training, I have some interesting cravings from time to time. They normally include something sweet!\u201d<\/p>\n
Wagner and De Kock\u2019s biggest goal for this year is to perform well at the upcoming World Cup. Wagner also does not want to disappoint his training partner. \u201cAlwyn has put a huge amount of effort in to making my dream a reality and I owe him my best performance on the day. What a privilege it is to represent this amazing country at an international event!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This coming weekend, the world\u2019s best Para-cyclists will be making their way to Pietermaritzburg to compete in the only World Cup race outside of Europe this year at the fourth round of the 2015 UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup from 11 to 13 September. Blind South African adventurer and motivational speaker Hein Wagner, with co-pilot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":47060,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3571,3570,1725,3572],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-19326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-alwyn-de-kock","tag-hein-wagner","tag-para","tag-rio-paralympics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19326","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=19326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19326"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=19326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"ccs-62657-0-29201500-1441868375.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-29201500-1441868375.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>\n<\/div>\n