{"id":19968,"date":"2015-05-20T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-20T06:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2015\/05\/20\/locals-prepared-for-kzn-xco-champs-r2591\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T10:55:28","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T10:55:28","slug":"locals-prepared-for-kzn-xco-champs-r2591","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/locals-prepared-for-kzn-xco-champs-r2591\/","title":{"rendered":"Locals prepared for KZN XCO Champs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2015 KwaZulu-Natal MTB Championships (XCO) will be taking place at Cascades MTB Park, Pietermaritzburg, on Saturday 30 May. Sponsored by KwaZulu-Natal Sports and Recreation, the event will allow top contenders in the KZN regions to compete for the 2015 XCO Championship title.<\/p>\n

The world-renowned venue, having hosted four UCI MTB World Cups and two World Championships, is fully geared up and more than prepared to host the annual provincial championship.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-71821800-1432107158.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tyron Bird is ready to tackle the technical challenges at the 2015 KZN XCO Championships which takes place at Cascades MTB Park, Pietermaritzburg, on 30 May. \/\/ Photo credit: Jbird Photography.<\/span><\/p>\n

Riding in the mix is Elite Men\u2019s 2013 KZN XCO Champ, Stuart Marais. \u201cI am very confident going into KZN Champs,\u201d he said. \u201cI have had a lot of bad luck throughout the year but I am very happy with the progress that I have been making over the year thus far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although falling ill this week, the 27-year-old is determined to come back with a vengeance and is excited to try and reclaim the title this year after having finished in second place in the 2014 KZN Champs.<\/p>\n

Kokstad local, Tyron Bird (25), is not too sure how he is feeling about KZN Champs, but is looking forward to it nonetheless. \u201cI don\u2019t know how I feel, to be honest. It\u2019s my first year riding cross-country seriously, so who knows how this is going to go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m definitely not in form and haven\u2019t had the most excellent season so far, but I\u2019m still going to try my best,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Bird, although new to XCO, is eager to race, and excited for the future of the season. \u201cIt\u2019s also going to be quite interesting to see how the racing plays out, because some of our top riders are in Europe at the moment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When chatting about the Cascades track, Bird had this to say: \u201cI love Cascades. It\u2019s so technical. It\u2019s definitely one of my favourite tracks. I\u2019ve raced there and had very good times, but I\u2019ve also raced there and crashed my brains out, so there are a lot of stories attached to that track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bird has raced in two of the three National Cup races this year, and plans to race in the fourth at the end of June. After that, he then prepares for SA Champs.<\/p>\n

\n\"ccs-62657-0-34912900-1432107153.jpg\"<\/a>Sabrina van Wyk is looking forward to her Junior race at the 2015 KZN XCO Championships which takes place at Cascades MTB Park, Pietermaritzburg, on 30 May. \/\/ Photo credit: Gavin Ryan\/Quick Pix.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

Another keen KZN rider is Junior Woman Sabrina van Wyk, who will be fighting hard to earn her KZN Colours. The Pure Adventure Wear Team (PAW) rider, although no stranger to the podium, is still slightly nervous for her race, as she tries to keep her head in the game, but also balance school life and study time for exams.<\/p>\n

When speaking about training and preparation, the 17-year-old had this to say: \u201cI\u2019ve been doing some paddling as well, and it has been a huge help in terms of my core strength for XCO. I have also been doing some cross-training and running, so it\u2019s helped strengthen my leg muscles as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Wyk enjoys the time that she spends with her team. \u201cIt\u2019s always so great to ride with the team because we are pretty much like family. And on rides together, the boys push the girls and vice versa. They\u2019re absolutely amazing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also really cool when the younger age groups in our team come in with 1st, 2nd or 3rd places, so then we push ourselves to try and keep that going throughout the older age groups,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Van Wyk is eager for her race, despite her nerves around exam pressure. \u201cI\u2019m really excited about KZN Champs. To be honest, I\u2019m a lot more nervous than before because I am in the middle of exams. But my school has been really supportive so it\u2019s helped a lot,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Aside from Mankele MTB Park, Van Wyk says Cascades is one of her favourite tracks. \u201cTim (Keep) has been such a role model, he has so much knowledge and I have learned so much from him, especially all the technical knowledge. This is what originally drew me to all of the tech stuff. And for me Cascades isn\u2019t just single track, it isn\u2019t just one thing. It\u2019s a bit of everything. So I really can\u2019t wait,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n

Online pre-entries are now open, and close on Wednesday 27 May. Click here to enter: http:\/\/www.roag.co.za\/eventinfo.aspx?EventID=1472<\/a>. Late entries will be accepted at registration with a nominal charge of R50 in addition to the entry fee. <\/p>\n

Entrance for spectators is free, and all are welcome to attend to watch some spectacular mountain bike racing.<\/p>\n

For more information, contact Rebecca van der Linde info@kznmtb.co.za or Dellah Paul dellah@cyclingsa.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2015 KwaZulu-Natal MTB Championships (XCO) will be taking place at Cascades MTB Park, Pietermaritzburg, on Saturday 30 May. Sponsored by KwaZulu-Natal Sports and Recreation, the event will allow top contenders in the KZN regions to compete for the 2015 XCO Championship title. The world-renowned venue, having hosted four UCI MTB World Cups and two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":48057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1286,4004,4005,196],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-19968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-cascades-mtb-park","tag-kwazulu-natal-mtb","tag-kwazulu-natal-mtb-champs","tag-xco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19968","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=19968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19968"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=19968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}