March 4/04 10:26 am - Coaching Positions, OCA Elections, Cape Epic Stage 5

Posted by Editor on 03/4/04
 

BC Coaching Opportunities
Courtesy Steve Lund

International Cycling Coaches is looking for a few good coaches to help deliver a number of cycling programs in Victoria.

We are delivering an 8 week Women's Learn to Race program in partnership with the City of Victoria Parks and Recreation department. NCCP Level 1 (or higher) female coaches are needed to deliver this program which runs April through May. Full training will be provided and an NCCP Level 1 Road Cycling course is scheduled for Victoria March 13-14 (thanks to Cycling BC) for experienced women cyclists who may not have their NCCP certification.

There are also opportunities for apprentice coaches to work with the TeenSpeed Cycling Team. TeenSpeed is a youth cycling club that encourages entry level cycling participation and offers world class coaching to aspiring racers. We need more coaches to help lead rides and develop programs across a wide range of ages and abilities for eager young road and MTB riders.

The above are paid coaching positions.

Please reply to Steve Lund, coach1@InternationalCyclingCoaches.com


OCA Elections
Courtesy OCA

The Ontario Cycling Association will hold elections for a variety of Board positions at their AGM on March 6th (Saturday) at the National Trade Centre in the CNE Grounds (next to the Toronto Bike Show). The submission deadline for nominations for OCA board members was on Friday, February 27th. The following nominations were received by the OCA:

BMX VP - Nicky Pearson
Development VP - Rob Good and Matthias Schmidt
Admin VP - Aaron Hershoff
Finance VP - no candidate

In the absence of other candidates, it is expected that Nicky Pearson and Aaron Hershoff will be acclaimed to their positions. An election will be held for the Development position. Below are the statements submitted by the two candidates:

Rob Good

Thank you for the opportunity to apply for the Job of VP Development. I have held a position on the Development Committee for the last two years, attending meetings and learning first hand how the systems operate.

My passion is for Track Racing and seeing young riders advance. My love for track racing started over 30 years ago at the indoor track in Delhi. I raced for 10 years until 1980 after finishing 4th at the National Track Championships, behind J. Lovell and G. Singleton. Later that year I had knee trouble and retired from racing.

In the next 20 years I founded and ran the most successful Go-Kart club in Canada.

When I came back to cycling I needed to become more active, so I started racing in 1999. Master B is the category that I have been racing since my return to racing.

As a member of the Waterloo Cycling Club, I'm continuing to help build the club and do whatever it takes to expand competitive cycling in Waterloo.

Getting people to work together, expand working committees, growing the sport of cycling is my main goal for the upcoming season.

Thank you again for the opportunity.

Yours in sport,

Rob Good


Matthias Schmidt

I have been in the cycling community for almost 20 years involved mostly in racing and officiating. My racing background includes almost every type of racing including road, track and MTB. I started as a novice in 1987 and moved through the licensed under 18 categories and then into Senior 1 road/track and Pro/Elite MTB. Since I stopped racing competitively in 2000 I have been involved in officiating, starting in 2002. I am a Provincial B commissaire and am working towards my National Commissaire licence (I passed the written test in 2003 and need to attend a qualification event in 2004). I'm currently a member of the Newmarket Eagles Cycling Club. I ride mainly to keep active but sometimes participate in the club's racing activities.

The reason I am putting my name forward for this position is to keep involved in the sport and use my experiences to help better the sport in Ontario and Canada. I feel that my experiences, in particular having started as a Novice racer working through the development ranks of Cadet and Junior will help give me perspective and ideas of the issues facing young riders as well as development. My Commissaire experience provides me with the hands-ons experience dealing with issues related to officiating as well as having the relationships with other officials at the OCA. And finally my racing experience has provided me with the background to handle the competitive aspects of the poisition related to events, licensing and organizing.

Matthias Schmidt


Cape-Epic - South Africa
Report courtesy organizers

The Cape Epic's fast fifth stage to Greyton, a beautiful small town in the Overberg, which reminds more of an Old English village than a South African settlement, shuffled stage winners in all categories and introduced some new faces to the daily awards.

The claim of the small town of Greyton - 'Pure Country, No Additives' - could be by a mountain biker. And the area, which hosts the annual Dirtopia mountain bike festival every year at Easter, is surrounded by beautiful scenic mountain bike trails and spectacular single tracks. To properly welcome the riders from around the world, the village moved its traditional Saturday Market to Wednesday and offered a variety of local produce, baked goods, and healthy homemade country food to the hungry bunch.

Children from three local schools lined the finish and cheered enthusiastically for all incoming riders, waiving with hand painted South African flags and dancing to the music of 'Mike Mike' Hamel, The Cape Epic Marketing and Infotainment Director, who moderates the event together with South Africa's voice of mountain biking, Paul Valstar.

Stage number five brought out a team from Kenya. David Njau and Davidson Kamau (team Imperial Logistics) were in the lead over several kilometres with an impressive gap by three and a half minutes. However, they could not maintain their advantage when the other leaders started chasing them and were caught just outside Greyton. Eventually they came in third after a tight sprint finish. Team GT Africa won the stage in a time of 3:50.13 followed by the Dutch team Tom Tailor/Santos/ Walkabout with Crocodile Trophy Champion Jaap Viergever and Dennis Teeuwen.

"Today's stage was very flat", says Shan Wilson. "The bunch at the front was a lot bigger and tactics played a great part. We had to keep the pace high to avoid people coming back onto the Peleton, so the race was very fast and very hard." Asked about the performance of the Kenyans, Wilson says: "I am very impressed. We dropped them earlier in the race in the first climb. Later a group of ten riders came back to the leading group and they were in it. In Riversonderend they had luck with the headwind and started an attack, we only caught them near the finish line. Congratulations to the Kenyans, they rode a very good race." Both Kenyans were impressed by the sportsmanship of the European riders. "We are not very good sprinters, so they said we should go ahead and start the sprint and they gave us an advantage", explains David Njau who was not disappointed that he didn't win the stage. "I always want the best team to win. They caught us and they were better in the sprint finish, so it's ok for me. We are very happy with our third place today."

In the Mixed category, several time South African Champion Hannele Steyn-Kotze and her team partner Johann Greef (RSA), team Fiat /Bianchi, celebrated their first stage victory. "Today was our chance and we had to attack", says Hannele, who originally wanted to race The Cape Epic with her husband Fourie Kotze, but had to find a new partner after he had a training accident. "The Germans are very strong. Yesterday we said, we have to kill them if we want to win, but today it was going well and we joined a group that was actually too fast for us, but we thought we must cling to them and use our chance, even if it hurts." With their laborious attack they caught up twelve and a half minutes in the overall rankings. The leading Mixed team HAI Bike/ Scott with Kirsten Rosel (GER) and Robert Eder (GER) on the other hand, was chased by bad luck today. Three punctures, breaking air cartridges and heavy nose bleed for Kirsten slowed the strong team down, which introduced new faces to the Mixed podium today: Team Falke with Michelle Lombardi (RSA) and Philip Swanepoel (RSA) finished second.

TV editor Monika Birk (GER) who works on a report about The Cape Epic for German television and rides together with Christine Holzl (GER), team hr Fiat Rotwild, came in third. Despite the fact that Monika's behind is has open wounds after 500 kilometres of cycling, the two German girls attacked. "Christine was in a racing mood today. Our legs were strong enough and I couldn't let her down. So I grit my teeth and tried to ignore my pain for a while", Birk says.

Up to now about fifty teams could not finish at least one of the epic stages, which means they do no longer qualify for the limited adidas Cape Epic finisher T-shirt and medal that are only awarded to those riders who have completed all eight stages of the inaugural Magical and Untamed African Mountain Bike Race.

Stage 5 - Swellendam to Greyton

Men
1 GT Africa (Jacques Rossouw / Shan Wilson) 3:50:13
2 Tom Tailor/Santos/Walkabout 1 (Jaap Viergever / Dennis Teeuwen) at 0:01
3 Adidas/Fiat Rotwild (Andreas Strobel/ Silvio Wieltschnig) 0:05
4 Imperial Logistics Kenya (David Njau / Davidson Kamau) s.t.
5 Focus/Rocky Mountain (Mannie Heymans / Karl Platt) 0:06

GC
1 Focus/Rocky Mountain (Mannie Heymans / Karl Platt) 22:41:01
2 Adidas/Fiat Rotwild (Andreas Strobel/ Silvio Wieltschnig) at 9:37
3 GT Africa (Jacques Rossouw / Shan Wilson) 19:40
4 Tom Tailor/Santos/Walkabout 1 (Jaap Viergever / Dennis Teeuwen) 1:07:20
5 Breitling/Vineyard Hotel (Geddan Ruddock / Kevin Evans) 1:13:53

Women
1 Yellow Jacket (Hanlie Booyens / Sharon Laws) 4:36.02
2 Cateye-Kenda Enduro Team (Louise Kobin / Hillary Harrison) at 4:48
3 Team Fiat Rotwild/Hr (Monika Birk / Christine Holzl) 12:38
4 Smith/Speedy (Yolande Speedy / Christi Smith) 22:12
5 Team Fair Lady (Adrienne Cobb / Christelle Van Niekerk) 41:40

10 Canucks2 (Martie du Plessis / Marlene Van Heerden) 2:18:55

GC
1 Yellow Jacket (Hanlie Booyens / Sharon Laws) 28:03:37
2 Cateye-Kenda Enduro Team (Louise Kobin / Hillary Harrison) at 46:41
3 Smith/Speedy (Yolande Speedy / Christi Smith) 1:14:04
4 Team Fiat Rotwild/Hr (Monika Birk / Christine Holzl) 5:32:38
5 Team Fair Lady (Adrienne Cobb / Christelle Van Niekerk) 5:41:21

10 Canucks2 (Martie du Plessis / Marlene Van Heerden) 12:03:46