Hey Everyone,
Starting a new Blog so friends and family from back home in the USA and all my sponsors can see what I'm up to.
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| Team TIBCO |
As you all may know I am no longer on
Team TIBCO UCI. I would like to shout out to Linda Jackson and thank her for all the opportunities she has given me over the two years I have been on her team. I've made great memories with all my roadie teammates and suffered through many races with all those girls. It was a blast!
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| The Cycle Fest |
Now, for 2013 I will be racing for
Team Jeep South Africa, an Elite mountain bike team. This is going to be a great journey, racing cross country mountain bike in South Africa. I'm always asking myself, "How many people in the world get to experience something like this in their lifetime?" I am so privileged to have had great experiences like racing on a Pro road team in the USA and in Europe for the USA National Team and I'm looking forward to this opportunity with Team Jeep in South Africa and plan to make the most of it for the year 2013.
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| Morgan and I going for a ride. |
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| Me, Mom, Alexis |
I spent a lot of time with family and friends
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| Christmas |
during the holidays and also the start of a new year.Wishing both my older brother, Morgan, good luck at CMU and younger sister, Alexis, at UCSB good luck this year with College and in all your racing. And a big thanks to Mommy, Dedo, and Uncle Allen for all your support in my adventures. I will miss you all very much, but thank goodness for Facebook and Skype to keep in touch.
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| Me and Jessie Ball my god sister |
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| Breakfast with the Family |
I left the states on January 7th and arrived to South Africa January 9th, what a long trip! There was a very warm welcome from
Max Cluer and all the
Team Jeep athlete's when I arrived at
athlete house, especially from my boyfriend,
Brendon Davids. It was amazing to give him a big hug and kiss after not seeing him for a month.
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| #iRide4Burry |
A lot of you may know that on January 3rd cycling lost a great athlete, icon, and amazing person. I attended
Burry Stander's funeral the day after I arrived to South Africa. I shed many tears, as it was a very sad day for his family, South African cycling, and to the world. We have lost a tremendous human being and all we can do is learn from it by bringing awareness to cyclists out on the roads.
The Cycle Fest was all about
#iRide4Burry. Everyone was given an arm band to wear during their race and lots of people raced their hearts out in his memory. He will never be forgotten. RIP
Burry Stander.
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| The Cycle fest |
Jet lagged as ever I had a plan to race a UCI XC mountain bike race at Cascades at
The Cycle Fest on January 12th. Just receiving my new Token bike a day before the race, I set myself up and went out to do some opening efforts. I didn't feel too bad from all the traveling, but the muddy conditions were absolutely horrendous. I thought to myself, "well I guess I'll wait and see how tomorrow goes!"
Before starting my race,
Greg Minaar, the 2012 Downhill World Champ, let me borrow his wheels, thinking I would have better luck sticking to the ground with his tires. That was one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me.
Man was this race a MUD FEST! In the words of great race announcer Max Cluer, "we had mud in places where we didn't even know we had places!"
When I race on the road and it's raining I've always had a slight advantage with technical skills, the rain doesn't bother me much.I can go the same speed in the rain as I would in the dry. But on the dirt, it's different....
This cross country course was not that technical when the trails were dry, but it had on and off rain for a whole day previous; so you could imagine what this place looked like. The course was way better when it was raining because the mud would just slush around under your tires, it was slippery but I could manage. But when the rain stopped, the mud turned to peanut butter and stuck to my bike. Clogging up the clearance from my frame to the tire, so much that the wheels would simply not turn. I was dragging this bike around the second half of the first lap of my race and decided it wasn't worth it to go out for another lap. I waited for the leaders to come through so I could get a finish, 8th.
All in all I was sad not to be able to really race my first cross country race, but given the circumstances, I did my best with what I had. I still had a blast and that's all that matters.
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| The boyfriend, Brendon, and my brother from another mother, Kyle. :) |
Thanks for reading! Ride on.
Kendall Ryan
I arrived at the 17 kilometer climb confident I could get into a nice tempo, having driven the climb in the Jeep the day before. It was a long but gradual climb to the top with a few steep kickers. Yolande Speedy and I fought for 8th place throughout the whole climb. I got away from her just before the top of the climb. Lying 8th, I had a couple GU's and took off down the descent. I could spot Speedy's teammate just ahead of me and tried my hardest to reel her in. I was feeling my legs at the next climb, lost sight of my carrot and was caught by Speedy. For as long as I could, I tried to hold her wheel. She eventually dropped me on the next climb. 
I fought hard the rest of the race and ended up passing two riders near the finish fixing flat tires. Finishing in 7th place and 2nd U23, not a bad result for my first marathon race. It is the beginning of the season and there are many more races to come. I still feel like I'm in base training mode, so I'm ready for some more interval training and a couple more races in my legs! Bring on the next one! Next weekend is another race at Cascades in Pietermaritzburg. Looking forward to it!
