Sabie- MTN National MTB Series #2

Sabie Course Profile

Saturday morning wake up call at 5:30. I'm pretty much a zombie at this time in the morning. Get out of bed, brush my teeth, use the bathroom before the boys peal the paint off the walls, toast 4 pieces of bread slap on some Nutella and BAM, high calorie breakfast. Next thing I know there's a guy at the door from Super Sport with a camera wanting to film our morning routines. Oh boy he was in for a treat. Brendon Davids, Patrick Belton, Travis Walker, and I enlightened this guy and the rest of South Africa how we get things done in the morning. Basically we talked about the boys blowing up the bathroom, figuratively speaking of course. Had the camera man laughing so hard he couldn't hold the camera up. We like to keep things fun and entertaining.

So we kitted up, packed our bags and bikes into the Jeep and headed to the race. As soon as I rolled to the start line I was handed the white leaders jersey for U23 Women. Sweet! Lined up next to the pink polka dot climbers jersey, I started getting the pre-race nervous jitters on the line. 74 kilometers of pain awaits. The whistle blows. Stomped down into my Bebop pedals and follow the lead motor bike out the first corner. I was sitting on the front going easy, but my heart rate was so high, I guess I was excited!

Start line

Candice Neethling, South African 2012 Olympian, in the Pink overall women leaders jersey to my left and Ariane Kleinhans, Swiss MTB superstar, to my right and sitting on the wheel of Cherise Stander, roadie superstar. It's gonna be a fast day. We took off down a dirt road that went for about a kilometer before leading us out onto a tar road. It was false flat all the way to the first short climb. The race immediately blew up as we turned onto the Jeep track of the first climb. Candice and Ariane were already attacking each other. It was a long way to the finish, so I decided to ride a little more conservatively staying with the group. As we rolled down the other side of the mountain the "Mamba Switchback" climb was coming up. From driving the climb the day before, I knew ALL about Mamba Strike 1,2, and 3. Steep, Steep, Steep! The whole climb I tried to keep Cherise in my view, keeping her there as a nice carrot was a good call. After making it over the climb I just focused on drinking enough fluids and taking a GU Roctane every 30 mins. Cherise and I pretty much rode the whole race together. See-sawing back and forth from 9th and 10th. I put in one last hard push a couple kilometers from the finish. Pulling away from Cherise.

Brendon giving me a big hug

Finishing with a time of 03:58:45. I rolled in with a solid ride, 2nd U23 and 9th overall Women. Received a big hug from Brendon Davids, who won his race in the 75k overall and U23. Travis was 2nd in the U23 men and holds onto his U23 leaders jersey for the next Marathon. Patrick finished strong and was 3rd U23. What a great weekend for team Jeep. We pulled through with some good results.

Bronwen and I

I want to give a big shout out to Naeem of Valencia, thank you for your amazing hospitality. Your tent with food and drinks was a god send after a hard race on such a hot day. Also big thanks to the MTN National Series and ADVENDURANCE for putting together such an enjoyable event. The course was really well marked and so much fun to race on. Looking forward to the next one!

Thanks for reading.

Kendall Ryan

The Team Jeep Gang

Cape Town- XC National #1

Woke up early on a Wednesday morning last week and flew with the Team Jeep boys, Patrick Belton and Travis Walker, from Durban to Cape Town, South Africa for my first cross country race of the season. I slept the whole flight, like a boss! Brendon Davids was already there to pick us up at the airport, due to some VO2 testing with his coach, Jeroen Swart, earlier in the week. He arrived  in this SWEET Chrysler van Jeep hooked us up with to get around. Man that thing was nice!  Our race didn't start till Saturday, but we wanted to get there a couple days early to check out the course and get familiar with it. We unpacked our bikes and built them back up. Got a bite to eat, filled up our bottles with some GU Brew and were on our way to the course. When we got there I was pretty skeptical about the rock gardens, the drop offs, and the steep descents into tight corners. Coming from pretty much solely a roadie background, I found myself not 100% confident I can ride these things. But with the help and guidance of my teammates, I managed to overcome my fears and doubts. They had me ride behind them finding the good lines and even stood at the rock gardens in-case I fell. Thanks guys, I learned a lot.


Thursday was an awesome day! Woke up to some horses right outside our front porch. Fed them some carrots and apples. There were animals everywhere! We were set up with some really nice accommodation at Clara Anna Fontein. Gorgeous place! Had a good ride on the course and the weather was hot and sunny. Couldn't have asked for a nicer day. That night, GU South Africa took Team Jeep athletes out to dinner. Had a great time chatting with Rebecca Laird and getting to know everyone personally. Thanks again!



Friday was the hardest day for me to get through because I was getting antsy to race! Went to the race track again and did some opening efforts and road all the difficult parts of the course to get it in my head that I can ride them. Leaving the track with my legs and head feeling good I went to registration and got my number 61. Time to chill and put the legs up.... and wait.

My alarm goes off at 6am and I wake up with that feeling of: "where am I? Oh right I'm racing at 8:45, I should get going." I hate it when that happens. I walk out the door and it's really cold and raining. What happened to the sun? All I could think about was how different the course is going to be because of the rain. I got a pretty descent warm-up in and headed to the start line, where I started to scope out other riders. There were 13 Elite/U23 women on the start line. A few I picked out were a international riders, riders from BMC, Contego and Cherise Stander, who I knew from the road. It's gonna be a hard day. The whistle blew, clip in, and put the power down. My word was it a fast start. I didn't get myself in a great position at the start, but I just focused on pulling riders back one by one. We had 6 laps of a 4k course to complete. With Rebbeca Laird and the rest of the GU clan in the feed zone cheering me on every time I went by I was really happy with how the race was going. The first 4 laps went really smoothly for me. I made no mistakes, I found a nice rhythm and worked my way past other riders in different categories; all the womens categories started together. Going into lap 5 I was sitting in 8th overall and 4th U23. It started to rain harder and the course was getting a lot more slippery. I crashed in one of the rock gardens and hit my hip really hard on a rock on lap 5. I got up quick and tried to get back in my rhythm and block out the pain. Pretty much lost all my steam after that and was running a minute slower on laps 5 and 6. I ended up placing 10th overall and 5th U23. Not exactly the result I was hoping for, but not a bad race for my first experience at cross country racing.

Doing some hard training for the next race on February 23rd, Sabie! Should be an awesome race. Heard it's really tough, so it probably is. I'll be racing the Marathon 74 km.

Thanks for reading!! Ride on!

Kendall Ryan

Barberton- MTN National MTB Series #1

So this weekend the Team Jeep boys and I took the Jeep to Barberton, South Africa. Where we raced the first MTN National MTB series race. A 75 kilometer(47 mi) xc marathon. The course starts out pretty flat until about 15 kilometers in and then there is a 17 kilometer(10.6 mi) climb with 1100 m(3600 ft) of accent. After the big climb there are two smaller climbs, long descents and undulating terrain to the finish. 

The race started out neutral for the first kilometer or so as we rode on the pavement. As soon as we hit the dirt, it was game on. We hit some slippery mud from the rain the day before and my front wheel slipped out from underneath me and I hit the ground. I was okay, but lost a little time straightening my seat back. As soon as I gathered myself, I focused on bringing back positions lost.

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!

Thanks for reading. Ride on!

Kendall

South Africa

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.

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!

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.

Morgan and I going for a ride.

Me, Mom, Alexis

I spent a lot of time with family and friends

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.

Me and Jessie Ball my god sister

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.

#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.

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.

The boyfriend, Brendon, and my brother from another mother, Kyle. :)

Thanks for reading! Ride on.

Kendall Ryan