August, 2008

It's hard to describe Liam Killeen's ride at the Olympics - if anything it was inspirational. Most people would have honestly quit. It's the talk of the town now and so many people have texted me and called me commenting on what a savage ride it was .... they are not wrong. Liam was damn impressive. Liam has a blog at his website www.liamkilleen.com, where you can read Liam's recollections on what happened and his will to continue ............. Last to 7th position - savage.

Earlier this year Christoph partnered with South African rider Burry Stander in The Cape Epic, a gruelling 950km MTB Stage Race from Knysna to Cape Town. It was more than just a mountain bike race for Burry, Christoph and the team. In the background a major fundraising effort was underway in partnership with the Jag Foundation and under the name SONGO, which would change the childhood of many young under privileged children. So how did all of this happen?

If I have to be honest my mind has been lost since yesterday afternoon. I am totally and utterly gutted for the team. Deflated is the best way to describe it, but I am still very proud of Lene, Liam and Christoph and reckon tomorrow we will already be thinking positively ahead!

Lene's goal was a top 8 and she was on target despite crashing. Then on the final lap another crash followed by a puncture left her in 13th position. She was of course very disappointed, but Lene can look positively forward towards a bright future.

I was very happy for Sabine Spitz the new Olympic Champion, who was a member of Specialized Factory Racing in 2006. Both Sabine and her husband Ralf are sound people …. It was great to see both of them smiling from ear to ear.

Please feel free to click here, in order to read an interview by www.cyclingnews.com with Susi, relating to the Olympics and his thoughts for the future ......

In 24 hours time we will know the final outcomes of both women's (at 10am Saturday morning, local time) and men's (at 3pm Saturday morning, local time) Olympic MTB Races here in Beijing.

The women's race was re-scheduled from today until tomorrow, due to heavy rain yesterday, leaving parts of the course apparently unrideable. As most of you know there was an Olympic Test Event here last year (Christoph won, Lene was 3rd and Liam did not race), but the course has changed considerably since. The original course was deemed to be not technically challenging enough. Well the riders requests have been taken into account, because the modifications have resulted in a "true mtb course". More specifically two very steep descents have been added, coupled with other climbs including a switch back climb etc. One girl broke her colarbone in training on one of these descents - apparently there is nothing steeper featured on the world cup circuit.

Lene's race has been changed from Friday August 22nd at 3:00pm (local time) to Saturday August 23rd at 10:00am (local time).

The men's race i.e. Liam's and Christoph's remains the same i.e. Saturday August 23rd at 3:00pm (local time)

Taken from Susi's personal website www.sauserwind.com

Team Dinner: (L-R): Benno, Ryan, Claire, Philip (our translator), Bobby and Susi

Last Monday it was time to break down our settlement in the mountains, and head towards the big city. All in all, a pretty hectic day: riding before breakfast, packing, 2hrs bus driving to the Olympic village, taxi to specialized hotel near course, training on course, shower, back to village for meeting the press, dinner, taxi back to Specialized hotel.

For athletes it is not easy to check into any hotel here in Beijing at all. No hotel wants to take responsibility for us, because of food poisoning, terror attack or sucking into the sink :-) etc. Also there are some politics going on between the organisers we don't really know.

Benno, Claire and I arrived early Monday morning with Ryan a little later in the day. So far life is good and we are enjoying the entire cultural experience. Thanks to the accommodating hotel manager Michael in our fantastic hotel we have managed to get Susi in with us. Lene & Liam had to stay in the village with their federations, but Susi wanting perfection opted to stay with the team. To be honest, this has been a positive move. The village can be noisy given that many athletes have finished and are in party mode, while also being over 40 minutes by car from the MTB venue, whereas our hotel is just a 5 minute walk.

This “Mountain champs” really lives up to its name. Tons of climbing (ow), high altitude (ow), but fortunately also plenty of single track (yay) and lots of rocks. (yay) Snow basin was the venue for the previous Winter Olympics and appart from the excellent venue, the organization here is top class, and the people are very motivated to showcase Utah as a sports destination.

The pros swam without wetsuits and the amateurs with- resulting in quite a punch up all the way to the 1st bouy. Then most people blow up. (too fast, too much altitude and maybe too much punching and dunking) I lost some time in the swim, I guess about 1 minute to Seth Wealing, Craig Evans, Brandon Rykita, Linda Gallo and Christine Jeffrey. Mike Vine was less than a minute back.

All photos by Gary Perkin

Rafa wins again; Lene has another consistent result with fourth; Liam makes the top ten (ninth) while further disappointment for Cody and Kyle .... meanwhile Christoph is back home in Switzerland recovering. 

Report by Reba: 

24 Hour National Championships
August 14, 2008