FullSussa
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May 2014, Vol 14
MOUNTAIN BIKE MONTHLY
Nguni Bulls
pg8
Dragon Masters
pg10
PYGA Bike Review Tsitsikamma pg16 Trails - pg14
Kate’s Epic Review pg13
Nigel’s Revenge and other PMB highlights
M
ost of the DH fraternity had started reconsidering their approach to the PMB DH track after Australia’s Jared Graves pulled into third on his Yeti SC66B trail bike at the 2013 UCI World Championships. Meh, who needs a double crown fork? Enter 2014 and Nigel Hicks (chief DH track executive of Cascades) decided he was beyond tired of all the international keyboard jockeys debating whether this testing piece of earth should really be on the World Cup circuit. Nig, being a geologist with a profound love of rock, decided to up the ante. Stepping cautiously around the minefield of rocks in the new Cloud 9 on seeding day, it was flippin’ easy to see why people started calling it Nigel’s Revenge. If you were one of the riders who decided to tackle PMB on a trail bike, our thoughts were firmly with you. Particularly if you were one of the people upside down with head and shoulders wedged between two boulders. Honestly though, the track was pretty much prime with whisperings of “this really is a proper
DH track now” floating from the lips of the humbled. South Africa was well represented at the event, with 23 men’s elite entries and 10 junior entries. Of course, gender wise the representation was less equal, but that’s a topic of discussion for another article. Essentially though, with so many South African jerseys smashing down the exceptionally challenging track, it made for pretty exciting viewing. 11 South African elites cracked the top 80 mark to make it into the main event on Saturday the 12th of April, while all the juniors qualified by virtue of their skill combined with the low overall numbers. Come race day, the weather was perfect and spirits were high. Cowbells, roaring chainless-chainsaws, wooden clappers, vuvuzelas and many sets of dust-lined lungs edged the length of the track. There is always something special about being able to support this unique and rather hardcore sport in person, and watching the number boards appear round corners (followed by the adrenalin fuelled glare of a South
KATH FOURIE
There are occasionally times when one regrets their bike choice, writes Full Sus’s eyes and pen in Maritzburg, Kathryn Fourie. In this era of 26”, 27.5”, 29ers, trail, enduro, DH, AM and plenty of other bikey acronyms; a multitude of combinations of bicycle bits exist that the best riders in the world can debate about when they consider tackling a specific track, whether it’s XCO or DH.
Greg Minnaar had the ‘One Life Minnaar’ support crew in raptures during his run.
“MINNAAR SMASHES THE MONEY MAKER WITH A RIGHT-HAND HEAD TURN TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE CROWD AND HE BLAZES OVER THE FINISH LINE WITH THE CROWDS GOING BANANAS.” African set of eyeballs within goggles), was all one needed to be prompted into banshee shrieks of encouragement! The juniors kept it solid, with the South African lads gaining some valuable experience in the international standard of DH racing. Jonathan Philogene was the top placing South African with a time of 4:51:69, in 15th place overall. Kevin Smale unfortunately suffered a killer
bail in the rocks - showing what happens when you push yourself in races - and took home probably one of the worst injuries of the event, a broken wrist. It was said the paramedics had to hold his hand and arm separately to keep them at the same level. Typing that out makes my eyes water, eish.
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