A ride down memory lane
IWAS digging around looking for an old document I wrote way back in 2007 when I stumbled across a Mountain Bike Diaries column from this week in November 2007 – ten years ago almost to the day.
It fascinated me to see some of the things I was writing about then, and how they have a relevance to what is currently going on in the mountain biking world.
The main article was a story on the Berg & Bush. As far as I can find out, the first Berg & Bush was in 2006, so this was a story about the second event a year later. The following is from that November column:
“The 2007 Natro Berg and Bush Impi, which took place last weekend, certainly seems to have hit the mark with riders. By all accounts, the organiser’s slick attention to detail should ensure the event has a healthy future.
“I was not at the race, but have heard only good things about it. Firstly, the two-day out-and-back course concept is great, but what was even better was a few clever ideas: Roving mechanics, zip lines and route showers to name a few.
“But, for me, an incident which makes me hope this race becomes a huge success involved a friend of mine. He broke his bike early in the race and an official saw his predicament ... and provided a replacement bike within 30 minutes. If that is not race organisation beyond the call of duty I do not know what is.
“Up front, Richard Beswick and Damien Booth were too good for Burry Stander and Greg Knox with Nic Porteous and Jonno Downham a very distant third.
“Another interesting concept was getting the top riders there for a social weekend of riding, and middlepack competitors enjoyed riding with the likes of the relaxed Kevin Evans, Brandon Stewart, Ben Melt Swanepoel, Shan Wilson and Max Knox.
“Well done to the Berg and Bush for giving riders more than what they want!” That was ten years ago! We now know that Gary Green and his team’s “slick attention to detail” has indeed ensured “the event has a healthy future.”
And Gary and co are still coming up with innovating ideas.
As an aside, how sad is it to read about Burry’s exploits back then when he was still making a name for himself.
It was also sad for me to read the rest of the column, but for completely different reasons. In the same column there was a look forward to two other biggish events at the time and some team news.
Both the events mentioned are no longer on the calendar.
The 50 Miler, which was a race around the Midmar area, moved to Hilton, was incorporated into a series and then stopped completely, mostly (if my memory serves me correctly) because it kept being hit by bad weather.
The other event that is no more is the Sani2c non-stop.
"Next weekend the non-stop boys (or should that be mental asylum candidates), take to the Sani2c route for a non-stop crack at the popular three-day race. The idiots, err riders, set off at midnight on Friday.”
And then I also added a bit of team news and this really depressed me. The item was about the MTN Microsoft team.: “For David George it is a case of if you can’t beat them, join them. “The MTN Microsoft cycling team this week announced they had signed George into their already potent squad. The plan is to use George, who was without a team last year, as a tour specialist. “According to team owner Douglas Ryder, he will be their “first-choice general classification rider” for the Giro del Capo, Tour of South Africa and Tour of Morocco. “So, what what does this mean for mountain biking? "Well, as you probably know, MTN Microsoft do not only have a road cycling team. Off the road, their MTB riders Kevin Evans, Brandon Stewart and Ben Melt Swanepole have been doing well both overseas and in SA in 2007. “Stewart and Evans were particularly impressive in the two big team events, the Cape Epic and the Transalp in Europe. “For 2008 George will partner Evans in the Cape Epic which means the new signing should also be doing a few other MTB events early next year.”
As we now know, three out of the four riders mentioned there have all been banned or are currently still serving a ban for doping offences. Swanepoel is the only rider from that squad not to have been banned.