Thursday, March 3, 2011
PEOPLE: Kristian House brings home South Africa’s Golden Lion – by Nick van der Leek
House established a large lead over his rivals as early as the first stage, when he simply followed Czech rider Martin Blaha through a narrow section of winding road near Hartbeestpoortdam outside Pretoria. Due to the frenetic start the peloton decided to settle as this point, allowing House and Blaha a maximum advantage of 7’35”. When asked why the peloton had gifted the Rapha rider with such a large cushion, House answered: “I don’t know.”Interestingly, although House later dropped Blaha, team manager John Herety instructed the 2009 British road race champion to ride within himself. At one point House was clocked at 40km/h on the long final drags to the final, with 30km remaining; the peloton were riding at 26km/h.
Stage 2 through central Johannesburg was eventually cancelled, with the result of stage 1 carried over to stage 3.
On stage 4, House attacked again on a narrow section of steep twisting road near Wilderness, but Impey responded. On the fifth stage Rapha Condor-Sharp manager John Herety said, "We played a dangerous game today, relying on the South African teams to chase each other but it worked out exactly as we planned."
House did not lose time until the challenging 6th stage.
“I felt nervous before the start of stage 6,” House said, and called the attacks before the penultimate climb “the most dangerous because I had no teammates with me.”House conceded 31 seconds to the stage winner, South Africa’s national road racing champ, Darren Lill [DCM]. Lill had earlier complimented House saying, “I’ve never seen you climb this well.”
House lost 11 seconds to rival Impey on the final climb, and 13 seconds to Rabie, who leapfrogged Impey for overall second place. The final stage, which House called “tough” culminated in a sprint, and was won by Bernado Riccio. It was the Italian/Japanese Team Nippo’s third stage win in four stages.
House attributed his form to extra weight lost training in Texas during the summer, whilst putting in a larger than usual block of training including what he described as “plenty of intensity.”
House added though that he had traveled to South Africa hoping for a stage win but was not targeting an overall win.
GC Golden Lion – Kristian House (RAPHA Condor-Sharp)KOM – Daryl Impey (MTN Qhubeka
Best African Rider – Johan Rabie (Team Bonitas)
Samsung Young Rider–Christopher Jennings (Team Verandas Willems-Accent)
Points – Yohann Gene (Team Europcar)
Team Winners – Team Europcar
Monday, February 28, 2011
PLACES: Jembisa - A Home of your own in the Waterberg
Family fun for everyone at Jembisa by Nick van der Leek
Jembisa calls itself an ‘African Bush Home’, not a lodge, or a camp, and that is exactly what it is. The name is a mishmash of the initials of the owner’s 4 children: Josh, Emily, Biba and Sam. If you’re looking to take your family and especially young children into the bush, Jembisa, 3 hours from Johannesburg, in a malaria-free part of Limpopo, is ideal.
Families can hire out the entire premises, 3000 hectares of the Waterberg’s deep blue hues, yours for a weekend or more. Jembisa emphasizes family and kids-focused activities more than most reserves. There’s tennis and table tennis, trampolining, expansive lawns ideal soccer, an open lounge and DSTV equipped living room.
Parents in dire need of me-time can indulge the kids with a range of activities tailor made to keep busy bodies occupied. There are bug walks, camp-outs, even rhino tracking. For tinier tots a well stocked playroom [plus babysitter] is available beside a just-for-kids bunkroom.
Your guide, Stephen, and his sidekick Toffee, a feisty Jack Russell, are available for game drives – crossing the Palala River is a highlight. Two of the big 5 can be found on the reserve; for a Big 5 experience 1 hour transfers are available. With the kids preoccupied, sneak back to one of the five luxurious en-suite bedrooms for some R&R or swing in the hammock beside the heated pool.
The schedule at many private game reserves is often strictly adhered to; at Jembisa you can tailor your activities to your own needs. Self-catering units are also available for budget travelers. In sum, Jembisa offers family fun for everyone.
Jembisa: S23 degrees 57.596 – E28 degrees 23.029
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Daryl Impey [Weekend Argus]
Impey Powers To Time Trial Victory in PE – by Nick van der Leek
“I want to get my name back up in international cycling where it belongs.” Daryl Impey did exactly that starting at 11:28am on a fast, flat 40km course at SA Road Championships in Port Elizabeth on Thursday. The ex-Radioshack rider came home in 52.01.
“I hadn’t ridden a time trial in a while, so I started this one quite conservatively. I wanted to have something in the tank on the way back.” This strategy proved decisive, because at the turn, the riders faced a very stiff, very warm headwind, one most seemed to have underestimated. 13km after the turn Impey had left Mountain Bike demon Burry Stander (ranked 7th in the world in MTB) behind and had reeled in four times world champion XTERRA triathlete Conrad “Caveman” Stoltz – who had started one minute ahead.
On twitter afterwards Stoltz described his hamstrings after the turn as ‘on fire’. Despite the wind, Impey (MTN/Qhubeka) averaged 46.1km/h on an Eddie Merckx frame, using a Fast Forward Disc wheel and in the front, a deep section rim.
“I started training for this in November,” Impey said, “when other guys were taking their break. I did a lot of motor pacing, and had a lot of help and support from my fiancé, family and friends. It was a group effort.”
Asked to elaborate on his training Impey said that although training indoors is “horrible” time on the wind trainer, going at maximum effort for an hour, was a key workout.
Ahead of the race there was talk that world champion triathletes and mountain bikers would eclipse the roadies. But the podium showed otherwise; Impey and roadie runners up Jay Thomson (Bissell) and Darren Lill (DCM) ended speculation that mountainbikers or triathletes can compete with professional road racers.
1. Daryl Impey (MTN) 52.01.20
2. Jay Thomson (Bissell) 53.03.60
3. Darren Lill (DCM) 53.04.20
4. Conrad Stoltz (Specialized) 53.06.10
5. Burry Stander (Specialized/MrPrice) 53.24.90
Note: Conrad Stoltz later tweeted:
@NickVDL Once Impey caught me at 28 or 30k it was surprisingly easy to keep up and trade the lead.He made about 30" from 20-25k-i suffered@NickVDL if I had known how close it was, I could have found a few more Ws. With 390 I thought I was way out of the game.
More Social Media.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Q and A with Cameron van der Burgh
Note this article was commissioned by SA Sports Illustrated.
How do you swim breaststroke? What’s the secret?
Breaststroke is the most technical of all the strokes. You need good timing, control and rhythm. If you get too excited, or try too hard, your hands and legs start to work against each other. The tall guys struggle, because in breaststroke you need a high stroke rate, and to do that you need to be able close your legs at the end of each kick quickly. It’s also about having a good feel for the water.
Are you the captain of the South African swimming team?
I’ve sort’ve been assigned to mentor some of the up and coming swimmers with a focus on 2016. My focus is 2012. So I’m more of a big brother and I try to share some of the tricks of the trade with guys like Chad le Clos and Charl van Zyl. You learn from experience that small things at our level can make a big difference in the end.
Such as?
Walking in slops. At the Commonwealth Games you walk around a lot. If you wear slops it tires your calves out, and by the fourth or fifth day you really start feeling it.
And how is Ryk involved?
Ryk is my agent. He manages my media; he gets sponsors for me. He has got a lot of contacts, he knows how to sell and he’s done well in terms of sponsors. My main sponsors are Investec and Tag.
I started swimming when I was four, and was burned out by the time I was twelve. But you got a very late start didn’t you?
I’ve been swimming since the age of 11 which is a lot later than a lot of people. It started at an Interhouse competition at school. I hadn’t really swum before and I won. In 1998 I swam for Northern Transvaal B, the following year for the A team, and in 2000 I made the South African team for the first time. I was 20 years old when I swam my first Olympics in 2008.
How did you do?
Mixture. I went into the Olympics ranked 16th. I did well in my heats; I was ranked fourth going into the semi final. I was so ecstatic I couldn’t sleep. But then we had the finals in the morning in Beijing. Television channels in the States paid a lot to switch around the times, because we usually swim the finals in the evening. I slept about two hours and then missed the final by something like 0.02 seconds. So it messed us all around. I’m better now at controlling my emotions. It comes down to that experience thing.
So what have been some of your career highlights?
I’ve broken 11 world records. In 2009 I got gold at world championships. In Delhi I beat the reigning 100 metre world champion, Brenton Rickard. I’m currently the world record holder in the 50 metre breaststroke [26.27 seconds] and in the short course [25m pool] in the 50 metre and 100 metre breaststroke [25.25 seconds and 55.61 seconds respectively].
What was India like? Did you have any problems with the crowd?
I didn’t think it was that bad. The first two days it wasn’t that crowded. A lot of tourists didn’t make the trip because of the threat. In the last three days they cut the admission prices and from then on the stadium was packed.
I’ve seen your physique. I don’t think I’ve seen a swimmer with a bigger chest than you. Is it genes, gym or graft?
I’m a sprinter so it’s all about power. If you lose your power you lose your rhythm and you start going nowhere really fast. You just die. Training hard when your body is developing, you know from a young age, definitely translates to big shoulders. Even the girls experience that. And breaststroke is such a power stroke. To do well in breast you have to be shorter, stockier and stronger. LJ van Zyl [400m hurdler] laughs at me when I run, because I have stubby legs and big torso. Physique comes with the training. I swim 11-12km per day, 30% of that is breaststroke. If we do more we start to hurt the knees. And we do a fair amount of gym work. Lots of pull-ups [he can do 75 continuously] benchpress, clean and jerk...
What’s your poison?
I really love coffee. I’m a real coffee addict. Tomorrow we’re shooting for Top Billing and they’re going to teach me how to brew the beans, what temperature to heat the milk. I enjoy Vida e’s Cappuccinos. In Pretoria we don’t have that many though.
You seem really relaxed. Aren’t you strict about diet?
I listen to my body. But if I’m craving a chocolate or a cup of coffee I’ll have one. I can afford to eat a bit of junk food because we just burn it all off. One day it will be a lot more difficult because as you get older you put on weight easier.
What about goals?
I’ve already achieved most of my goals. [Broken a world record, world champion and Commonwealth champion]. All I’ve got left is to become the Olympic champion. Thanks to funding from Sascoc and sponsors, and my coach Dirk Lange, I’m on track.
You look a lot like Graeme Smith.
[Chuckles] I get that a lot. Everyone in the world has a lookalike. I know some of the cricketers and it’s not an insult to me. I’d really like to meet him.
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