By Mark Etheridge
Eighteen cyclists, including Olympians Philip Buys and Alan Hatherly, have been chosen to ride for South Africa at next month’s UCI MTB World Championships in Cairns, Australia.
The team also includes 2014 Commonwealth Games team-member Mariske Strauss.
Elite, U23 and juniors make up the 13-strong cross-country squad while hot-shot World Cup ace Greg Minnaar spearheads the Downhill challenge with three senior men and two juniors.
But selection and participation are often not spoken in the same breath in South African sport with self-funding for athletes becoming more and more evident in many codes.
Already, London Olympian and Glasgow Commonwealth Games team-member Buys says he’s staying home on this occasion.
‘With CSA’s self-funding policy it makes it difficult for us at the moment and my XCO seeding has dropped quite a bit, from around 40th to 111th so my start position will be way at the back.
Currently Buys and new team sponsors Euro Steel and Pyga are going all out on the local scene to make a name for themselves. ‘And the best place to do that is the local major stage races and marathon races.’
To this effect his team won the African jersey at the Cape Epic, joburg2c and sani2c events, obviously to the detriment of his XCO ranking as he missed a few local XCO races as well as continental championships.
‘But Commonwealth Games and Olympics are always in the back of my mind and we might do a bit more XCO events again closer to the big games events.’
Buys is married to Olympic swimmer Karin (formerly Prinsloo) and she’s still involved in the sport, and preparing to open a swim school for the country’s future stars.
Meanwhile Strauss (pictured above, centre) is super excited to make the team.
A soaked Strauss after a wet winter’s bike ride from Stellenbosch to Durbanville: ‘Right now I think my entire daily drought restriction 87-litre allowance of water is soaked into my riding gear! But yes, things are going really, really well.
‘I fly to Europe on 15 August and then from there I’ll go to Australia. So I’m looking forward to seeing what we can achieve down there. As ever it’s going to be another great honour to represent South Africa.’
‘My races have gone super well since recovering after my last World Cup trip. I got seriously sick and was man-down for about three weeks.
‘I just had to take time off and get back into rhythm but all good now.
‘In Europe I’ll race two events, the Swiss Cup in Basle on the weekend of 19 August and then on to Val di Sole, Italy the next weekend for the last World Cup.
‘I’m really looking forward to Italy, the last time I raced there was about five years ago, so it’s been a while but I’m super excited to go back as it’s one of my favourite tracks.
‘As for my expectations for World Champs, I really have no expectations but hopefully will have a better idea after that last World Cup. At this stage I’m aiming for top 10 but lets see how it goes.’
She’s not a complete stranger to racing Down Under. ‘I last raced there in 2009 that was also World Champs but in Canberra so I’m excited. It’s a bit of a pricey story so I’m pulling together all the cents I can and hopefully make it count.’
Picture of Buys courtesy of www.zcmc.co.za
The full team:
Cross-country
Elite: Philip Buys, William Mokgopo, Sithembiso Masango, Rozalia Kubyana, Mariske Strauss, Cherie Redecker
U23: Alan Hatherly, Julian Jessop, Frances du Toit, Bianca Haw
Juniors: Pieter du Toit, Johann Trotzky, Tiffany Keep
Downhill
Elite: Greg Minnaar, Johann Potgieter, Stefan Garlicki
Juniors: Cullen McMaster, Niko Velasco