Everyone has their own reasons for riding, but few have quite as many as Matt Daneel. The mountain biker from Stellenbosch is famously competitive, though he’ll never admit it on the record. “I’m riding the Pinotage with Vicky van der Merwe and the Shiraz with Jurgens Uys,” Daneel stated. “I saw Matt this week, he wanted to talk tactics and plans,” laughed Van der Merwe after finishing third in 10-kilometre road race. “He’s overboard, but it’ll be fun.”
Everyone needs a friend like that. The one who has plenty of chill, but who can’t stop themselves when they attach a number board to their bike. “Our friendship spans over a decade, and it’ll be really cool to share a FNB W2W experience with her,” Daneel noted, of the Olympic triathlete. “She doesn’t get to ride her mountain bike often, so it’ll be a race for fun… though she is a strong rider… Mostly though I’m looking forward to hanging out and sharing the trails with her.”
“Then I’m racing the Shiraz with Jurgens [Uys],” Daneel continued. “He was meant to be riding with CP [van Wyk], but unfortunately CP had to pull out. What I love about FNB W2W is sharing my passion for cycling with my closest and best friends. And then once you finish riding you get to spend the day together and chill. I also bump into so many people in the race village and get to catch up with lots of friends, some of whom I only see at FNB W2W. Nobody has to rush off to work, so we get to sit around in the FNB Riders’ Lounge and share stories, catch up over what’s happened in the last year, and banter the afternoon away. Alongside the riding the athlete village is my favourite part of the event. It’s a three-day breakaway with likeminded people, shooting the breeze with my friends… where else do you get to share such a cool experience?! I love it so much.”
Like Daneel, Lourens is also a Stellenbosch resident and is well known in the mountain biking community. “It was a last-minute decision to ride. We only entered two weeks ago,” Lourens laughed. “Finding (the right!) partner at my age becomes difficult and I am not mountain biking fit at all – so I’m going to suffer. But I don’t mind suffering.”
“I prefer the Chardonnay race because it's the only event in the country that treats women as the top priority,” Lourens said. “Besides the obvious reasons for the Elite Women having clear trails, I think it is great that normal women get to race or ride without men trying to force past them on the trails.”
“I’m really looking forward to riding with a special friend, Louise,” Lourens continued. “I love the route too, even after having ridden eleven FNB W2W editions before it stays special. I must confess, I’m an event junkie. I love riding with other people, I love the water points and well-organized races, with well-marked routes. And to be healthy, active, and in control of my body is the greatest blessing and gift I can give myself. Mountain biking in general and races in particular allow me to maintain my health and activity levels… all told, it seems like I’m trying to convince myself that the suffering will be good for me…”
While Lourens will be taking part in her twelfth FNB W2W, Robinson is making her debut. The Johannesburger is a frequent event entrant, having ridden four, three-day, stage races already this year. Her stoke for riding has only been increased by the purchase of an e-bike recently too.
“I have done Berg and Bush, Storms River Traverse, sani2c and the Waterberg Traverse on my normal bike… but then Jolanda, my FNB W2W partner, and I made the ‘mistake’ of hiring the Pyga e-bike, the Land Cruiser of all e-bikes, for this year’s Berg and Bush. What an absolute jol that was! When we got to Storms River Traverse, Samantha and I just had to give that a try on the lite e-bikes from Trek and again; we had so much fun!”
“The e-bikes basically open this new whole world of doing stage races. Instead of having a long hard day in the saddle followed by getting back late, and being so broken you just want to find the nearest hole to crawl into… suddenly these little devil horns come out and you feel like a frigging rock star. You can ride the race with the stronger riders and because you know you have the ‘battery’ you end up pushing harder than you ever have before because now you know you don’t need to ‘protect’ your endurance for the hills to come. Samantha and I were so cocky at Storms River that we even issued challenges to some of our stage race friends, and bet on who would finish first. Yes, we won! [Editor’s Note: If you see Kelly and Jolanda in the Savanna Chill Zone be warned, Kelly will try this trick again, but only by challenging riders on analogue bikes.]”
“Jolanda and I have been joining the Cycle Lab crew, from the Lab in Jhb, on weekly rides to work on our singletrack skills ahead of FNB W2W,” Robinson related. “On our first group ride we joined Group D, the week later we thought we could go faster so we joined Group C. It was fast! So fast that I hit a tree, whipped across the trail and hit another tree. Any Lab group riders who have struggled with those two obstacles alongside the trail before, you’re welcome they’re no longer an obstacle. When we got back to coffee at the Lab, we found out that we actually rode with Group B.”
“Now for FNB Wine2Whales… I will be riding with Jolanda again and we are going all out,” Robinson laughed. “We are not going to stuff around worrying about whether our little lite e-bikes will have enough battery, we are not worrying about battery changes or anything like that, we will once again be hiring our Pyga Land Cruiser of all e-bikes. And we are coming to race the Pinotage!”
Another rider who will be taking on the Pinotage is the former Epic Series Marketing Manager. Lockhart-Ross is partnering with BUFF-MEGAMO’s Hans Becking. Becking is in South Africa for an end of season holiday, but an elite mountain biker on holiday is still probably faster than a well-prepared amateur. “Riding with Hans is a bit of a bucket list activity for me,” Lockhart-Ross grinned. “It’s not everyday you get to race with someone with a profile like Hans. It’s been cool having been able to build a relationship with him while I was working at the Epic Series. And what will be especially cool for me will be to see just how good he is on the bike.”
“Having watched and covered the racing I have a good idea of how fast elite riders are,” he acknowledged. “But experiencing it first hand will be new and exciting. I’m pumped to try to ace it – or rather not ace it, just try not to fall over too many times.”
“I know the FNB W2W team has put in a lot of work rebuilding the route after the floods,” Lockhart-Ross said. “JK innovates with the route and pushes to do more for the rider, but this time JK and the Cape Trails team really have had to innovate and expand on the route, so I’m looking forward to seeing that shine through in the riding this year.”
“I’m also excited for the new, canvas, tents,” he concluded. “I know how variable the Grabouw weather can be, so I’m looking forward to sleeping comfortably and dry regardless of what weather blows in…”
Regardless if you’re competitive, social, socially competitive, or competitively social… there’s something for you to get geesed about at FNB Wines2Whales. Let us know what you’re looking forward to most about this year’s #SeriousGEES! Tag @wines_2_whales in your build up posts.