Burry Stander

Full name : Burry Willie Stander

Nickname : the dart

Age: just old enough to drink beer in the us

Weight: 65 kg (this morning after a coffee and a pit stop)

Height: 174cm

Favourite food: steak ,eggs and chips

Favourite drink: chocolate milk

Hometown: Umtentweni, KZN, South Africa

Coach: Garmin ,Powertap and myself...

Training hours: 10-12 hours in season,20-25 hrs leading up to epic

Strengths: anything short and punchy

Weaknesses: long drawn out boring dirt roads...nutella and ice cream

Bikes: Epic for marathon and XC, Tarmac S-Works for well tarmac, Transition for TT or when I like to go really fast.

Previous pro teams: Factory GT

Years pro: 2009 is my 4th

Race nutrition for marathon/long road races: Typically 2 fast fuel bars,4-6 gels,4 bottles of fast fuel race fuel/water.

Race nutrition for XC: 3-5 gels,around 2 bottles of race fuel/water mixed into smaller bottles depending on laps.

Party nutrition: generally not a lot of solids,mostly fluid

Hobbies off the bike: cars, watching tv, hitting the beach, hanging out with Cherise(girlfriend) and giving Bobby, Christoph and Wellsy a hard time.

Drives: 2007 Audi a3 2.0t with Rieger body kit, 19 inch wheels, custom paint. branch exhaust system and some pumping sound, 2008 BMW x5 3.0sd stock standard unfortunately.

Favourite tv show: Entourage

Favourite movie: Cool Runnings/Talledega Nights

Favourite music: hip-hop/rock

Favourite artist: lil Wayne

Typical day: kiss Cherise,hit the coffee machine.watch some mtv and then its off on a ride.shower,eat,nap,watch tv.more excercise,shower,eat,watch tv,sleep,,,now thats a good day.

Favourite saying: "..that just happened!"

Superstitions: None i can think of.

On being Specialized: A great opportunity to becoming the best I can be, and a bunch of good times with great people along the way!

I started riding mountain bikes with my dad and older brothers on a farm just outside of port Shepstone in KZN at the age of 10. I remember those first years as the most challenging of my career. I think the bikes I was on back then weighed more than me but it didn’t deter my enthusiasm. Instead I always wanted to ride further and faster by day and by night I was flipping through American mountain bike magazines dreaming of one day meeting my heroes that graced the pages. 10 years have gone by and my passion has stayed the same. The same things that drove me back then drive me today.For me its all about being the best that I can be,and if that gets me to the top id be very grateful. The sport has taken me on an awesome journey over the years, in 1999 I won my first Sa and African titles as a u/13 or sprog as the category is known. In 2005 I made a trip to the usa to compete against the best that country had to offer. I managed three wins out of four in their national series and with that I got a wonderful opportunity to race for the gt international mountain bike team in 2006. I steadily improved over my first two years as a pro with the team racing the world cup series all over the world and had a brake through year this year winning the u/23 world cup and placing 5th in the pro men. In 2008 I also had the awesome honour of representing South Africa at the Olympic games in Beijing where I finished in 15th place. I continue to race locally whenever the chance permits and I enjoy riding with friends and family whenever I get the chance.

Career highlights pre 2008
3 time U/19 sa xc and marathon champion
10th commonwealth games 2006
17th u/23 world championships 2006
SA pro xc champion 2006/2007
6th u/23 world championships 2007
African xc mtb champion 2007

Highlights 2008
Mazda drifter Barberton sa marathon series opener 1st
14th giro del capo road tour and 2nd u/26 rider
Cape Epic stage win and leader for three stages(dnf due to itb injury while leading)
South Africa cross country champion
3rd u/23 SA road championships
World cup round 1 Houffalize Belgium 58th
world cup round 2 Offenburg Germany 7th
World cup round 3 Madrid, Spain 13th
World cup round 4 Vallnord,Andorra 2nd
World cup round 5 Fort William Scotland 5th
World cup round 6 Mont St Anne, Canada 3rd
World cup round 7 Bromont Canada 24th
World cup round 8 Canberra Australia 6th
World cup round 9 Schladming Austria 10th
World cup overall standings 5th
World cup u/23 champion
U/23 World championships 2nd
Jeep Hill2Hill marathon champion
Olympic games Beijing 15th

2009 sponsors: Specialized bikes, mr price,Oakley, Fever publications-weekly mountainbike column, Fast fuel nutrition, Crank brothers pedals, Garmin, Songo.info-charity involved in building BMX tracks for disadvantaged communities.

Mount Sainte Anne....

July 27, 2009

the world cup circuit came together for the year's second triple in canada this weekend. mont-st-anne has been on the calender since i turned pro 4 years ago and its always been a good venue to me.

after changing my flight to go from sa through paris instead of atlanta and 1200 usd later i managed to get on route to canada. there is a new law with visas to the us requiring a transit visa even if you are only going to stay in transit. as my us visa was stolen a little while back i had to re-route.

i arrived at around 4pm on tuesday and met up with the rest of the team. we packed the cars and headed off to qubec. it was a long 4 hour drive after all that flying! the first few mornings when i arrive in canada i always wake up super early. its kinda cool, the days seem endless...

on thursday susi and i did some good training on the course followed by some motor pacing. the weather was awesome. by friday it started raining a little and on saturday it was threatening all day. i was sure it would remain dryish for the race and stuck to a dry weather tire set-up.

on sunday morning we woke up to dark skies once again and by the time the women kicked off at 11 15am it was bucketing down. tire choice was running through my head for most of the morning and by race time i had a cut fast track lk on the back and the sauserwind up front for some confidence. the race start was fast as we had no start loop and everyone was charging for the single track. i had a solid start and i was around 5th until someone crashed as we were going up the first climb. i dropped back down to just outside the top 10 but manged to keep it upright. we entered the first single track all tapped out and then it slowed a little as everyone found there rythm on the muddy track. for most of the first lap i was sitting around tenth and i was struggling a little in the mud. (my last mud race was almost a year ago). on the second lap wells was up there with me and half way round the lap he also surged ahead. i was also feeling more comfortable and started to move upon the riders ahead. on the third lap i was riding almost everything including the steepest rock section on the track. by the end of the fouth lap i had moved up into fifth and feeling good. i kept it steady but forth place was too far up the road to close down. i ended up in fifth with absolan winning the race 5min and 42 seconds earlier. a solid performance but id defintely like to pick it up before the season ends. i am now in second overall in the world cup series and leading the u/23 section. this weekend we will race round 6 in bromont and i bet it will be another physical encounter...

ciao

burry

Stats for Burry Stander are coming soon.