The Road to Recovery - Yolande Speedy

It's been a really bumpy ride the last couple of years, but such is my passion for mountain biking that I plan to come back fighting again

After recovering from my surgery last year April, I had a fairly decent end to the season, managing to hold on to the MTN Marathon Series overall. After deciding not to continue with Team MTN/Qhubeka, it was time for me and Paul to focus on building our own team again – not an easy feat in this economic climate and with so many sponsors having been burnt in the past. A lot of time and effort later and after getting our hopes up with a few close calls, we were still at square one.  Fortunately we had no problem organising product sponsors with Omnico coming on board with two GT Zaskar 29ers (race and training); Giro helmets, shoes and gloves; USN as a nutrition sponsor; Squirt Lube; ASG providing us with Rudy glasses, San Marco saddles and F-Tech kit; CycleOps giving us power with their Powertap MTB hub and Epic Sports providing race support. We were all set equipment-wise for a good 2012 season.

With 2012 being an Olympic year and although my direct communication with SASCOC indicated there would be little chance that I would make the team, I was still going to give it my best shot, so XCO and especially the World XCO Cup in PMB became my main focus.

Starting with base training in November, Paul and I made the shift to hardtail 29ers. I must say it took some getting used to as they definitely require extra horsepower to get going and aren't as nimble in single track, but once up to speed they're super quick and handle awesomely over rough, technical terrain. This became without a doubt my bike of choice for marathon and it was pleasantly surprising on the XCO courses I have ridden this year.

We had a really good build-up to the start of the race season and after a good warm-up race at the first USN Cup Marathon, we headed for the MTN Marathon in Barberton with high race expectations.  Unfortunately, nothing seemed to flow that day and it was back to the drawing board.

The first SA XC Cup held in Cape Town on a newly built course was up next. After a few laps the day before I knew we were in for a tough race – the steep climbs and technicality of the track would definitely take its toll. Following my bad day on the bike at Barberton I made good use of our USN sponsorship supplementing to prepare. This paid off and I had good legs on the day, keeping consistent lap times and taking the win.

Sabie is always one of my favourite race venues and this year’s second MTN Marathon held there was also the first World Cup Marathon, which added to the race excitement. Despite a slow start I had a strong race finishing in 3rd behind Ariane and Therresa.

It was then time to focus on the Momentum XCO Series building up UCI points and improving my ranking and start position for the PMB XCO World Cup. I had a really good race at the first event held at Giba Gorge, taking the win and finding my flow on the 29er. After a few weeks back in PTA spent fine-tuning my training together with my coach and team mate Paul, we headed back to PMB for the next two events and the World Cup. A number of international riders lined up at the start of the second event in Karkloof, making it a highly competitive field and good preparation for the next two weekends of racing. I had another strong ride finishing 3rd, not far behind the two international GT Skoda riders and finally feeling my form coming on.

It was a few days and a nasty crash on the Cascades XC course later that put an end to my short-term goals and found me back in hospital waiting for surgery on my right wrist. A tough but valuable lesson learnt.

It's now been just over four months. I spent 2.5 months on a CycleOps indoor trainer, one month on the road, plenty of rehab including sessions with Dimension Sport and their acupressure pens, and I’ve finally been able to get back to some mountain biking in the last few weeks. My first race back was the 3rd USN Cup which I had planned to take fairly easily, however, once on the starting line my competitive nature kicked in and it was race on. I was very happy to take the win, even more so to be back on the trails.

My next goal will be the SA XC Champs in Mankele. Having been out of the racing scene for so long I'm not sure what to expect but I’m looking forward to some good racing.

Till then,

Yolande