Whats been happening in Bozza world

Well I will start with the most exciting news we are the pround owners of another [number 3] little girl LOL. Maia Jade Bekkers. Mum and bub are doing great and it won't be long before she is chasing her sisters around on a bike. Well to the next most important stuff as you could imagine my training of late has been a little speratic but the time I have been putting in on the bike has been good.

For the last month or so has seen me jump back onto the Single speed[ New SS Tomac Type X] and I feel that I should be in a good place to take on Mt Perry in two weeks.

Will put some pictures up of the new ss soon.

Inferno 6hr

The course was between 10-11km at old hidden vale. This course in particular is the one that the teams riders for the merida 24hr hr will be riding in July. The conditions were perfect bone dry and fun fast course. For me 6hr events are not my thing but because I was in Brisbane for the weekend anyway I thought a 6hr would be good training.

All I wanted to achieve for the race was to put down some fast consistant times for myself I was not to concerned were I finished but on the box is always good. I am not going to bore you with a long drawn out post so I will just get to the important end. I held an average of just over 20km/hr for the race had not mechanicals and finished in 2nd. 121km total.

My Carbide sl ate everything the course could throw at it and I didn't really give any consideration to slow down going into the rock gardens, were everyone seemed to be flatting. My Canis tyre were a great match to the sl and I never had a problem with traction.

I would like to thank my sponsors Tomac for my carbon stead, Onza for keeping me glued to the track, Pedal pwr plus and Ay up for all there support.

later

Port Macquire12hr

Well last Friday saw the Yellow Vito van loaded up with a couple of Carbide SL, a hand full of AY Up lights, myself and Chris and a trip to Port ahead of us. We made it down to Port by about 9pm and set up camp right next to the 4 man AA team on the oval at Telegraph point. Chris had been telling me all about this race for a year so I was pretty stoked to be there, Chris yells out me come and check out the this corner then another then another by the time we thought we should head back we were about half way around the track and by 1am sat morning we had mad it around the course [Walking]. We were in for a treat this track was great.

The Port 12hr starts at 12 midnight Saturday night, so on Saturday morning we headed out for a practice lap, what can I say all of us were just loving it, every corner was well groomed, nice burms , a couple of log drops and a spine ride thrown in for fun. This was a course you could enjoy riding for a full 12hrs. The course was about 9.6km long


After a full day of being awake, you would think I would be ready for a sleep. No I couldn't sleep and by the time midnight came around, I was on the start line and yawning my head off. The gun went and I found myself alongside Fitzy into the first corner then I settled into third position for the first half of the lap. Then as you would expect English came screaming through with a team rider in tow. So the start of the race went like this for the first couple of laps and I was pushing pretty hard. After about 4hrs I was hurting my head wasn't in a good place and when I asked mickers how I was travelling, he told me I was in 5th but Jason was in 3rd. So what did I want out of this race? to see how I was travelling and have a bit of competition to push me. Well I got it I thought to myself, harden the F up got back on my bike and said to myself no more middle ring. Big ring it all the way and try and real myself back into podium contention.



So as you could imagine I kept chipping away trying to put consistent lap times in until I found 3rd. I caught him within the first km of the lap and decided to sit behind him and try and figure out where I was quicker then him and where I needed find some pace. The plan worked apart from a stack along the way I rolled into transition just behind him. I quickly grabbed some food jumped back on the bike and headed out slightly in front. I put the hammer down and kept looking over my shoulder to see if I could see his lights. I didn't see him so I kept hammer down.


As morning was upon us English was ready to lap me for the first of many[ Machine]. The rest of the race went on the same and I kept trying to increase my lead. I was in no position to catch 2nd and English was way out in front. So by the time 11:40 rocked around I was about 45min in front and with a long drive ahead of me I decided I was happy with what I had done.


Achievements : just over 200km completed, 20 laps out of 21 done in the Big ring.

All up the track is sick, definitely worth the drive to race on English home track.

Big thanks to Tomac for my Carbide SL it's wicked, Ay Up for the best lights ever and to Onza for keeping me glued to the track[Canis]

Gympie Sports Star of the Year

At the beginning of the year when Kiri nominated me for this. My first reaction was, isn't this only for local teams like soccor and cricket? What I didn't realize is that the Sportman association with the help of Apex raise money to help local athletes.

Here is what the Newspaper had to say:

AN explosion of cheers marked the moment when Gympie endurance mountain biking athlete Sean Bekkers was crowned 2009 Sports Star of the Year at the weekend.
A visibly stunned Bekkers accepted the honour at the Gympie Civic Centre Saturday evening during the Gympie and District Sportsmen’s Association 2009 Sports Star of the Year Awards.
“It’s a massive surprise,” Bekkers told the 170 guests present for the ceremony as he attempted to compose himself.
“I just want to thank the Gympie and District Sportsmen’s Association for the recognition.”
The 2009 Sports Star of the Year managed to edge out 11 other nominees for the award, decided by the barest of margins during the voting process.
Gympie Apex president Glen Smith opened the golden envelope to deliver the eagerly anticipated announcement.
Bekkers’ family was on hand to witness the memorable moment and the athlete paid tribute to their support.
“A massive thanks to my family for all of their support and making all this possible,” he said.
“My partner Kiri has been source of strength for me and her help makes the difference.
“I also have to say a huge thanks to Kiri’s mother who has been the ideal babysitter for us during competition.”
Bekkers’ victory in lifting the title of 2009 Sports Star of the Year marks a new brave new era in Gympie sport.
It’s the first time endurance mountain biking has been recognised at the awards, demonstrating just how diverse Gympie sport has become in recent years.
“That was my main goal,” Bekkers said.
“If I could come away and have a handful of people know more about endurance mountain biking, then that was enough for me.”
Winning the top award on the night, however, has ultimately given far more exposure for the sport than Bekkers could have possibly imagined.
Bekkers’ claim to fame came on the back of an incredibly impressive 2009 and the audience marvelled as his list of achievements were canvassed.
Numerous wins at state and national endurance mountain biking events filled his sporting resume to the brim.
But it was his success overseas in Canada that gilded his shot at the prestigious award.
Bekkers competed in the 24 Hour World Endurance Mountain Bike Championships in Canada last year, finishing first in his age group and 18th overall against the very best in the sport the world had to offer.
The dedicated athlete touched on his training regime during his acceptance speech, raising a few eyebrows when detailing the nature of his training rides between Gympie and Brisbane.
“I think this weekend when I go back to Brisbane my wife may let me use the car,” he quipped.
With the title of 2009 Sports Star of the Year safely in his possession, Bekkers now says he is motivated more than ever to continue achieving.
“It’s just a great feeling to be acknowledged for my efforts and I have lots of motivation to keep doing well,” he said.
Meanwhile, 2009 Sports Star of the Year Awards organizer Jackie Curran was overjoyed with the success of the night.
“It’s gone really well,” she said.
“The entire night flowed really well and I think everyone has enjoyed themselves.”
Curran thanked the members of the Gympie and District Sportsmen’s Association that were on the awards’ committee.
“A lot of effort went in from every one on the committee behind the scenes, so a big thank you to everybody,” she said.
“I’m just happy and proud at what we have achieved and it was great to see all the sport stars gathered here tonight.”
Curran joined Bekkers in celebrating the diversity of Gympie sport.
“We had so many different sports on show tonight, so Gympie has to be very proud of that,” she said.

I am super stoked to have won this award and to get some more recognition for the sport of 24hr mountain biking.

Thanks heaps to the Sportmen's Association you guys do a great job.

From the Jet Black

About 12km of use.

Jet [Wet] Black 24hr

Well, like Andy said it was a quick trip to Sydney - race a two man team, get the best result possible and get back. So we set off on Thursday arvo and the plan was to rest a little on the way down, so we drove to Coffs and set up camp probably under the noisiest bridge ever but at least we got some zzzz in.

We then drove down to Taree, and with a little help from the local bike shop and Andy's built in GPS it wasn't long before we were spinning the legs on some nice groomed single track. The track had a little bit of north shore type stuff, and if we had a little more time up our sleeves I'm sure we would have been treated to more sweet single track. The weather was nice: a little humid and sunny but this wasn't to last.

We eventually made it to Wisemans Ferry, and the country side around there is stunning. We set up camp that arvo and had an awesome pub meal and then hit the sack. That was about where our luck ended & the good weather stopped.

Race day - Woke pretty early and went hunting for the coffee van. Had breakfast and then we headed out for a practice lap. The first impressions of the course was a little boring: a couple of kms of bitumen and a big fire road climb which then dropped into a fun little descent and into a part of the course which alot of people were weary of. There was a little rock garden that went along the edge of the creek which wasn't that bad in the DRY. The track then went back out onto grass and into transition. Think the course was around 6 or 7 km.

After a little chat with Andy it was decided that he would do the first stint and we decided to string 3 laps together between changes. There was all the usual hipe leading into the start of the race then the gun went, and like you would expect from Andy he was off like a shot. He led the field out and about 21min later Andy went through transition with nothing but air behind him, followed by the rest of the field about 3 or 4 mins later [machine].

Ok so I have a team mate who's setting land speed records, so no pressure on me LOL. Andy came through transition, my turn. I set out to hold, if not build on the lead Andy had made. I had 3 good laps and that was when it started pouring. Not that this was bothering me too much but I had nothing other then my Canis tires (which were great by the way). By 8pm the race got called off by the organizers which I think was a good idea the track was not holding up and everyone was just destroying there gear. This was great - the first 24hr I get a sleep.

Sunday: The organizers had spent the night (while we were all sleeping) re-routing the course so we could get some ridding in to finish the race. Me and Andy woke to the Tomac tent destroyed and sitting in a pile, and the bikes lying all over the palce. The decision was made to race for the last 4hrs and we went into this with a 10min lead on the field. With there being only 4hrs of riding left the pace was going to be on. The re-routed course was fire trail but still a pretty steep descent and this is were the crazy part of the race was. We were chewing through a new set of brake pads in under 12km of riding (crazy). After trashing the bikes we managed to finish with the overall win and 1 0r 2 laps up on our catagory. Wicked

Big thanks to: Tomac for my Carbide and Ay up for my lights - they never fail. As usual my Canis tyres got put through their paces and were great, I love these tyres [Canis]

Thanks Andy for a wicked race, and good luck for this weekend

Later