Who hasn’t dreamt of chasing a wild childhood dream? On Thursday, 05 January 2017, Stellenbosch local Martin Zietsman will be taking a life changing step in the pursuit of such a dream (well actually 2 dreams). As you read this, he has packed up and sold up his life in SA and is headed to the UK where he will be taking up the role as a design engineer for Bilstein, one of the world’s largest vehicle suspension manufacturers. At the same time, he will be pursuing his goal and dream of competing on the international mountain biking circuit, where he hopes to break into the Enduro World Series.
Riding as a Knolly Bikes grassroots team rider, and supported by Trailtech Cycles, Maxxis Tyres, South Industries, Leatt Protectives and MRP in 2017, he hopes to gain the experience and skills required to be competitive on the EWS circuit in 2018.
This first part in the planned video series covers his background and why he’s taking on such an ambitious move, as well as providing you with a colourful, berm smashing, trail ripping, pedal stomping edit to push your visual senses to overload (editing courtesy of HaydsBrown Visual Media).
Over the course of the coming year, the video series will be detailing what it takes to try and break into the international racing circuit, including what sacrifices you have to make and the hard work you have to put in, how to adapt to new climates and being abroad, and the highs and lows of racing in Europe. Additionally, which is seldom covered in video series, he wants to show what it takes to market yourself, how to attract sponsors and how to create value for sponsors, especially when abroad.
Apart from the obvious goal of wanting to chase his cycling dreams and ambitions, there’s another important motive behind the video series:
“I hope to show other South Africans that it is possible for us to compete overseas and hopefully inspire the younger generations to not only become more active in this sport, but also to realise that anything is possible if you want it badly enough and are willing to work for it. I want them to dream bigger and to believe that it is possible.”
Dare To Believe.
1/6/2017 5:37am
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