By his his own admission 18-year old Pieter Venter is an adrenaline junkie.
The Paul Roos Gymnasium’s thrill seeking has secured him a place at the Downhill World Championships as part of the South African junior team in Champéry, Switzerland early next month.
The Grade 12 learner is one of only two qualifying juniors and he is proud to represent his country. “Mountain-biking is the most thrilling type of cycling. I was on a bike as soon as I could peddle, but it got boring real quickly.”
At 10 years old he started competing in cross-country cycling, no doubt bolstered by his father, an avid mountain biker himself.
Now, eight years later, Pieter is the South African junior champion and on the cusp of competing against a senior rider, a benchmark he always strives to achieve. “MTB is a small but close-knit community,” he explained.
“I would love to see more people join the sport; it is the most fun a rider can have. MTB is truly the F1 of cycling. The technology of the sport is so advanced and most cyclists ride prototypes, so there is always development and change.”
Pieter is frank about the costs of the sport. To make his way to Switzerland he has had to pay his own way, which is why he is grateful for the continued support and sponsorship of his Stellenbosch riding club Unbound MTB.
“Being part of the national team comes with more pressure. Training has definitely ramped up. I’m focusing on conditioning and power training for the champs.”
Europe has some of the best MTB tracks, he adds, with enough inclines and drops yet safe enough to make it to the finish line. DarkFest is an annual event, hosted at Hellsend Dirt Compound in the Vuurberg mountains near Stellenbosch, which sees some of the world’s best riders for close to a week. “I hope to take on the track myself one day.”
But he’s sure his mother doesn’t relish the prospect. “Yet, she and my dad continue to support me,” Pieter points out.
The Venter clan, along with fellow Unbound MTB riders Frankie du Toit and Matt Lombardi, will head to the four-day time-trial competition, which starts on Thursday 4 September.
Despite plans to study agriculture at Stellenbosch University after matriculating, the young thrill seeker intends to continue MTB, hopefully as part of the national senior team.
