MTN Bmx rider Sifiso “Skizo” Nhlapo came back strong this weekend in Sandness, Norway for Rounds 11 & 12 of the European Bmx Championships.


MTN Bmx rider Sifiso “Skizo” Nhlapo came back strong this weekend in Sandness, Norway for Rounds 11 & 12 of the European Bmx Championships.
 
Opting to sit out of rounds 9 & 10 held in Belgium two weeks ago after a crash in practice injuring his wrist, Skizo came back firing on top form for this weekends racing where he has based himself in Norway for the 2009 European BMX Season.
 
On Saturday which was round eleven the MTN Bmx rider got through his motos pretty comfortable and by the time the quarter finals came his wrist had started to play up. He had a quick visit down to the medic centre where they strapped it a little different and rubbed some “muthi” on it to help get rid of the pain. Riding in semi-final 1 and starting from lane one Skizo was abit slow out the gate leaving Martijn Scherpen to take the lead and the win the semi final. In the final the MTN Bmx rider got to start from lane three, when the gate dropped Skizo checked out and when they exited out of the first turn he was over a bike length in front of the trailing seven riders. Behind Nhlapo there was a great race going on with Rob van den Wildenberg riding a great race coming from fourth and picking off Thomas Hamon from France and Marcus Bloomfield from Great Britain to finished in a well deserved second spot behind the South African MTN Bmx rider.
 
An elated Skizo commented, “its great to win here in Sandnes, Norway because this is like a home race for me being based here with my good friend Anders Gronsund. The wrist has held out so we should be good for tomorrow, it was a tough decision not racing in Belgium but after the win today I think it was the right decision to let it heal. Just a big thank you to all my sponsors for not putting pressure on me for missing the two rounds and hopefully I can back it up with another win for them tomorrow showing them it was the right decision.”
 
 European Round 11 Sandness Norway
 
1. Sifiso Nhlapo RSA
2. Rob van den Wildenberg NED
3. Thomas Hamon FRA
4. Marcus Bloomfield GBR
5. Arnoud Dubois BEL
6. Martijn Scherpen NED
7. Sander Bisseling NED
8. Ivo van der Putten NED
 
Round 12 of the European Bmx Championship started off with another perfect day in Norway for the MTN Bmx rider, it was an early start for the Nhlapo as he woke up at 4.30am and could not get back to sleep he later commented, “waking up that early is not that bad it gives you a lot of time to plan your days racing haha…”
 
Today could not have gone any better for the MTN rider having his wrist bandaged right from the beginning of the day and in front of his “home crowd” Nhlapo didn’t put a pedal wrong the whole day. Skizo came into the final of the day not dropping one moto, quarter or semi-final (meaning he won every heat). Coming into the final a confident Skizo got out the gate abit slowly and exited the first turn in second. Leading onto the third straight Skizo new he had been strong there the whole weekend and carried a lot more speed through this section. By the end of the straight Nhlapo had come up next to Scherpen and made the pass to finally cross the finish line in first place.
 
Sifiso said after the race, ”if you don’t count Belgium where I sat out that’s 6 wins from 6 European Finals. This was a hard win as Scherpen has been really fast, but it is also nice taking a win where you have had to ride clever, be patient and not lead from the front and make a pass. I am going to have to try and keep this momentum and consistency going if I want to get the European title. Thanks again to all my sponsors MTN, Oakley, Redbull, Fox, Intense Bikes, S&M, SRM, Shimano and the guys at Sixthcore Web Design.”
 
Before putting the phone down Skizo said one more thing, “just a huge thank you to the guys from Sixthcore Web Design, Leigh, Dan and Faulty(Malcolm)….thanks for putting in the long hours to have the website finished this weekend and now atleast you have some good news to add up on it later.  www.skizo105.com “
 
European Round 12 Sandness Norway
 
1. Sifiso Nhlapo RSA
2. Martijn Scherpen NED
3. Roy van den Berg NED
4. Ivo van der Putten NED
5. Damien Godet FRA
6. Raymon van der Biezen NED
7. Thomas Hamon FRA
8. Edzus Treimanis LAT
 
To watch this weekend racing go check it out on www.bmx-videos.com and for all the latest news and to follow Sifiso “Skizo” Nhlapo go check his new website out www.skizo105.com where you can also see his daily updates from Twitter.