The 2011 ABSA Cape Epic was a huge race for MarathonMTB.com, as it is for anyone who is involved. MarathonMTB.com Race Team riders Mike Blewitt and Will Hayter both headed to Cape Town for the event this year. Despite a heavy road racing program, Will Hayter enjoys long, difficult mountain bike stage races. So sometime after his unfortunate, and dramatic, crash in Stage 5 of the Cape Epic, he decided he needed to do another one.
Cue the 2011 Craft Bike TransAlp powered by Nissan. However you cannot compete alone. Now enter Lionel Richardson, one of Will Hayter’s London Dynamo team mates.
Says Lionel Richardson, “I am 39-years-old, married with one daughter. I am an oil trader.”
Well is that anything to base a team mate in for what is one of the hardest mountain bike stage races in the world? Thankfully there is more to Lio than that.
“I have been into competitive sport almost all my life. I did race BMX as a kid then move on to the road, as a cadet and junior racing in France. However I stopped to do French Boxing for a while, competing there too and fighting around France at a regional level. After this I moved into athletics, specifically 400 meters.”
So competitiveness, aerobic capacity, a fighting spirit, bike handling skills and endurance should all be covered with that background. But there’s more to Lionel Richardson yet.
“I finally got back into racing bikes, with a lot of long distance mountain trail running too (Sierre Zinal, La Montée du Nid d Aigle, la course des crettes). I raced in Switzerland on mountain bikes, did the Juralcup and Grand Raid and Raid Champsaur, time trials and road racing.”
“I also have a passion for racing superbikes on tracks, it helps to find the right line when racing push bikes too!”
So it seems that Will Hayter has found a strong team partner in Lionel Richardson. They both have strong backgrounds, so once racing kicks off on the July 15, make sure you check their progress here on MarathonMTB.com