What started almost a year ago as a project for my then 14-year-old son, Cade, new to mountain biking, to clear a formidable road gap-jump, became a journey of self-discovery (for both him and I), of father-and-son bonding and of timeless life lessons. The day he completed his goal wasn’t really planned, but in the end, it worked out perfectly.
By Sean Badenhorst
The road gap at the end of the Grootfontein Flow Line comprises a well-made take-off lip and a smooth, wide, long landing. It’s the massive two-metre deep space in the middle that’s formidable. The sign at the top of the Flow Line says it’s a nine-metre long gap, but I paced it out from edge of the take-off lip to the top of the landing slope and it’s between 11 and 12 metres in distance.
After a year of jumping at various jump spots in Joburg and Pretoria under the guidance of myself, Neil Evans and then Barry Crouse – in progressional order – by mid-September 2021 Cade was ace-ing the distance and the height of almost any jump, including fairly big gap jumps. A key factor is approach speed, which is essential, especially on a big gap like the Grootfontein Road Gap.
Lockdown restrictions, illness, injury, school, work, family commitments all wove their way into the 12 months between the start of the project and the completion. It took longer than we expected, but when I look back, it somehow needed to take longer because Cade wasn’t just ready to hit it on ‘the big day’, he was ready to steeze his way over that road gap!
At the very start of this project, we realised Cade needed the right bike and gear for this high-risk objective. I put a proposal together and Specialized South Africa, seeing the growth of the youth market and the shift towards ‘sending’ as a key segment to start focussing on, threw in their support, in conjunction with the closest Specialized dealer to where we live, Complete Cyclist Bryanston.
On 3 October 2020, 14-year-old Cade grinned broadly as he guided the new Specialized Stumpjumper Expert with carbon frame and wheels, 150mm/160mm suspension travel, dropper seatpost and 29-inch wheels down its first jump line. Since then, Cade has grown immensely, both as a rider and in actual physical stature. The Small frame was a little big for him then, but now it’s almost a little small. A year ago he was a boy. Now he’s a young man.
Initially we thought Cade would need a full-face helmet, torso protection and knee protection. But he’s actually just fine wearing a decent trail helmet (Specialized Ambush Comp) and knee pads (Specialized Atlas). It’s probably safer to have more protection for any high-risk activity, but it can become a bit restrictive and uncomfortable. There’s a line between freedom and protection and it’s pretty much up to each rider as to where he/she sees that line.
“I’m ready to hit the road gap, but I need to follow someone down first so I know what the right speed is,” Cade told me.
My wife, Joanne, who manages Cycle Lab Active Women, a mountain biking community for women, had arranged to do a skills session for some of her members at Grootfontein on Saturday 18 September 2021. Since Grootfontein is a one-hour drive from our home and we don’t get there too often, it seemed like a good time for Cade and I to go along and maybe get Cade to ‘do the gap’.
I called Barry, who had been the jump guide that helped Cade go from medium-sized jumps to big jumps, asking what he was doing on Saturday afternoon.
“Sorry, I’m in Magoebaskloof at an event. I will only be back next week,” said Barry.
Bummer. We decided to go to Grootfontein anyway. Joanne had arranged for a mate of mine, James Morland, a BICP certified skills instructor, to run the skills clinic for her ladies. On the way there, we got chatting about James as someone that had cleared that road gap and as the afternoon wore on, it just so happened that Cade and I ended up on the Flow Line as James was finishing a basic jumping segment with the ladies.
“Shall we clear the road gap?” James asked Cade.
“Yeah, let’s do it,” said Cade, without any hesitation.
There was a buzz of excitement in all of us. Me, the guy that has done many jump lessons and sessions with Cade; Joanne, the mother concerned for her child’s safety, James, who was on a 120mm travel bike and didn’t have his full-face helmet that he would normally wear for this obstacle; and the ladies on the skills clinic, who had just learned to lift their wheels off the ground on a tame tabletop jump.
The fact that it was rather spontaneous and there wasn’t a long, drawn out build-up probably was best. Cade, who used to be quite a nervous rider, has learned, through this journey, to stare down fear and just get on with what needs to be done. He’s not a careless risk-taker, but he knows when he’s ready for the next big challenge and he then tackles it with the authority required. He was clearly ready. He knew it and we knew he knew it.
We gathered around the road gap with our iPhones set to video to capture the big moment. After a few minutes we saw James emerge down the flow line followed by Cade. That’s what Cade needed – to follow someone that has done the jump successfully to get the approach speed right. Too slow and casing the landing is a very real possibility, too fast and an over-jump with a potentially disastrous landing is likely.
James landed from the preceding tabletop and put in a couple of pedal strokes to keep his speed high as he prepared for take-off. Cade overjumped it a bit and started to follow James and then, just as James lined up for the take-off, Cade faded to the left, aborting his first attempt.
“I overjumped and didn’t have enough speed,” said Cade. “I’ll be fine the next run”.
He wasn’t just fine, he was perfect! He floated across the large gap – both literally and figuratively – that had been his goal for a year. He jumped the perfect distance and he even added what I used to call a ‘cross-up’, but which is now called a ‘whip’ to his jump, landing perfectly to the relief of everyone, especially his mother. Cheers and applause followed from all the ladies and three guys that had stopped to watch. James gave Cade a high-five. Joanne and I congratulated him and asked him how he felt.
“As I hit the jump, I felt a year’s worth of pressure lift from my shoulders,” grinned Cade. “It’s not as hard as it looks. Let’s go again, James. This time I’ll go in front.”
Cade and James did a couple more runs together before James resumed his skills session with the ladies. Cade then did a few on his own. A few days later we went back with James to film with more GoPro cameras to get different video perspectives. Cade’s confidence grew and he was doing T-Bogs (one-handed jumps) across the road gap. It was really quite rewarding to witness.
This was going to be the final part of our Mind the Gap series of articles. But it’s already quite long and I really want to describe the value that this project has delivered to everyone involved, especially Cade, a teenager that’s facing life in a changing world full of uncertainty. So I’ll write one more soon…
Here’s a short video that Cade edited to describe his Mind-the-Gap project.
Here are the links to the full Mind-the-Gap series:
Part 1: The quest to learn how to jump
Part 2: The importance of speed
Part 3: Getting height and confidence
Part 4: The dress rehearsal
Part 5: Controlling the fear
