Video: Dare to Dream Part 1 – Dare to believe

05 January 2017 - 07:10 | Press Office

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 South Africa 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 Hayden Brown 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.

The Bike Hub will showcase some race reports and pictures from Martin's key races abroad. His planned race schedule includes:

Enduro World Series (4 races: dependant on the entry lottery system)
6 EWS qualifying races
British Enduro series – the full series
Tweedlove Scottish Enduro series
UK Enduro Championships
Scottish Enduro Championships
Italian SuperEnduro
A number of local and regional Enduro races

To see more of what Martin is up to and to get regular updates of his adventures, follow him on his social media platforms:

Instagram: @fietsman_SA
Facebook: www.faceboook.com/zietsmanracing
Twittter: @fietsman_SA

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Guest, Jan 05 2017 07:29

Well done Martin and Hayden! Safe trip , not too long now

Ride your heart dude !!

Make us all proud.

Captain Fastbastard Mayhem, Jan 05 2017 08:06

Legend

Guest, Jan 05 2017 08:07

Hayden !!!! You're a LEGEND dude. We love the edit and look forward to all the rest .....

Epic Rookie, Jan 05 2017 08:42

Best of luck out there!

BaltazarMarques, Jan 05 2017 08:58

Wow Martin!! Inspirational Dude!! You, the riding, the words and the trails make for amazing content and Hayden has captured and put it all together so professionally and emotionally. It's world class and already can't wait for the next part. Congrats man and wishing you all the best for this exciting year ahead.

Andrew_Smith, Jan 05 2017 10:18

All of the best Martin. Very inspiring video! As a youngster myself, it touched me.

Safe travels.

iteachcoffee, Jan 05 2017 11:37

chase those dreams always!

'Dale, Jan 05 2017 01:13

Superb clip
🏆

Bizkit031, Jan 05 2017 02:31

The whole British Enduro series has been canceled due to sponsorship problems and low rider interest.

snakedoctor, Jan 05 2017 02:48

Eish indeed: http://www.pinkbike....d-for-2017.html

Captain Fastbastard Mayhem, Jan 05 2017 02:56

The whole British Enduro series has been canceled due to sponsorship problems and low rider interest.

Oh, that suuuuucks! And only announced today!

Bizkit031, Jan 05 2017 03:50

Oh, that suuuuucks! And only announced today!

Yea Brexit starting to make its presence known now.

Martin Zietsman, Jan 05 2017 05:40

That's correct, it has been cancelled. Fortunately, Enduro is massive over there and there's pretty much an enduro race every weekend of the year. I will now focus on the Welsh and Irish series too.

milky4130, Jan 05 2017 08:15

Nice stuff Martin, it was honour to meet you, travel & compete together. Wishing you all the best with your new adventure & career.

NPJ, Jan 05 2017 08:29

I got so amped watching this, from a technical perspective to a motivational piece! Seriously well done guys! I recon this is probably one of the best video content pieces to come out of SA in a while! Hayden, on fire my bru!

Myth, Jan 06 2017 10:29

Best of luck!

Grease_Monkey, Jan 07 2017 08:52

Good luck Martin, very inspirational story! Takes alot of work to finish an Engineering degree and focus on a sport like you did. Will be following your progress, make SA proud man!

Rushdee, Jan 08 2017 12:09

Enjoyed the clip. The unfolding background story took the well-edited video to the next level. Not many MTB clips out there have accomplished the same.

Rushdee, Jan 08 2017 12:36

Took on the task of completing a degree with two small kids. Toward the end of the degree, third kid comes along. Managed to complete the degree successfully and somehow still made time to squeeze in a fair bit of MTB'ing too. One of the advantages of a crazy busy weekly routine is that it improves time management skills ten fold.