The tiny town of Ixopo in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands is named for the Zulu word for the sound cattle make when squelching through the mud.
Rather fitting then that Ixopo resident Michael Foster’s bike will probably also be doing much the same at the 2025 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Valais, Switzerland, in September.
The team was named by Cycling SA this week and Foster flies to Switzerland in fine form, having won the national and continental cross-country championships on the Thaba Trails in Johannesburg and Cascades in Pietermaritzburg respectively.
Ixopo is mountain bike heaven, with local farmer Glen Haw having started the iconic sani2c MTB race in 2005 to raise funds for the local Lynford School.
Foster, who will celebrate his 23rd birthday just before world champs, attended the same school and wouldn’t swop a thing.
“Where we live is probably the best in the country for mountain bike training, regarding the correct altitude and the type of hills to do intervals and specific coaching sessions.
“So I’ve got everything I need to compete against the world’s best.”
He left Lynford for Maritzburg College to further his hockey career but from an early age has wanted to wear the green and gold for SA, no matter what the sport.
“I couldn’t get out of the B team in hockey and then Covid hit in my matric year and first my brother got a mountain bike and then I got one.
“When we went back to school later that year, I used to ride circuits around the campus and it became quite a thing for the other pupils [about 50 of them] to try and work out my speed and distance covered on their calculators and then see who came closest to what my GPS had recorded.”
The next year his mountain bike career started taking off — but Foster … not so much!
“I did my first UCI race at Summerplace in Limpopo but it was a rude awakening. My two tyres had never left the ground together and when I saw the course I thought I was in way over my head.”
Cycling aficionados told the youngster not to get too demoralised if Alan Hatherly (now world champion) lapped him.
“I told myself I hadn’t travelled all the way up there to get lapped and made that my goal. It was close though, he was about 100m behind me when I started my last lap but it was one of my little goals.”
The next year saw him tackling his first African Continental Championships in Namibia but it was a case of crash, crash, crash.
“Driving up we hit a kudu and had to rent a car to get to Windhoek. Then I crashed badly on the penultimate lap and ripped my elbow open, and did the same thing in the very next lap, getting a whole lot of sand into the wound, which was close to the bone and was very painful to sort out.”
Currently coached by Science to Sport’s Ben Capostagno, 2024 saw Foster getting a full contract from Team Pyga Eurosteel and chasing a spot for the Paris Olympics but he just wasn’t able to gather enough points, despite winning the Elite race at the SA championships in Paarl.
This year saw him lining up with a fair bit of pressure on his young shoulders, but he was determined to defend his national title and there was palpable relief when he managed to do so.
“I’ve got a lot better at handling pressure now and just get to the race and do what I’m there to do. So I’m chuffed to have two elite nationals already despite technically still being an U23 rider.”
The continental championships win was yet another box ticked and yet another chance to don national colours on the global scene.
“It’s such a privilege … from when I was a young kid it was a feeling I was hunting for — having the green and gold on your shoulders is a unique feeling!”
Foster’s not a man who shows much feeling on the outside. “I’d probably compare myself a bit to Poland’s Iga Swiatek [current Wimbledon tennis champion].
“After I won national champs I went home and had a cup of tea, it was like a normal day … I don’t celebrate much on the outside though I may be filled with joy.”
Regarding expectations for World Championships later this year, Foster is a realist.
“I’ll probably start off in the top 50 but my goal is to get into that top 20 and then be competitive — 10th-20th would be a really nice result to get.
“To win would obviously be the top prize but realistically the goal is to make that top 20 or so. So I’m just focusing on myself and my entire life fits in with my cycling — I don’t drink or go to parties. If it affects my cycling, it’s a straight no!”
He’s become tired of telling people where Ixopo is.
“Instead of saying it’s between Pietermaritzburg, Kokstad and Underberg I give them the GPS co-ordinates – 30º longitude, 30º latitude which is quite a cool perk of living here.”
Come September and Foster will be pedalling his heart out to make sure that both Ixopo and SA are firmly highlighted on the global sporting map.
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