Looking for the future champions

When it comes to SA cycling, Elrick Kulsen has been around the block a few times — make that thousands of times around the velodrome and then around the globe many a time.

Kulsen’s a born and bred Bolander, having lived and worked in Paarl, Western Cape, all his life, that’s when he’s not on the road or track, looking after some of the finest cyclists yet produced in this country.

Ricky to his friends, started his career with the Yorkshire club in Paarl with his influences being the famous Jantjies brothers and Naaim de Vos. 

“After the sporting amalgamation in the early 1990s I joined Paarl Cycling Cub and raced and trained with guys like Herman Kroff and Leon Jonker,” he recalled this week. “My own racing career saw me win many WP titles and a few national titles and I also got to race in Belgium and Germany.”

Now 59, Kulsen dived straight into coaching and administration after retiring from competitive cycling and among his charges were three-time Paarl Boxing Day 25-mile winner Garth Thomas, eight-time winner Nolan Hoffman and 2018 Commonwealth Games road race bronze medallist Clint Hendricks.

That coaching career spilt over into the Paralympic dimension in 2002 and he has since been to five Paralympic Games, coaching stars such as Janos Plekker, Jaco Nel, Roxy Burns, Justine Asher and, of course his fellow Paarl Paralympian, the legendary Ernst van Dyk.

The chances are that many a Western Cape motorist has come across Van Dyk being led by a scooter-driving Kulsen on their lengthy weekend training rides in the Boland.

Two of the well-travelled Kulsen’s special moments have come on opposite ends of the globe. “One was the 2016 Rio Paralympics when Ernst won gold in the H5 road race. That was exceptional,” he recalls. “We put so much hard work in for that one, through a cold and dark winter but all the plans came together perfectly on a technical course — he had to get through that final corner first to win.

“Then there was the men’s road race at the 2018 Commonwealth Games where Clint took bronze for Team SA. That was also close to my heart as he’d come through the ranks of our club from under-15 level before becoming a pro with Bike Aid. What made it extra special was that his step-dad Pieter was in the support car during the race and I was in the athlete’s lounge to watch him surprise many of the favourites with a final move that came straight from his track background.”

As for veteran Paralympian Van Dyk, he gives much credit to Kulsen for his success. “Ricky really helped my cycling a lot. After I won gold in Beijing 2008 our journey really started as we built towards London 2012.

“He integrated me into the road sessions which helped my development because those sessions with the boys just got so competitive. After London when I got second we had to pull together and incrementally improve over the next couple of years leading to Rio.

“Ricky stays around the corner from me so it was always him joining me on his scooter and then we head out to meet the group and get going.”

While he teaches during the day Kulsen’s other passion is producing further champions and he started his own academy in 2018.

“Late last year another great cyclist, Malcolm Lange, came aboard and since January this year it’s been known as the Shift Academy with DSV as the main title sponsors.

“We work closely with the UCI cycling school in Paarl and the academy is like a home-from-home for the 14 cyclists we’ve got [including two girls]. There’s wi-fi here, they can do their homework etc and when everything’s done they go home to rest.”

Already, Kulsen sees the potential to shine coming through.

“Within a year or so we should have an under-23 team competing both nationally and internationally,” he says. “One guy in particular has huge potential — his name is Duwayne Adams.”

Kulsen almost turns to poetry as he describes Adams: “He’s big and strong and lives on a farm. This guy is blessed with tremendous power and has never done gym work in his life. His power comes purely through helping his dad on the farm.”

They say the apple never falls far from the tree. In this case it’s son Ethan, the apple of Kulsen and wife, Michelle’s, eye.

Ethan, now 17, grew up next to the cycling track during dad’s cycling and coaching career and has gone on to represent SA on the international stage, winning four medals at this year’s African Continental Championships in Egypt and wearing the green and gold at World Junior Champs in Israel where a crash ended his hopes.

“I was hoping he’d actually take up golf or tennis but cycling is definitely his first love,’ says Kulsen senior.

Says Ethan, whose biggest fan is five-year-old sister Lilly: “My dad’s definitely my biggest inspiration. I’ve stood trackside since I was two years old and was hooked early on. After school my dream is to go to Europe and race myself into a pro-contract and I dream of being both a track and world champion one day.”

He models himself on former Dimension Data/Qhubeka and global star Mark Cavendish. “You can put him on a track bike, a road bike and he’ll still get you a win.”

But Ethan’s personal favourite is the track elimination race. “It’s shoulder-to-shoulder stuff, bumping and barging at high speed for half an hour, and all the time hoping you don’t crash.”

With Kulsen senior and junior living and dreaming in tandem, one gets the idea that their cycling journey will be doing anything but crash as they go through life’s gears.