‘Damaged bones, damaged our bodies, damaged bikes!’ ALIX NORMAN is shocked by one Cypriot’s dream to finish probably the most punishing race on the planet
“I stay in concern,” says George Kouzis. It’s an odd admission, particularly from a 19-year-old from Lakatamia who exists nearly fully on the knife fringe of hazard.
However this isn’t a concern of dying or of spiders or any of the opposite myriad of worries that hold most of us awake at evening. As a substitute, it’s a really actual concern of falling into what he calls “the accountant lure – the 9 to five, grind until you die!
“My era doesn’t have the posh of understanding {that a} good schooling will safe us a steady job, that we’ll have the ability to purchase a home and lift a household,” he grimaces. “At present’s world is an unsure place: we grew up with terrorism, with recession, with environmental disaster and haircuts that worn out financial savings in a single day.
“Life is to be lived,” he provides. “Not suffered. And so no, I don’t placed on a go well with and go to an workplace day-after-day simply to pay growing lease. As a substitute, I placed on my helmet and hurtle down hills at 100 kilometres an hour within the hope of sooner or later, doing my nation proud on the Olympic Video games!”
George is a mountain biker – one of many few world-class athletes on this self-discipline ever to return out of Cyprus. Humble, courteous, and really decided, he’s been coaching day-after-day since he was six, and has just lately accomplished his army service within the military’s athlete division.
Since then, he’s eschewed college for “XCO, excessive mountain biking. It’s my ardour,” he enthuses. “It’s what will get me up within the morning and retains me going via the day.”
However in Cyprus, there’s no cash on this sport.
“It’s such a disgrace,” he acknowledges. “As a result of our island has precisely the terrain and climate that each novice {and professional} mountain bikers require. In the mean time the elite athletes in Europe go to New Zealand to coach every winter. But Cyprus presents a lot extra, and a lot nearer!”
Nonetheless, even for athletes fortunate sufficient to stay right here, life is hard.
“There’s little funding from the federal government, from the sporting federations. There are few amenities for bikers, little infrastructure. I make a bit of cash from teaching, a bit from my sponsors. It’s sufficient,” he grins, “to assist me get to the occasional competitors…”
Over the previous few years, George has competed overseas quite a lot of occasions. He raced within the punishing Cross Nation European Youth Championship in Pila Aosta, Italy, in 2018, dealing with off in opposition to 150 different opponents in what he describes as “chaos at excessive pace: riders operating over those that had fallen, tyres bouncing into the undergrowth.”
He competed within the 2021 European Championships in Serbia, studying, he says “an essential lesson – by no means push your self too onerous in the beginning, otherwise you’ll burn out earlier than the tip!”
And in a global competitors in Kos he took first place – “an enormous win, it felt actually good. It confirmed to me that I used to be doing the fitting factor, that I may compete on the world stage.”
And subsequent? Nicely, in June this 12 months, George has decided to compete in probably the most punishing bike race on the planet. It’s known as Les Deux Alpes after its location in France. However amongst mountain bikers, it has one other title.
“We name it,” says George, “The Mountain of Hell…”
It’s a contest that may give him publicity to very important sponsorship. And that, sooner or later, may see him capable of symbolize Cyprus within the Olympics – the last word dream. It’s a tough path to take. However when your choices are restricted and funding is nil, this breathtaking, hair-raising plunge, 25-kilometre hellscape could also be George’s solely probability to garner consideration…
“Damaged bones, damaged our bodies, damaged bikes – these are par for the course on The Mountain of Hell,” the younger man admits. It’s a race that begins on a glacier. Treacherous ice provides technique to rock-strewn descents; riders attain as much as 120 kilometres per hour on intense downhills, perilous drops, and hairpin turns…”
Of the 700 who start, few make the end line. However George stays undeterred. In some way the considered sitting in a authorities workplace for eight hours a day is far more scary than plunging at excessive pace down unforgiving slopes on the razor’s fringe of catastrophe.
The truth is, the one different factor that’s worrying him concerning the race is his accountability to others: to his sponsors Kona Bikes and his mentor Andreas Kolokotronis who’ve been instrumental in making George’s journey occur; to the numerous, many members of the neighborhood who’ve helped; and to those that have just lately donated…
“I really feel the burden of accountability to each single one who has contributed to my gofundme web page,” George admits. “It prices €6,000 to get me to the race with the gear I want. That’s not a quantity I can give you; not a determine the sporting federations may discover within the present financial local weather.
“If I ever need an opportunity to symbolize Cyprus on the world stage, I’ve to search out that cash myself.”
As so usually occurs on this island, it’s the neighborhood that has come collectively to assist George in his time of want. Pals, colleagues, and full strangers have all donated.
“I can’t clarify how good it feels,” George admits. “I’ve been humbled by the help. In any case, I’m not saving the planet or combating starvation; I’m not rescuing animals or restoring historic monuments. I’m only a man who desires, sooner or later, of biking for Cyprus on the Olympic Video games…
“The Mountain of Hell is my probability to try this. It’s a step,” he provides, “into the unknown. There’s no person to observe right here, no Cypriot I can flip to for recommendation. I’ve to determine all of it out myself.
“I assume,” he concludes with amusing, “I’d need to do the identical factor if I turned an accountant. However one way or the other, The Mountain of Hell appears a lot much less scary!”Comply with George’s journey to The Mountain of Hell on Instagram @kouz1s and the Fb web page ‘George Kouzis’. If you want to help him, go to gogetfunding.com/mountain-of-hell
