AF: S1 Ep 4: Wizzy: "Mountain Biking: Just You and Nature"

Never Tried Mountain Biking? Wizzy Might Just Get You on the Trails

Meet Wizzy - mountain biker, road racer, cycling coach, podium finisher, and a proud Ewe with his roots tracing back to the Volta Region in Ghana. From trail to tarmac, his journey is driven by passion, resilience, and purpose.

In this episode, Wizzy opens up about his love for the trails, a race-day triumph that marked his place in cycling history to inspiring the next generation - Wizzy’s journey is one for the trail and beyond.

Listen now to get inspired, get moving, and maybe even get a little muddy!

Follow his journey on and off the bike on instagram and Facebook @semevor

Jingle - Mapa Travel

Transcript

INTRO

Hi Guys and welcome to my podcast the Cyclist Next Door. If you are enjoying these episodes why not like,  subscribe or share with loved one, fellow cyclist or somebody who might be interested. The time has come for today’s episode so grab your cup of tea, settle into your zone 2 momentum. Rolling!

ROSE

Yo-Yo -Yo , I’m here with Wizzy welcome to the Cyclist Next Door. Good to have you have you on the pod!!

So Wizzy Wizzy, we met about a year ago, when I came over to Ghana. We did a group ride, a charity ride raising money for charity and  

you were one of the ride leaders. 

And here I am back in Ghana. Where are we at the moment? 

WIZZY

We are on Legon Campus - the residence where the lecturers stay and there is a famous residence called Auntie Fowa’s

ROSE

We love coming to Auntie Fowa’s. Nice bread after training

So this is the hangout spot right?

WIZZY

Yes 

ROSE

what a pleasure to be here

WIZZY

Yes you won’t get anything better than this 

Fresh air and nice food

ROSE

Train hard - relax hard

So Wizzy you are a mountain biker, road rider and  you build bikes… lots of stuff there! So lots to talk about 

I want to start with mountain bikers. Off road riding is something I just got into.

So this is your passion right - off road? 

WIZZY

Yup

ROSE

So why is it so special to you over road? What is it about mountain biking?

WIZZY

Mountain bike is mostly for people who like freedom. You have your freedom to control your pace in the bush- it’s YOU and Nature!

No obstacles from cars to distract you… it’s all about you and nature…that’s why I say it’s freedom

You feel the fresh breeze from nature and the creator of the universe gives you that for free. That’s why I call it Freedom

On the main road everything is artificial. Everything is artificial on the main road. Everything is made by human beings. The cars etc…

ROSE

And you have a lot of cars, Right?

WIZZY

Yes…a lot of cars

ROSE

You talk a lot about being out in the freedom. Like I said I have just started off road riding and there is just so many obstacles - so much to think about 

Like how do you work it all out?

WIZZY

It is a huge challenge for your eyes, your hands, your knees, legs BUT the most important part is the brakes

You should be able to know how to massage the break. I use the word ‘massage’ because at some point you need to just massage it slightly. You know when you go to the spa and they are massaging you - there’s the deep one and the shallow ones. I always massage the breaks….

ROSE

So be at one with your bike. Know your bike

So obviously we know there is GPX, there are routes for outdoor riding but do you always go out with a route or sometimes you just explore.

WIZZY

Personally I just explore. I have never looked at the route and followed a route in my entire life. 

ROSE

Even on the off road?

WIZZY

On the off road I just Go! Good thing about mountain bike you always find new routes and you can create your own route - it’s you and nature! Nature is just there for you to discover

ROSE

I imagine you can just go quickly from a blue route to a black route and then suddenly you are doing some crazy jumps

You’ve got to know what you are doing out there right?

WIZZY

Yes

ROSE

So that’s really cool and you’ve got a great video on YouTube which I encourage people to have a look at …it’s  really great. You have some video images of mountain biking and enjoying the freedom which is really cool. 

I just wanna move on because obviously we all know that you hit podium… was it last year?

WIZZY

Last year 

Podium at the Prudential Race - amateur race - we have to be specific

ROSE

Podium, 1st place, had you been racing for long… road racing?

WIZZY

I started racing road bikes in 2017. 2017 I did my first race on the road bike but I got my first road bike in 2016. That was the first road.

ROSE

So this prudential race that you won. Did you think you were going to win it that morning?

WIZZY

Honestly I was sick for the past 2 weeks before the race day but before that week I was training really hard so I had the courage and confidence I was going to… but when the malaria came in I was not sure I was going to race. My training partner told me that because I have already trained for it, it is possible.

ROSE

Awesome 

WIZZY

So I tried to get back on track, go to the hospital then afterwards came back to the training. I was still taking it slowly.

ROSE

And the race - how long is the race in miles/ kilometres?

WIZZY

So it was 17. (x) km - it was like a time trial meanwhile it was a road race. Imagine the heat….we had to kickstart with it until the finish.

ROSE

Can you just give us a description of that last stretch? - that last stretch to the finish. Tell us about your emotions and where your mind was

WIZZY

I don’t know if I should say this but this was like a planned thing - which was there - made for me that day

Like I was saying I did not know, I didn’t know I was going to win but I knew I was going to race. The last 200 metres that is where I started to feel good and felt it was possible that I was going to win this Prudential race

I was always at the back reserving my energy for the last stretch. I just saw the opportunity and just took it

ROSE

Excellent

WIZZY

With risk….with huge risk

ROSE

And what was it like when you saw the flag and you went across? How did you feel?

WIZZY

How the finishing was - it was on the right side and you had to take a serious right turn on top speed to cross the finishing

ROSE

Okay

WIZZY

Like I said earlier on, it was a huge risk with the speed. It was crazy! If I had not taken that kind of risk I was not going to win. The people infront were ready and the guy who came 2nd and 3rd were super close.

But the JOY….

ROSE

And now the podium what was it like stepping on that. Obviously it is a bit of a triangle. What was it like stepping on the top there

WIZZY

I felt like I was one of the……..

ROSE

on top of  the world, right?

WIZZY

….Yes

ROSE

Nice, that’s beautiful , beautiful to hear

Lastly, we just want to talk about the children’s programme that you and your partner Coach Isaac run. 

How do you feel you guys are impacting the kids in Ghana through the work you are doing?

WIZZY

So generally kids only follow or grow with what parents teach them. If you teach children how to work with their hands for them to make money it will be in their heads as they grow up. The culture in Ghana when it comes to cycling is not huge like football. For cycling it does a whole lot of things for the kids - health wise (especially health) and you have the chance to meet people from different race. The reason I mention race is because you hardly see African but you see most of Europeans/ Americans in cycling - that’s why I mention race. When you meet such people that is when you learn more. You really really learn more

ROSE

So it’s good mixing the kids and getting them together

WIZZY

Yes mixing the kids and their minds will be open. They will have open minds and have different views of stuff. Whatever comes their way they have different views. If you keep them only one way they don’t know the real world.

ROSE

I imagine it is so beautiful watching their progression as well because I you guys have been training them on a Saturday and then they did the mountain bike race which you guys do every year in November and then seeing them do that, that must have been a moment, right?

WIZZY

Yes so we see those races and we see how they perform that’s when we the coaches we feel good about ourselves and the parents also feel good that what they have invested in is not a waste

ROSE

Excellent, thank you for joining us. You really are the cyclist next door who gets out there doing your thing. Absolutely amazing!

OUTRO

Hi Guys thank you for joining me on 

this episode of Cyclist Next Door.  

I hope you have enjoyed this episode. If so please like subscribe and share let’s grow this community and join me back here again as we meet the next Cyclist Next Door as we unpack of everyday people unpack the journey every day people who have picked up a bike, experienced the joy of cycling and have been on their own personal adventure so until next time….Rolling!