Conquering the Cape
Professional mountain bike rider Niki Fisher talks to Outer Edge about what it takes to overcome serious injury and the death of a loved one and to go on to complete one of the most arduous mountain bike races in world, the Cape Epic.
Niki Fisher, 31, h
as carved a name for herself in a sport that pushes the limits of the toughest competitors. And, over the past year and a half, she has faced some of the biggest challenges of her life and proved that, when it comes to mountain biking, she’s a force to be reckoned with.
When Niki first attempted mountain biking 10 years ago, she was drawn to the downhill trails.
“I bought a secondhand downhill mountain bike off a friend and started riding with a group. I was hopeless on the climbs because it was a very heavy bike, but I could hold my own on the descents,” she says.
After just three months of riding, she entered her first national downhill race in Thredbo. But, inexperience quickly caught up with her and she fell off her bike, breaking her back.
Unlike most people, who would react to an accident like that with a pathological fear of the contraption that landed them in hospital, Niki spent her recovery focusing on getting fit again so that she could, well, get back on her bike. And, she did.
“The doctors told me I was extremely lucky to be walking – the fracture was within millimetres of my spine. I was so keen to be a good rider. I wanted to be able to match the fast guys, but I didn’t have their experience. I had to recognise my limitations and build up to things.”
When Niki started out on mountain bikes she was one of the few females on the trails. And although all of the guys she rode with were really encouraging and supportive, it was her fellow female riders who taught her a thing or two.
“Being one of the only female riders was a little bit inhibiting,” she says. “It’s different riding with a bunch of guys because you see them do something and think, ‘I’m a girl. I could never do that’. And then you ride with girls and see them doing the same trick and it automatically becomes achievable.”
Softly spoken, pretty and polite, Niki’s determined spirit isn’t immediately obvious. But, you don’t come back from a broken back, win the National Series Championships in 2004/2005, The Wildside Mountain Bike Race in Tasmania in 2005 and 2006 and Western Australia’s Cape to Cape Race in 2008, 2009 and 2010 without serious mental toughness. It doesn’t take long to see the champion in Niki, even over lunch in a Collingwood café.
However, her spirit was put to the ultimate test when her partner of many years, much-loved endurance mountain biker, James Williamson, 26, died in his sleep from an undiagnosed heart condition during the Cape Epic in South Africa in March 2010.
As a tribute to him, she competed in the 2011 Cape Epic in March. The annual eight-stage mountain bike race runs over as many days and sees riders pedal across 800km of the country’s Western Cape and climb approximately 16000m over the course of the race. Returning to South Africa to compete in one of the hardest mountain biking races in the world was never going to be easy, but it was something Niki had to do.
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words Virginia Millen images Karin Schermbrucker/Cape Epic/SPORTZPICS and sportograf
