Claire Buchar: Rhys Willemse Rider Profile

Claire Buchar: Rhys Willemse Rider Profile: "Rhys asked me to do him up a rider profile/proposal after his mum saw one of the ones I've made for Chris Kovarik. Rhys is super talented, h..."

2009 UCI DH World Championships - Mt Stromlo, Canberra, Australia

here is a vid I found from the 2009 world champs. I'm featured 1.30 min into the vid.

New Sponsors for Australian National Series!

Hi All,

I'm happy to announce that I'll be riding with new sponsors this Aussie season.

My new sponsors are:

Giant Bikes: I'm really looking forward to hitting the Aussie National series on a Giant.

For The Riders: Thanks to the guys at FTR for always looking after my bikes and for helping me with sponsors.

Shimano: really looking forward to riding with Shimano parts/brakes ect.

Fox Racing Shox: Can't wait to be back riding with Fox forks and shocks.

Tekin Suspension: Thanks to Tekin for looking after my suspension

Last but not least: Unit Clothing. Loving the Unit clothing.

I'll keep you all updated on my racing results this year. I've just got back from racing in Sydney. A full update of my results from the Sydney race will be in Revolution magazine next issue.

Cheers
Rhys

Long Overdue Update!

Hi All,

Well I've finally got some news to tell you...

Since arriving home, I've been recovering from my broken arm and that's all healed up well. Going into hospital on the 17th November to have the plates taken out of my arm. Leaving the plates in would mean more broken arms in the future, so its time to get them out.

I managed to pick up a couple of more sponsors. Unit are still my main sponsor here in Australia. I've also picked up a Pro Yamaha sponsorship (See photos above) and for the Australian National DH Series, I will be riding for Giant... Thanks to FTR for hooking me up with the deal...

I'm also happy to say that I will be heading back overseas again next year to race the world cups... I can't say who I'm riding for yet as I have to wait for the press release, but considering how shit my year was with injuries, you can't believe how happy I am to be given another chance...

Will update when I know more.

Cheers
Rhys

Bad News! I'm coming home.

Hi All,

Just had the worst news confirmed.

The crash on Sunday caused my arm that had been broken to fracture again. When I went for a x ray 2 days ago, the x ray didn't show a hairline fracture. So I went riding yesterday and felt something go pop. I went back to the hospital tonight and had another x ray. This time is showed the break. The break is from the last screw of the plate they put in 10 weeks ago, and it goes up my arm to my elbow.

Looks like I'll be coming home. If I'm out for 6 weeks, then it's not worth staying here because I will miss 2 world cups.

This just tops off a season I would rather forget. I am devastated to say the least.

This has made me more determined to come back next year with a whole new focus on achieving my goals. I will train hard through this off season and make up for a terrible 2010.

I would personally like to thank Tomaso from Ancillotti racing. I feel like I have let you down. You have been great to me all through these hard times and for that I thank you.

Cheers
Rhys

Italian Cup Round 3

Hi All,

So the past weekend saw the third round of the Italian Cup series at Campo Felice near to L'Aquila the Italian city that was ravaged last year by a huge earthquake.

George and I made the trip to Rome and met up with another team mate Francesco Petrucci. We set up our team tent and all was going well until a helicopter decided to land in the car park. I saw our tent flying in the air while coming down the track from practice. Nothing worse than having to phone your team manager and tell him the tent is stuffed. Tomaso took the news well, but I hope it doesn't cost Tomaso alot to fix.

I wasn't overly excited with this track, but riding it was different and after the first few runs I was into it ,some bits could of been better but it was really loose due to all the rocks which made it pretty fun.

Qualifying went well and I ended up in 2nd place after Shaun O'Conner. I was feeling happy with that result. With all the bad luck I've been having this year, it was good to qualify 2nd, when you had riders like Shaun, Wyn and Matt Scoles, plus the 100 or so Italian riders.

Final day came around and for once this season, I was feeling confident. I took off from the start gate and all was going well, until I came into the forest section, my wheel hit one of those loose rocks and sent me flying into a tree. The first thing I felt was pain in my arm that had just recovered from a break. I picked myself up, jumped back on my bike and came across the line in 6th place. Still not a bad result considering I crashed.

The pain in my arm was bad and i knew something was wrong. More about that in a sec. here is a great photo of me during practice.

Here are some videos. The first one is a helmet cam of me riding the track. One video is from the racing and one is from Wyn Masters. All great videos to watch.



Two of the videos can be seen at this link: http://www.dhdvideomag.tv/

Italian National cup round 2

Hi All,

I'm currently practicing for the Italian National cup here in Italy this weekend. Here is a video of practice.

Cheers
Rhys

Junior Sportsman of the year awards

before I left to go overseas, I was nominated for a Sports Star of the year awards. My parents went to the formal awards night last Saturday night. I'm happy to say that I won and I am now the junior sports star of the year. This is the second year in a row, So I'm stoked.

Cheers
Rhys

The photo is mum accepting my award.

Leogang Qualifying

Hi All,

Qualifying didn't go so well this weekend. I noticed everyone was crashing in practice. It had been raining hard for most of the weekend, and the track was muddy and slushy. So I decided I would take it easy in qualifying. I thought whoever can make it down the hill without crashing, would finish in the top 80 and qualify. I made it down alright without crashing but I made a big mistake. I didn't go hard enough and I ended up in 86th spot. Not going to make that mistake again.

I didn't have any problems with my arm all week. It looks like its healed up nicely. One thing I did notice is that my arm is still a bit weak, so I'll be building it back up before the next world cup in 4 weeks time. My fitness was also suffering a bit, plus riding in the mud made me realise that alot quicker.

So my plan now is to put in the training and work on building up my arm... Can't wait for the next world cup.

Cheers
Rhys

Heres a pic of be before qualifying. I only wish I had a moto to ride in that mud.

Leogang Track Walk!

Hi All,

Here are some pics from the track walk today.

I'm the one wearing the Unit clothing and blue Unit hat..

Cheers
Rhys