It takes physical strength to confidently enter a 100-kilometre road cycling event, and it takes mental strength to finish it.
“There comes a time when your body says it can’t go any further, but that’s not your actual limit. You must be mentally strong to keep going and to find what you can achieve,” says Dominic Brown.
As a technical trainer at the South African training centre, Dominic instructs learners and apprentices, who will go on to help build Ford’s future. The best part of his job? “Teaching and giving life skills,” he says.
Dominic first joined Ford in the early 1990s on the Samcor Port Elizabeth assembly line. He left to pursue a millwright apprenticeship and returned to Ford in 2002 as an artisan on the machining production lines.
Outside of work, cycling is a source of passion and accomplishment.
“I love the outdoors, it clears the mind and challenges the body,” Dominic says.
His earliest memories of cycling were riding to school on a bike he built himself.
In 2008, he met a friend who introduced him to a more serious side of cycling. Dominic had always loved staying in shape and going to the gym, so 45-kilometre and 90-kilometre weekend training rides soon became the norm.
He entered his first race, the 105km Herald Cycle Tour in Gqeberha, South Africa, in 2009, and a year later, completed his first Cape Argus Tour covering 109 km in and around Cape Town. More recently, Dominic has also taken up mountain bike racing.
During these events, Dominic can find himself sharing the road with hundreds of other competitors, but he says the real race takes place within himself.
“Cycling is physically and mentally challenging, but you do it as an individual,” Dominic says. “You must prepare and plan your training rides for the race. Over time you learn basic maintenance to be able to fix your bike in an emergency.”
Upon deeper reflection, however, Dominic’s bicycle has become a vehicle for continuous self-improvement.
“It gives me a sense of freedom – you ride at your own pace but are always challenging yourself to constantly get better.”