Versatile Virtuoso

Spotlight on All-Rounder Kyle Flanagan

- Matt Smith

This month we thought we’d try something a little different here on State of the Nation. It’s a very rare thing when a talent comes along that seems to have the Midas touch. As in, whatever they touch turns to gold. This pretty much sums up where Kyle Flanagan is at in his career right now.

‘Flanny’ like a lot of the off-road and Enduro stars racing in SA today came through the Junior off-road national series. This was the starting point for riders like Brett Swanepoel, Travis Teasdale, Wade Young, Matti Green, Stephan Van Deventer…the list goes on. Many of them becoming senior stars in their own right and are filling the podiums most weekends in which ever event of part of the sport they have focused in on.

There are one of two of the riders that can bridge the gap between Enduro and Offroad and few that can make Enduro and Super Enduro switches, but none are more versatile than Kyle Flanagan.

A career path that seemed lost for a while there after the difficult few years making the move from Junior to Senior ranks. This is so often the breaking point for many riders who simply find the switch to bigger bikes, longer and tougher events and stiff competition a little too much to take.

After a year or two out to focus in on completing school and having been on support teams through his junior years Kyle Flanagan went down the privateer road to establish himself as a name and a player in the game.