Pothole lands three MTN Energade riders in hospital

A pothole was the reason why three riders from the MTN-Energade men’s road cycling team yesterday ended up in hospital with broken bones.

It is debatable whether Jaco Venter, Dylan Girdlestone and Bradley Potgieter will recover in time to race in any of the last three big Classics of the season, namely Amashova, OFM and 94.7.

Venter broke his arm in three places. Girdlestone broke his shoulder bone and, as luck would have it, Potgieter injured the same ankle that was fractured in a car accident early this year.

Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg, who was also training with his teammates on the road just past the Hartbeeshoek Satellite Station west of Pretoria, said they were busy with a team motorpacing session when the accident happened.

“Jaco and I were riding next to one another, while Bradley and Dylan were just in front of us. Roughly estimated, we were doing about 80km/ph when Jaco hit the pothole.”

According to Janse van Rensburg, the moment the accident happened Venter’s bicycle shot up in the air. Moments later he totally lost control and crashed down at high speed.

When Ian Wilson, the driver of the Kombi that was used by the riders for their motorpacing, saw in his rearview mirror that Venter had crashed, he immediately braked.

“Unfortunately, Dylan and Bradley were looking backwards to see what had happened to Jaco and whether he was OK. They did not realize that the Kombi was slowing down and consequently they crashed into it at full speed.

“Dylan’s shoulder really looked bad. Just glancing at it I could see that the bone had broken right through.”

This accident means that MTN-Energade will be racing with only half a team in the Dome2Dome race in Johannesburg on Sunday (5 September).

The accident did not phase Janse van Rensburg. “Now I am really motivated to win. On Sunday I will not be racing for myself but for my injured teammates. I badly want to win the Dome2Dome for them. It would be the least I could do.”

“We share in the disappointment of Jaco, Dylan, and Bradley as they had high hopes for the remaining Classics this year. However, we wish them a speedy recovery and know that they will come back even more motivated than before,” says Bernard Pieters, seniors sponsorship manager at MTN South Africa.

The DCM Cape Pioneer Trek Mountain Bike Tour just keeps getting better and better

The DCM Cape Pioneer Trek Mountain Bike Tour just keeps getting better and better.

This is the promise made by Ian van der Walt from DCM, the sponsors of the six-day tour that will take place in the Southern Cape and Klein Karoo (18 to 23 October).

“If I should have it my way, we as DCM would love to build out the Cape Pioneer Trek to become the ‘must-do’ tour on the calendar of every serious mountain biker in South Africa, as well as in the rest of the world. Our aim is to make it ‘the people’s tour’ and in my opinion the organizers are well on their way to make this a reality.

“There is a very good reason why the tour has, already in its first year, been voted by the riders as the most popular multi-stage event in South Africa.

“As sponsors we are approached by many events organizers with brilliant ideas, but it is one thing to talk and something quite different to turn those words into reality.

“I have the highest regard for Henco Rademeyer, Carel Herholdt and Katot Meyer of Dryland Events Management. For them it is not just about making money. The important guideline for every decision that is made as far as the Cape Pioneer Trek is concerned, is how the mountain bikers will feel about it. If there is even the slightest indication that it will not be well received by the riders, it is not going to happen.

“What makes us as a sponsor even more proud of our involvement in the tour, is the emphasis on nature conservation. Every rider who completes the tour will realize that conservation is the responsibility of everybody and not just of a few individuals.

“If you listen to Henco, Carel and Katot when they talk about their vision for the Cape Pioneer Trek, you cannot help but join in their enthusiasm.

Van der Walt does not just sponsor the tour, he is also planning to take part in it.

“After hearing all the good things about the Cape Pioneer Trek, I decided that I have to experience it firsthand for myself. But I must admit that I am slightly worried about my abilities.

“The riders of the DCM mountain-biking team told me that it is a tough tour, so I hope that I will survive. Luckily I have no goals of winning anything, I just want to enjoy myself.

“I will leave the winning to Max Knox and Thomas Zahnd from my DCM team. They certainly have a realistic chance of taking the top honours in the tour.

“What is exciting is that Zahnd has agreed to ride full-time for DCM in multi-stage events from next year. Max and he have what it takes to become one of the worlds best tour teams. Zahnd finished third overall in the Trans-Alp Tour. Knox and Brandon Stewart won two stages in the BC Bike race in Canada and they also finished 2nd overall.

“Silvio Bundi (Switzerland) will also ride for DCM in international mountain-bike tours.”

For more information visit www.capepioneer.co.za or www.dryland.co.za

Ellis finally gets the win he’s been striving for

It took a while, but at long last Ryan Ellis achieved that one big victory that he was striving for when he won the MiWay Half marathon race over 40km on Saturday (28 August).

The Zambian-born rider who attends school in Pietermaritzburg, impressed with the way in which he attacked on the rocky climb about eight kilometers into the race and then time trialed to the finish.

Allan Britnell and Raymond Oosterlaak were involved in their own battle for the second position. It was Britnell who, when it really mattered, was able to find that extra bit of energy to outsprint Oosterlaak over the last few hundred meters.

Ellis’s winning time was 1 hour 39 minutes and 27 seconds. Britnell’s time was 1:41.14, with Oosterlaak a mere five seconds slower.

According to Ellis he owed it to himself to achieve a good result.

“Until now things have not really gone my way as far as mountain biking is concerned. At the beginning of the year I was battling with a virus. Then, during the MiWay Cross-country race in George, just when I thought that my luck had changed for the better, my mountain bike’s chain snapped while I was in the lead. You can say that I was robbed of victory by a mechanical failure.”

When Ellis talks about Saturday’s race, it seems as if he experienced one of those days when nothing could go wrong.

Britnell, Oosterlaak and Ellis wasted no time before they started to attack. This meant that they got away in a break quite early during the race.

“I decided to try my luck again when we came to a rocky climb, so I attacked again. To my surprise I managed to drop Allan and Raymond. From then on I simply kept going.

“At one stage during the race I wondered whether I was doing the right thing, by racing in front on my own. For a moment I considered to sit up and allow the rest of the riders to catch up with me and see how the race plays out. But then I realized that, in spite of being on my own, the time gap between them and myself was gradually increasing.

“So I gambled on staying in front and make the racing as hard as I could whenever there was an opportunity. It paid off because I managed to disappear out of sight from the other riders.”

Ellis said afterwards that he thoroughly enjoyed the course. “I found it easy to get into a pleasant riding tempo without ever slowing down.”

Stopforth is back with a bang and wins MTN National XCM5 in Cullinan

What happened to Ischen Stopforth (Bizhub)? Is she still cycling?

During the past few months these questions continued to crop up at mountain-bike races.

Well, the doctor from George let her legs do the talking on Saturday (28 August) when she won the MTN women’s marathon in Cullinan.

Yolandi du Toit (Bizhub) finished second with Karien van Jaarsveld (USN) third, Sanet Smal (Ghost) fourth and Caitlin de Wet (Specialized/Mr Price) fifth.

After this weekend there will be no need any longer to wonder about Stopforth’s whereabouts. Just watch the winners’ podium after every MTN mountain bike race. There is a strong possibility that you will find her standing on one of the steps.

Stopforth’s problems began just after the MTN Attakwas marathon in January, when she crashed quite heavily during a training ride. Being a doctor herself, she immediately realized that her collarbone was broken. What she did not realize, was that she had also fractured her pelvic bone.

During her recovery period, Stopforth committed the cardinal sin of ignoring a piece of wisdom that she would have advised her patients to keep in mind if they were in the same situation, namely to take things easy and to give the body ample opportunity to heal itself. In short, it boils down to the well-known proverb which says that ‘patience is a virtue’.

“It was very frustrating. Every time I began to feel better, I started to do too much too soon and ended up paying the price. Therefore, it took me much longer than it should have to be back on my mountain bike and to do some real training.

“Cullinan is my first serious race in nearly six months and my first major victory since winning the MTN Clarence Marathon last year.”

Listening to Stopforth when she talks about her experiences during the race, one comes to the conclusion that she was lucky not to get injured again.

Apparently there was a sharp corner in one of the very sandy sections at an early stage of the race. Going into the corner, Stopforth was boxed in by Du Toit and De Wet with a quad bike just behind her. As luck would have it, she lost control over her bike for a brief second and this was all she needed to crash. The quad driver had to keep his wits about him to avoid riding into Stopforth.

According to Stopforth, she had to chase very hard to catch up with De Wet and Du Toit when she was back on her mountain bike.

“To me it felt like an eternity before I could join up with them again.”

Shortly afterwards De Wet punctured and this effectively put an end to her chances of winning. During the the rest of the race she had to battle to ensure that there was enough air in her tyres. She arrived at the finish with a plug that looked like a miniature antenna sticking out her rear tyre.

Du Toit managed to outride Stopforth in a very technical rocky section in one of the game reserves. However, it was not her day either. About 10 kilometers from the finish, Du Toit’s body decided that it had had enough fun for one day and went on ‘strike’.

Du Toit said: “I just had nothing left in my legs. This meant that, when Ischen caught up with me again, I simply could not stay with her. I had to watch as she became a mere speck, way ahead of me, and then finally disappeared from sight.”

Still, it was not all plain sailing for Stopforth. Near the end of the race, she lost her way for a while. Luckily she managed to find the right track again.

Du Toit said afterwards that she had ‘a rude awakening’ during the race.

“I expected the MTN Cullinan race to be a nice cycling experience like the Nissan Diamond Rush in Cullinan was, but it certainly was not. The MTN race was much tougher. At times I had the feeling that we were riding where no other mountain bike has ever gone before.”

MTN Cullinan a roaring success

What is the best way to frustrate the lions in Gauteng?

If you were the organizer of the MTN series, you would simply show them a ‘Meals on wheels menu’ without allowing them to place any orders.

That is what happened this past weekend (28 August), during the MTN marathon event that took place in and around Cullinan.

One of the definite highlights for the riders, who participated in the 78km marathon, was to ride past a lion enclosure in one of the game reserves. It is not certain who did most of the watching, the lions or the riders.

The lions must have wondered what sort of animal this was that had the cheek to stand three meters away from them, casually drinking their cold drinks, while the riders were very grateful that there was a fence between themselves and the ‘Kings of the Beasts’.

But it was not the lions who gave Pretoria’s Stephan Grobler his biggest fright. He tells the story of how he was cycling merrily along, minding his own business.

The next moment he realized that there was a snake on the single track right in front of him.

“Don’t ask me what sort of snake it was. It did not matter. All that mattered to me was to make sure that I got out of the snake’s way in double quick time. Luckily the snake had the same idea.”

But back to the race. The overwhelming majority of the nearly 1 500 riders who competed, lacked the correct positive adjectives to describe their racing experience. They are in total agreement that the organization of the race was almost faultless and they were equally full of praise for the way in which the respective race routes had been marked.

There was general consensus among the riders that seemed to say: “Well done MTN! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.”

Reinholdt de Villiers from Pretoria was ecstatic about the scenic beauty of the 78km marathon route.

“I enjoyed myself very much while I was riding through the rock formations and the river sections.”

According to Samantha Sanders from Nelspruit the parts of the route that she enjoyed most were the single track sections. She also enjoyed the camaraderie among the riders.

Charl Johnson said he enjoyed the single-track sections of the 48km race.

“It was challenging but still doable. My main frustration was that I ran out of energy towards the end of the race. Because of that the last few kilometers were tough, but I cannot blame the organizers for that.”

Riëtte de Villiers was all smiles when she crossed the finishing line, in spite of the fact that she went down hard on her head.

“I made a stupid mistake in one of the technical sections and paid the price. When I got back on my bike, I was totally disorientated. At first I had no clue where I was and what I was doing there. My next big challenge was to try and work out where exactly I was and in what I was competing. When I finally realized that it was the Cullinan race, I enjoyed every moment of it.”

Evans claims National series title in style by winning the MTN National XCM5 in Cullinan

When Kevin Evans (MTN-Energade) makes up his mind to finish off something, it is not just idle talk.

He proved this on Saturday (28 August) when he won the Cullinan ultra-marathon (100km) in the MTN series in fine style by outsprinting David George (SAFindit) to take his fourth victory in the series and win the series overall.

Max Knox (DCM) finished third, with Jacques Janse van Rensburg (DCM) fourth and Adrian Niyonshuti (MTN-Energade) fifth.

With this victory Evans ensured that his name will be part of the South African mountain-biking folklore for years to come. No rider has ever dominated the MTN series, as well as its predecessor the Mazda series, in the way this rider from Plettenberg Bay has done during the past decade.

Evans has now won the series overall for a record sixth time. By winning the MTN Cullinan ultra-marathon on Saturday, he also set a personal record. It was his fourth victory, which is one more than in previous years when he only won three races in the MTN series.

After the race, a dust-covered Evans was not prepared to make any predictions on how long he intends to dominate the MTN series.

“Immediately after the race is not a good time to ask me such questions. I would love to win the series overall once more. Perhaps it would then be time to call it quits, but at this stage nothing is final.”

According to Evans he would like to defend his title in the Crater Cruise ultra-marathon of the MTN series,
if his body should allow him to do so.

“Luckily, there is no pressure on me for the rest of the series. I have achieved what I had set out to do. Therefore, I am just going to enjoy myself and take things as they come in the last two races.”

According to Evans the deciding moment in the race came at about 70km.

“Up until then we were all just riding along at a comfortable pace. This was totally different from what happened in the World Marathon Championship in Germany, where the racing was flat out right from the word go.

“Because of the easy pace, I decided that it was a good time for me to take a chance. I then attacked and made sure that it counted. Only David (George) could stay with me. It suited me to a tee to have David with me because we worked well together to make sure that nobody could catch up with us again.

“I was never worried about what would happen during the sprint for the line. Naturally I was racing to win, but if David should have beaten me, it would not have been the end of the world. I only had to finish
before Max (Knox) to win the series overall.

“Going into the sprint, I was lucky to get in front of David in the crucial final corner. This gave me a slight advantage in the sprint.”

David George, who was even more covered in dust than Evans, was not upset about being outsprinted by his friend.

“It was a good race and the best man won.”

George said the MTN ultra-marathon was much tougher than he had expected.

“Actually, it was a perfect marathon course because there was something of everything – thick sand, tough little climbs, technical rocky sections etc.”

Knox experienced some bad luck when the saddle of his mountain bike broke after about 20 kilometers. He could keep on riding, but the loose saddle prevented him from getting into a steady rhythm.

“I cannot use my broken saddle as an excuse. Up to about 70 kilometers, when the racing was not really that hard, I could stay with the front riders.

“Towards the end of the race, when it really started to count, I just did not have the legs. That was to be expected, because I was definitely not 100% racing fit going into the race. I have only been training again for the past two weeks. Given another month, I will hopefully be ready to start winning races again.”

Janse van Rensburg, who just managed to pip Niyonshuti in a frantic sprint for the line to finish fourth, said he surprised himself.

“It was the first time that I have raced since I broke my collarbone, so I am not complaining. I will admit that I was scared during a good part of the race. I kept thinking how bad it would be if I should fall again and break my collarbone for a second time. That meant that I played it safe in the technical sections and I was careful not to take any risks.”

Ischen Stopforth (Bizhub) won the women’s marathon-race over 75km, with her teammate, Yolandi du Toit, taking second and Karien van Jaarsveld (USN) third.

Can Evans make it four out of five at the MTN Cullinan Ultra Marathon this weekend?

‘Just finish it off and get it over and done,’ is the approach that Kevin Evans (MTN-Energade) will have on Saturday (28 August 2010) with regard to the MTN ultra-marathon in Cullinan.

Evans has, so far this year, already won three of the four races in the MTN series, namely Attakwas, Sabie and Clarence. This means that all he needs to do on Saturday to win the series overall again, is to finish in the top three.

But knowing Evans’s competitive spirit, it is safe to predict that he will want to clinch the series in style with at least one last victory.

However, Evans admits that he will be somewhat disadvantaged because he has no idea what the course in and around Cullinan will be like.

“I am planning to ride as much of the course as possible on Friday, just to get an idea of which of my Volcan mountain bikes I should use.”

Evans took a well deserved break after the World Marathon Championship in Germany. He even had a chance to celebrate the second birthday of his daughter, Ruby, with her.

“The break definitely did me well. I continued to ride, but nothing structured. I basically just ensured that my mountain bike’s wheels kept on turning. My batteries are now charged for this year’s last six weeks of racing.

“As far as the race is concerned, I have no definite strategy. I will just make sure that I keep up with the front riders and, if an opportunity should arise, I will try to make the most of it. I will certainly not be the one who sets the pace at the beginning of the race. I will leave that to the riders who reckon they can win.”

According to Evans, apart from him, Max Knox (DCM) is the only rider who still has a chance of winning the series overall.

“If Max should pull off a victory on Saturday, the pressure will be on, because that would mean that he has two victories to my three and there are just two races remaining in the series. “

Knox won the first race in the MTN race in Barberton.

However, if one could believe Knox, winning in Cullinan is not that important to him.

“I was slightly injured and could only start to train again two weeks ago. Therefore, I have not set myself any definite goals. I will see how the race plays out. Perhaps I will get a lucky break.”

The other riders with a chance of winning are Francois Theron and Marc Bassingthwaighte (Garmin-adidas); Ben-Melt Swanepoel (Specialized-Mr Price) and Brandon Stewart (DCM).

Evans tips his MTN-Energade teammate, Adrian Niyonshuti, as also having a realistic chance of winning.

“Adrian has proved this year that he has what it takes to win races. All he needs is a little bit of luck and slightly more experience.”

As far as the women’s race is concerned, Caitlin de Wet (Specialized Mr Price) must be regarded as a firm favourite, especially in the absence of Yolandé Speedy and Mariske Strauss (both MTN-Energade) who are in Canada where they will compete in the UCI Cross-country World Championship next weekend.

Riders like Yolandi du Toit (Bizhub) and Karien van Jaarsveld, Carla Rowley and Samantha Oosthuizen are the other favourites.

USN Signs up another top cyclist

After signing South African women’s road cycling champion, Cherise Taylor, earlier this month, Ultimate Sports Nutrition (USN) has announced it will also sponsor the country’s brightest new cycling star, Karien van Jaarsveld.

Karien van Jaarsveld will race in the colours of USN from Saturday

Van Jaarsveld (29), a former teammate of Taylor on the now-disbanded Nashua Ladies Cycling Team, will no longer be without a sponsor after she was added to USN’s high-profile cycling line-up on Thursday.

With provincial colours in biathlon (swimming and running) and cross-country running as her athletic foundation, Van Jaarsveld quickly made a successful transition to racing bicycles last year and has shown rare versatility in being able to finish on podiums in both road races and mountain bike events.

Among the highlights in her very short career are second place at the 2010 South African mountain bike marathon championships and fifth place at the 2010 South African road race championships.

“I’m comfortable on both road and mountain bikes. Mountain bike racing in general and the MTN National Marathon Series, in particular, were my initial goals for this year, but I’ve developed a love for road racing and have produced some good results, including a couple of wins. I’m going to continue racing both disciplines,” said Van Jaarsveld.

Van Jaarsveld was invited to be a guest rider on the MTN professional women’s road team that competed in La Route de France earlier this month. The six-stage race is one of the highest profile women’s races on the International Cycling Union calendar and attracted many of the world’s top professional racers. Van Jaarsveld was unfortunate to crash on Stage 3 after a rider in front of her lost control of her bike. Van Jaarsveld’s injuries forced her to withdraw.

“I’m very grateful to USN for its confidence in my abilities and its support. I believe that although it’s just Cherise and I, we’ll be a very competitive force in all of the country’s major road races. We plan to compete in some mountain bike stage races as a team too,” explained Van Jaarsveld.

“Karien has achieved some very impressive results in a very short time and we see a great future for her. We are pleased to be able to offer her an environment where she can continue to improve and reach her potential. As with all our sponsored athletes, Karien will work in conjunction with our specialist sports dieticians in the development of new products or variations of existing products in our endurance range,” said Albe Geldenhuys, USN founder and chairman.

Although not yet fully recovered from her injuries, Van Jaarsveld will start as one of the favourites for victory at Saturday’s fifth round of the MTN National Marathon Series in Cullinan, northeast of Pretoria. With three events remaining, she is currently lying second in the country’s most prestigious series.

Dryland out to make Southern Cape and Karoo the endurance mecca of South Africa

It seems that, if the brains trust of the Dryland Event Management could have their own way, the Southern Cape and Klein Karoo would become the mecca for South African holiday makers who cannot resist a good physical challenge.

Henco Rademeyer, Carl Herholdt and Katot Meyer, all connected with the Dryland Events, have already ensured that the Attakwas and Chandelier races have become two of the must-do mountain bike marathons on the local calendar. The Attakwas has in fact been voted by mountain bikers to be the best one-day event in South Africa.

Furthermore, it seems as if the DCM Cape Pioneer Trek, a six-day mountain bike tour (from 18 to 23 October), is on its way to become just as popular.

Actually, even at this early stage, the ‘who’s who’ of South African mountain biking have already confirmed that they are not going to miss out on the pleasure of racing the Cape Pioneer Trek.

However, it is not only South Africans who are excited about South Africa’s latest multi-day event. Some of Europe’s top professionals, for example Christoph Sauser, a former world champion, have already indicated that they will definitely be here to join in the fun.

One of the main reasons for Dryland’s success, is the organizer’s firm belief in the principle that you can never sit back and say ‘This is it, we have achieved everything we wanted to’.

Rademeyer, Herholdt and Meyer are constantly playing around with ideas for new and more exciting challenges that would help to make people aware of the beauty of the Southern Cape and the Klein Karoo.

One of their new projects consists of a three-day (four stages) trail-running event in the Swartberg.

“I don’t think people realize how beautiful and unique the Swartberg is. With the trail-running event we want to give people the opportunity to go where very few people had gone before. Our goal with each event we organize is to make sure that at least 30% of the route is virgin terrain where no human foot or bicycle has gone before.

“What will be truly unique about the trail-run, is that the start will be in an underground cave. How often do people get the opportunity to run in a cave?”

As far as the Cape Pioneer Trek tour is concerned, the latest exciting news is that DCM, the main sponsor, has true to Dryland’s vision that everything is not merely about bikes, pledged its support for the Cape Leopard Trust.

It will make a valuable contribution to the Trust, and at the same time expose riders to the trail on which these magnificent animals tread.

The Cape Leopard Trust will receive an annual cash sponsorship from the DCM Cape Pioneer Trek to fund research on the elusive Cape mountain leopard in the Gouritz Corridor.

The leopard is currently considered to be the apex predator in the Cederbergas well as in the rest of the Western Cape. However, its conservation status remains uncertain. The species is regularly exterminated or removed from farms, by people who have little knowledge of the population numbers or genetic status of the animal.

Preliminary studies show that the Cape leopards differ morphologically as well as genetically from leopards elsewhere in Southern Africa.

For more information visit www.capepioneer.co.za www.dryland.co.za

In form Janse van Rensburg takes the win at Lost City

The riders from MTN-Energade managed to achieve a first, a second and a third place during the past weekend (21-22 August 2010). They did not do this in one single race, but in three different races, namely the Lost City races for men and women and the Engen Dynamic Cycle Challenge race.

Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg (MTN-Energade), who won the Lost City race, proved that he is the in-form rider at the moment. What made his victory special is that he had at long last done what he had been threatening to do for a long time. He outsprinted Medscheme’s Malcolm Lange and Arran Brown. The two of them had been dominating the one-day classics during the past 12 months.

Janse van Rensburg’s winning time for the race over 103km was 2 hours 22 minutes and 56 seconds.

An-Li Pretorius (MTN-Energade) finished third in the women’s race at the Lost City. Sanet Smal (Bizhub) was the winner and Lynette Burger (Toyota-Cyclelab) finished second.

Sunday’s Dynamic Cycle Challenge in and around Durban, turned out to be a near repetition of what happened during the Carousel Classic. Bradley Potgieter (MTN-Energade) and Hanco Kachelhoffer (Medscheme) were again the two main protagonists in the race.

The two of them, together with Dawid Maree (House of Paints), managed to get away in a break quite early and they stayed in front, on their own, for the last 80 kilometers.

According to Kachelhoffer is was pay-back time.

“It was very important for me to beat Bradley this time, especially after he outsprinted me when the two of us were in a breakaway during the Carousel Classic. To be quite frank, I was rather nervous towards the end of the race because, when you have a rider like Bradley with you, you know that you have to keep your wits about if you want to win. In my opinion, Bradley and Reinhardt (Janse van Rensburg) are two of the riders in the pro-peloton who improved the most this year.

“Reinhardt is in top form at the moment. You don’t want him to be anywhere near you towards the end of a race, because there is always a good chance that he will end up being the winner.”

Kachelhoffer said he timed his final sprint to the line in the Dynamic Cycle Challenge to perfection.

“Unfortunately for Bradley and Dawid they bumped into each other during the sprint and this probably caused both of them to lose their rhythm.”

Kachelhoffer’s winning time for the race over 100km was 2:28:00. Potgieter finished second and Maree third.

Potgieter’s second-place finish meant that an MTN-Energade rider stood on each of the steps of the winner’s podium during the weekend, but in three different races.

Pretorius was disappointed in the way the Lost City’s women’s race played out.

“We really wanted Cashandra Slingerland (MTN-Energade) to win, because she would have completed her hat trick of victories in successive Lost City races.

“However, things did not work out as we had hoped. It was one of those days when the riders from the other teams were intent on making sure that the race ended in a bunch sprint. This was very frustrating for us because time and again, when one of us launched an attack, one of the riders from the other teams would chase us down and, as soon as they caught up with us, they sat up again.

“In a way it is understandable why this happened. Bizhub and Toyota-Cyclelab knew that they would have a realistic chance of winning if they could keep the race together, because both Sanet Smal and Lynette Burger are recognized sprinters.

“I knew I had no chance of outsprinting them.”

It was not all doom and gloom for Pretorius. Finishing 3rd was an improvement for her on last year when she was 4th.

Results for the Lost City race:

1st Reinhardt Janse Van Rensburg (MTN Energade) 2:22:56
2nd Malcolm Lange (Team Medscheme)
3rd Arran Brown (Team Medscheme)
4th Pieter Seyffert (DCM)
5th Tyler Day (EMG Cycling)
6th Christoff Van Heerden (MTN Energade)
7th Dean Edwards (House of Paint)
8th Juan Van Heerden (MTN Energade)
9th JC Jooste (Team Matlosana)
10th Dennis van Niekerk (EMG Cycling)

Engen Dynamic race results:

1st Hanco Kachelhoffer (team medscheme) 2:28:00
2nd Bradley Potgieter (MTN Energade)
3rd David Maree (House of Paint)
4th Arran Brown (Team medscheme) 2:29:54
5th Dean Edwards (House of Paint)
6th Tyler Day (EMG Cycling)
7th Christof Van Heerden (MTN Energade)
8th David Brown (Toyota Supercycling National academy)
9th Stefan Ihlenfeldt (Cape Town Market)
10th Dylan Girdelstone (MTN Energade)