South African marathon champions, James Reid and Robyn de Groot showed impressive form on Friday when they each won the men and women’s categories with their respective teammates on Stage 1 of the DUTOIT Tankwa Trek in South Africa’s Western Cape province.
Reid and Erik Kleinhans (Team RECM) displayed a blend of endurance and skill to capture the men’s title, clocking a winning time of 03 hours 20 minutes 21 seconds for the challenging 83km stage. They were four minutes faster than runners up Waylon Woolcock and Darren Lill (Red-E Blend), with Adriaan Louw and Lourens Luus (Contego) rounding out the podium places.
Germany’s three-time ABSA Cape Epic winner, Stefan Sahm (Team Bulls), was the first rider home in the Solo category in 03:20:26.
In the women’s race, De Groot and her Swedish teammate Jennie Stenerhag (Team Ascendis Health) crossed the finish line in 03:52:17 almost three minutes quicker than defending champions, Ariane Kleinhans and Cherise Stander (Team RECM), with Sasol Racing’s Yolande de Villiers and Bianca Haw claiming the final podium spot.
Britain’s Catherine Williamson (Asrin Cycling) won the Solo women’s category.
Photo credit: www.oakpics.com
In the men’s race, a 20-strong lead pack formed early on, but Reid’s pace in the first long section of rocky singletrack split the group up substantially, with only Kleinhans and Sahm able to stay with him. Because the event is primarily a team-focussed event, the rules state that Solo riders may not assist with or interfere with teams. So Sahm tagged along behind the in-form RECM pair.
“I was pushing the pace on the singletrack because it’s technical singletrack that doesn’t really suit the strong riders that have come to mountain biking from road cycling. Both Erik and I are pure mountain bikers and we relished the rocky trails and used them to our advantage,” explained Reid.
“Erik is in great form and I think he’s super confident after almost winning the Ashburton Series Ultra-marathon at Meerendal last weekend. He was so strong on the flats and slight climbs on the gravel roads today, so I just hung onto his wheel and it worked out well for us,” added Reid.
The women’s race was a much closer contest with De Groot and Stenerhag swapping the lead a number of times with Stander and Kleinhans.
“It was really exciting to have two women’s teams so closely matched. It put both of us under pressure and made for good racing,” smiled De Groot.
“Jennie crashed once and it looks like Ariane also crashed. That’s what pressure can do. But they weren’t serious crashes, more like tumbles. The terrain was very technical in places, which makes this event a true allround mountain biking challenge. Coming from a road cycling background it was good for us to be able to hold our own and come away with a stage win today. Tomorrow we won’t be riding defensively, we’ll be out to increase our lead if possible,” added De Groot.
In the Mixed division, Candice Neethling and Craig Boyes (Asrin Cycling) secured a dominant win over Yolandi du Toit and Michael Posthumus, with Carmen Buchacher and Allan Cox (VSL Mixed) taking third.
Saturday’s Stage 2 is the Tankwa Trek’s Queen Stage. At 89km it’s the longest of the three stages. It’s also got the most climbing. There’s a total of 2 240m of ascent with more than 1000 metres of that on just one climb, the Merino Monster.
Photo credit: www.oakpics.com
The 20km ascent starts just after 45km at around 700 metres above sea level and ends at 65km at 1750m above sea level. If the weather is clear, the views across the surrounding valleys are spectacular. The top riders are unlikely to have time to notice though and the Merino Monster is expected to shake up the general classification in most categories.
For live race updates, follow @TankwaTrek on twitter. The stage will start at 06h30 on Saturday.
DUTOIT TANKWA TREK 2015
Stage 1 – leading results:
Team Men
1 James Reid (RSA) / Erik Kleinhans (RSA) Team RECM 3:20:21
2 Darren Lill (RSA) / Waylon Woolcock (RSA) Red-E Blend 3:24:26
3 Lourens Luus (RSA) / Adriaan Louw (RSA) Contego 3:28:55
4 Gawie Combrinck (RSA) / Johann Rabie (RSA) EAI Cycling 3:32:25
5 Hanco Kachelhoffer (RSA) / Chris Wolhuter (RSA) Altech Autopage 3:33:34
Solo Men
1 Stefan Sahm (GER) Team Bulls 3:20:27
2 Timo Cooper (RSA) 3:31:36
3 Ben Melt Swanepoel (RSA) 3:31:47
4 Tyronne White (RSA) 3:34:51
5 Ryan Piercey (RSA) 3:45:14
Team Women
1 Robyn de Groot (RSA) / Jennier Stennerhag (SWE) Ascendis Health 3:52:17
2 Cherise Stander (RSA) / Ariane Kleinhans (SUI) Team RECM 3:55:07
3 Yolande de Villiers (RSA) / Bianca Haw (RSA) Sasol Racing 4:02:03
4 Ann Harrison (RSA) / Marleen Lourens (RSA) Dawn Wing Momsen 4:35:37
5 Nina Hind (RSA) / Kathy Crabbe (RSA) Fruit Sizers 5:34:48
Solo Women
1 Catherine Williamson (GBR) Asrin Cycling 4:03:35
2 Cherie Vale (RSA) OMX Pro 4:12:55
3 Christine Jansen van Rensburg (RSA) 4:18:41
4 Jane Seggie (RSA) 4:30:42
5 Monica Glover (RSA) 4:44:03
Team Mixed
1 Candice Neethling (RSA) / Craig Boyes (RSA) Asrin Cycling 3:57:52
2 Yolandi du Toit (RSA) / Michael Posthumus (RSA) Garmin 4:04:28
3 Carmen Buchacher (RSA) / Allan Cox (RSA) VSL Mixed 4:15:39
4 Leana de Jager (RSA) /Johan Labuschagne (RSA) Sasol Racing 4:20:26
5 Joanne Bentley (RSA) / Craig McKune (RSA) Stynky Lynxes 4:44:07
