The third and final leg of the Western Cape Interschool Series took place at Hoërskool DF Malan in Bellville on Sunday the 16th of March with 84 riders from 16 schools taking to the 460m long urban track to try their legs at cross country eliminator racing.
After a tough day of racing in the u/14, u/16 and u/19 boys categories the final WC series results were calculated. The WC races took place at: Bishops Diocesan College in Rondebosch, Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch and Hoërskool DF Malan in Bellville, with racing taking place on very different courses ranging in terrain from single track, open fields and urban sections through the school buildings.
As the series moved from one event to another, the riders and schools started working on team tactics and realised that it didn’t matter how far ahead of the field you were in a heat race, as the top two would advance and rather than racing further ahead, riders began to race smart and conserve energy for later rounds.
A total of 111 riders entered the WC leg of the series from 21 different schools from around the province. Unfortunately there were not enough female entrants to run the girls division, but it’s something the organisers are working on for the KZN and Gauteng legs of the series.
After three action packed events, the champions were crowned. In the u/14 it was three from three for Calla De Vos (Paul Roos Gymnasium) ahead of three times runner up Daniel Van Der Walt (Kenridge Primary), with Karl Prins (Bishops Diocesan College) showing that consistency pays off to round off the podium.
The u/16 division offered great entertainment with a hard fought tussle for the top honours with the lead changing three times during the course of the series and finally having Joshua De Freitas (Parel Vallei High School) victorious over Neil Van Tonder (Hoërskool DF Malan )by the smallest of margins with Wynand Dippennaar (Hoérskool DF Malan) taking his place on the final spot of the podium.
In the u/19 series was pretty much a one man race with Manie Lubbe (Hoërskool DF Malan) being fairly unchallenged for top honours ahead of Alexander Rohrer (Bishops Diocesan College) whose two finals and quarter final result placed him ahead of Morne Hollander (Hoërskool DF Malan) who completed the top three.
In the Schools division it was a dominant performance from Hoërskool DF Malan that rocketed them ahead of all the competition placing them on the top step of the podium ahead of hard fighting Paul Roos Gymnasium who finished second to edge out Bishops Diocesan College into third place.
The Western Cape schools definitely set a high benchmark moving forward into KwaZulu Natal, in May, before the series moves to Gauteng later in the year. The national series is supported by Catlike Helmets and GoPro while the WC leg of the series has been sponsored by EnjoyFitness, Olympic Cycles, Freewheel Cycology, VeloLife and Chris Williamse Cycles who provided great prizes to get the young riders to dig extra deep in the battle for the podium.
For more information on the Interschool XCE series and the KZN event dates go to www.onemovement.co.za or follow them on Twitter @One_Move_Ment.
