Thrills for all at Barberton XCM Challenge
President of the Rotary club of Barberton, George Pearse, said "This was a great race, and I would like to thank everyone that made it happen."
Barberton Rotary Club hosted the 20th annual Barberton XCM Mountain Bike Challenge on Saturday.
The event once again proved to be a huge success with cyclists saying they will definitely come back as this is one of the most challenging and picturesque routes in the country
This year’s race offered an ultramarathon of 110 kilometres, a full marathon of 77 kilometres, two half-marathons of 30 and 48 kilometres each and a 20-kilometre fun ride. The ultramarathon riders left the grounds of Barberton High School at 06:30 and the rest followed fifteen minutes to half an hour apart.
The winner of the 30-kilometre half-marathon, in the category ultra-grand masters, Hennie Coetzee, also celebrated his 70th birthday on Saturday. Hennie who is a Barberton Rotarian and involved in the organisation of the Barberton XCM Mountain Bike Challenge couldn’t have asked for a better birthday present!
One of the very popular races was the one held for children on the grounds of Barberton High School. Everything from plastic scooters to proper mini mountain bikes could be seen and the parents, many of whom ran with the kids, had as much fun as the little ones.
Apart from the gruelling ride, the day was also filled with lots of laughter. With time to kill before the 20-kilometre fun ride, Johnny Koen, who was the commentator at the event, challenged the riders to break the record for the world’s longest goodbye kiss, which he said was seven minutes
30 seconds.
Barberton Times established on Monday that it was the record held at Barberton’s XCM and not the world record as mentioned. As far as we could establish there is no such record – only one for the longest kiss which lasted 58 hours, 35 minutes and 58 seconds. However, Magda and Martin Welmans decided to give it a go and to the amusement of their fellow riders and the crowd of onlookers, their very passionate kiss lasted for over eight minutes – a new record for Barberton’s XCM.
Winners of the ultramarathon men’s category
Henry Uys – 4:21:34
Alan Gordon – 4:22:00
Paul Theron – 4:23:19.
Winners of the ultramarathon ladies category
Patsy Hime – 5:24:32
Gretha Garnett – 5:52:20
Jeanine Oosthuizen – 6:23:25.
Winners of the full marathon men’s category
Brand du Plessis – 3:22:38
Greg Harrup – 3:33:48
Deon Kruger – 3:35:43.
Winners of the full marathon ladies category
Rene Schoeman – 3:34:04
Sam Sanders – 3:39:37
Vanessa Bell – 3:57:10.
President of the Rotary club of Barberton, George Pearse, said “This was a great race, and I would like to thank everyone that made it happen. Thanks to all the Rotarians, particularly Hennie Coetzee and Ben Theron for all the organising. A huge thank you to Marina Coetzee for all the hours she has put into the marketing of our race and to our sponsors without whom none of this would have been possible”.
On behalf of the Rotary Anns, Veronica Pearse thanked Graeme Webb from Pick n Pay for sponsoring the pasta for the pasta-evening which was held on Friday evening during the registration for the XCM.
