Kuhn pushes his limit past the Max
This race was the first of four legs, and participants have already started to prepare for the next leg scheduled to take place at Uplands College on March 16.
On Saturday Mankele Mountain Bike Park was home to the first leg of the annual Cross Country Series. This is certainly one of the most anticipated and challenging races on the calendar.
With very little climbing, the route is extremely fast which means that riders have to practice extreme concentration, particularly when speeding down a the tight single track, through rocks and trees. However, the Jacob’s Drop at the back of the cabins put the riders’ skills to the test as extremely steep and technical drops awaited them on their way down. According to Brett Coates, director for mountain biking from Cycling South Africa, Andreas Kuhn is currently on top form and so is Armand Lombard. “Both had great results with Armand in particular having to stop for four minutes in the pits and still chasing back to third. Andreas won just in front of Max Knox,” says Coates.
This race was the first of four legs, and participants have already started to prepare for the next leg scheduled to take place at Uplands College on March 16. “The race is on,” says Coates. The track was designed by Nick Flores. He also did the international course at Cascades in Pietermaritzburg and the XCO track in Rio for this year’s Olympics. Riders can look forward to a lot of swoopy single track.
“Anyone can do cross-country racing,” says Coates. “The courses are not technical and easily ridden by anyone who can ride a mountain bike. Everyone is welcome to the next one at Uplands.”
Here are this weekend’s results
• Junior men: Andreas Kuhn – 01:02:40
• Junior women: Marnique de Swardt – 01:07:53
• Master ladies: Shirley Emmerick – 00:55:35
• Master men: Tim James – 00:51:05
• Nipper (F) – Danel de Jager – 00:37:04
Nipper (M) – Francois de Jager – 00:27:08
• Senior ladies – Emily Clarke – 01:15:18
• Senior men – Max Knox – 01:02:42
• Sprog (F) – Jessica Svacha – 00:43:12
• Sprog (M) – Jooste Coetzee – 00:32:02
• Subvet ladies – Christelle Meyer 00:59:23
• Subvet men – Mark Meyer – 00:57:34
• Subjunior (F) – Ainsli de Beer – 00:48:21
• Subjunior (M) – Reinhardt Viljoen – 00:39:37
• U/23 (M) – Martin Oosthuizen – 01:04:37
• Veteran men – Burger Bester – 01:00:19
• Youth (F) – Zandri Strydom – 00:37:50
• Youth (M) – Ryan Terry – 00:43:11.
