Interprovincial championships wrap-up

A tough battle between defending champions Gauteng and 2014 runner up North West erupted as the top riders in each province competed for league supremacy and the coveted championship title.

Grey College finished fourth overall on inter schools log, which saw a field of 400 mountain bike riders representing 40 schools from across South Africa as well as a team from Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia compete for the coveted Spur Schools Mountain Bike League Championship trophy.

North West clinched an impressive four wins and five podium positions and nipped the coveted trophy from Gauteng with one point scoring 236 versus 235.  Western Cape finished overall third with 197 points followed by Mpumalanga in a close forth with 194 points.   Completing the provincial log is Limpopo (145 points), Namibia (113 points), Kwazulu Natal (81 points), Eastern Cape (70), Free State (68), Northern Cape (31) and Zimbabwe (19).

The Spur Schools Mountain Bike league – a joint initiative between Spur Steak Ranches and trail advocacy group Amarider, recorded stratospheric growth during the 2015 season with more than 400 schools and 10 000 competing nationwide.

According to league organiser Meurant Botha stated that it was encouraging to see the increasing number of schools that have adopted mountain biking as an official school sport.  “Schools are taking mountain bike riding to the next level through coaching clinics and high performance training camps, while constantly introducing new riders to the sport.  On grass roots levels various rider development programmes have been implemented around the country,“ said Botha.

South African Schools Cycling (SASC) headed up by Deon Steyn, as national governing body of the sport, the strong network of regional co-ordinators, as well as increased involvement from schools is playing a key role in getting mountain biking established as a main stream school sport.

“None of this would have been possible without the vision and commitment of the Spur Group who have invested over R7m into the league and the development of mountain biking as a school sport since 2009.  The renewed 3-year sponsorship contract that will run until 2017 does not only bode well for the future of the league, but for mountain bike riding as a sporting discipline,” concludes Botha.

INTERPROVINCIAL RESULTS

In the sub-junior race Adriaan Duminy (NW) went all out for line honours beating Jamie Penfold of Paul Roos by nearly a minute, while team mate  Stehan Wolmarans (NW) secured a third place.  Monique du Toit (GT) took first in the sub-junior girls, Kelsey van Schoor (EC) second and Christelle Coetzer (LIM) third.

In the youth men 15, Ryan Conradie (NW) had yet another great ride crossing the line nearly two minutes ahead of Charl du Plooy of Namibia and Jean-Pierre Lloyd (GT).

An exhilarating youth men 16 race saw only two minutes separating the top six riders with Pieter due Toit (NW) finishing first in a time of 00:40:31 followed by Armand Lombard (MPU) in a time of 00:41:11 Henru du Toit (GT) third in 00:41:21and team mate Gustav Rohdey fourth in 00:41:52.  Western Cape team mates Joshua de Freitas and Johann Trotzky had a sprint finish for 5th and 6th place.

Tiffany Keep (KZN) won the youth women 15 with Azulde Britz (GT) second and Rimari Sutton (GT) third, while Danielle Strydom (NW) had a comfortable win in the youth women 16 followed by Allison Morton (WC) and Marnique de Swart (MPU).

Nicoline Marais and team mate Kirsten Louw finished respectively first and third in the junior women’s race with Sabrina van Wyk of KZN in second place.

Wrapping the championships were the junior men with Herbert Peters of Namibia proving his dominance after a slow start in 15th position working his way to a 4 second win over Franco Pelser (MPU) and Henry Liebenberg (Gauteng) in third.

2015 SPUR MTB LEAGUE SCHOOLS LOG