Uplands’ riders bring home the big buks
There recently were wide smiles at Uplands College when the school was rewarded for its pedal power.
As the 2017 winners of the Sappi Mankele MTB Schools’ Challenge, which took place at Mankele on March 18, this White River school pocketed R5 000 in prize money.
The forestry giant’s annual mountain- biking race attracts riders from far and wide, and the school challenge component of the event is an incentive to boost learner participation. With the most entries, Uplands College stole the glory from last year’s winner, Curro Nelspruit.
Curro Nelspruit took second place, receiving R3 000, while Penryn College came third, securing R2 000 for the school.
This year’s competition saw 156 entries into the schools’ competition in total.
Also read: The Sappi Mankele Mountain Bike Challenge is not for the faint-hearted
Sappi made a major commitment to mountain biking in Mpumalanga in 2011, when it first took up naming rights of the Sappi Mankele MTB challenge. This year, the challenge was even more exciting, as it was incorporated into the Mpumalanga Marathon Series.
The Sappi Mankele MTB tracks are designed to test not only the competitors’ fitness levels, but their will to overcome challenges and work together as a team to achieve the end result.
