Speedsters clock top times

The beautiful farming area of Wartburg welcomed the cream of South African road cycling to the time trial leg of the 2016 SA national road cycling championships held in hot and humid conditions on February 10 and 11.

The individual time trial, also known as ‘the race of truth’, is a brutal race against the clock from start to finish.

Riders have to break a good sweat before they start racing so that they are able to go full speed from the first pedal stroke.There is no bunch to hide in, no team mates to neutralise attacks or drag the rider along and every split second counts.

Ballito was well represented on the start line as well as on the podium, with three podium positions claimed.

Deno van Heerden racked up his second national time trial title as he won the 24 kilometre men’s 35-39 race in 00:36:02 – 26 seconds faster than his nearest rival, Kris van Straaten.

“With 300 metres of climbing built into the 24 kilometre route, the organisers put together a specialist course that was very undulating compared to previous years,” said Van Heerden.

Because of the amount of climbing waiting out on the course, Van Heerden traded his disk wheels for a lighter set of 19 millimetre deep section rims that he said were light enough for climbing but still just as hot on the flats as disk wheels.

“I decided not to spend all my pennies on the way out and rode conservatively for the first half of the course. The second half was faster and had a tough little 1.8 kilometre climb right at the end,” he said.

Not to be outdone by his senior counterpart, 12-year-old Callum Osborne left the rest of the U14 boys in his wake, taking the 15 kilometre U14 time trial race by over a minute from second placed Travis Stedman.

“Callum is only 12 years old and has two more years to go in this category”, said his dad, Brian Osborne who is the current men’s 50-54 KZN Road Cycling champion.

In this case, the apple does not fall far from the tree because besides their domination at the KZN road cycling champs, Callum’s parents, Brian and Christina have also done well in the national time trial championships. Both finished sixth in their categories.

Ballito’s third podium position was brought home by mountain biker, Chloe Batesman who powered into third in the 15 kilometre U14 event.

“The individual time trial is not her game and I am very pleased with Chloe’s performance. She said the time trial was very tough but she learned what to do next year,” said Lara Bateson, Chloe’s mother.

Heidi Dalton finished fourth, narrowly missing out on a podium position when she stopped the clock one second slower than former national time trial champion, Cashandra Slingerland in the Elite woman’s race.

Reghard Roets also did well to finish in the top ten of the men’s 40-44 race.

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