North Coast kids dominate KZN XCO championships

Young North Coast cyclists continue to show huge promise, recently grabbing eight gold medals at the KwaZulu-Natal XCO Championships.

To fully understand that level of domination in the junior categories, the local group claimed eight of the ten possible gold medals at the Pietermaritzburg event.

With two top quality local clubs in Sugar Rats Racing and DriveTrain Academy, and ideal mountain biking locations nearby, Ballito is set to produce an ongoing conveyor belt of talent.

Sophie Bircher (nipper girls) absolutely dominated her three-lap race (25.01), finishing more than 10 minutes ahead of her nearest rival in the girls category and claiming third overall.

Christopher Mason was similarly impressive in his four-lap sprog boys win, finishing almost two minutes ahead of the second cyclist in a time of 36.39.

Lila Aszalos (sprog girls) was pushed a little bit closer for her win but won with three consistent laps for a time of 30.27.

Joshua Paul (sub-junior boys, 58.41) and Madison Bateman (sub-junior girls, 52.49) continued the winning ways with their strong performances.

Errin Mackridge also took gold in the youth girls category with a time of 1:10.57 for her four laps.

Rounding out the winners were Justin Swanepoel (junior boys, 1:08.36) and Tyler Jacobs (youth girls, 1:04.10).

These medals continue the good form of local cyclists after a similarly strong haul at the South African XCO Championships last month.

For the uninitiated, XCO biking is one of four mountain biking formats which sees competitors racing short course over multiple laps.

The other disciplines are marathon, enduro and downhill.

“I love the fact that you get to explore when you go biking. Like after the floods, we got to go on some new trails that we had never seen before, it was awesome,” said Bircher.

For Mason, the sport is something he hopes to continue for the rest of his life.

“I love playing other sport such as rugby, but I know I will have to give that up at some stage. I can bike until I’m much older, so it makes sense for me to start building skill and fitness now,” he said.

What is certain however, is that both mountain biking and road cycling are growing in the public consciousness, and perhaps the next world champion will soon come from Ballito.

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