MULTIPLE former winners Kevin Evans and Max Knox combined their firepower to win the 10th Nedbank sani2c mountain bike race that culminated on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast on Saturday.

After three days of racing, the FedGroup-Itec pair finished fifth on the 85km final stage from Highflats to Scottburgh to take overall victory in an aggregate time of 8:57:45.

Old Mutual joBerg2c winners Gawie Combrinck and Johann Rabie, of EAI South Africa, came home fourth on the day to secure the overall runner-up spot in 9:01:08.

It was Evans’s sixth triumph in the 265km stage race – the largest of its kind in the world – and Knox’s third.

“So that’s nine wins from 10 events, which is pretty special,” said Evans. He and Knox won the first two stages to take a comfortable three-and-a-half-minute lead into the final day.

“Today wasn’t about the stage win, we just wanted to sew up the victory for FedGroup-Itec,” he said. “It’s been a while coming but the form is there and it’s the start of good things.”

Line honours on the day belonged to cross-country racers Arno Du Toit and Brendon Davids of Trek Racing, who outsprinted Croeser and Walker by one second to take the win in 2:35:05.