TRAVIS Stedman, riding his final race as an U16 before moving up to the junior category next year, and Frances Janse Van Rensburg, riding her first road race ever, were the overall winners of the inaugural Drakensberg Extravaganza road cycle race in Bergville on Sunday.

In a display of the potential future of men’s cycling in KZN, U16 Stedman, U23 runner up Bevan Reddy and third-placed U18 junior Cian Leveridge battled each other for 84km before Stedman eked out a race-winning advantage on the final 90-degree turn just 100m from the finish line.

In the women’s race, experienced mountain biker Frances Janse van Rensburg, riding her first ever road race, powered away from the pre-race favourite Tiffany Keep after about 30km and managed to work with some of the men’s racers. Keep could not jump across to the Van Rensburg’s group in the strong headwind and saw her hopes of victory ride away to eventually lose five minutes by the finish.

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“It was an awesome race,” said Stedman after finishing. “It was quite slow in the beginning so I wanted to get away. I knew there were a couple of guys that were strong enough to make a gap, so we stuck together. We dropped one of the other guys who were with us initially and then just worked together. It was nice working together with the older guys. It was a bit difficult at times with less gears than them (U16 riders have restricted gearing). It is quite a privilege to win the first time this event was held.”

For Van Rensburg, however, this race may be the start of a new beginning.

“It was my first road race ever so I did not know what to expect,” said the junior who has been competitive in the women’s mountain bike events all year. “We were in the chasing group for the first 30 or 40 kilometres and then three of us attacked on a climb and managed to keep it away from there. Tiffany was with us until that attack. I’m super chuffed to win this, I did not expect to win it. I just thought I would give it a try.”

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