Sport has delivered numerous victorious dream teams that define an era of greatness. The unbeaten double World Cup winning All Black team, the triple Olympic US basketball team and the Australian cricket team in the 2000’s come to mind.

There is no doubt that North West’s school mountain bike team falls into this dream team category after another phenomenal national Spur Schools  Series MTB title win. These riders can now, once again, call themselves the best in the country after a second successive victory in the Spur Schools Mountain Bike Series that was held at Bekker School from 8-9 October this year.

North West edged out Gauteng by a mere two points as these two heavyweight provinces battled it out for mountain biking supremacy throughout the weekend. North West ended on 242 points, Gauteng came in second with 240, followed by Western Province with 224 points. This SASC interprovincial competition focused on pitting the best against the best, where the top 10 results contributed to a team’s overall total.

Not only did the team perform exceptionally well, it was at its best individually too, as Ryan Conradie, Kristen ‘Nooi’ Louw and Pieter du Toit were crowned SA’s best in their respective categories.

Conradie clocked a time of 27:02 in the Youth Boys u.16 category to bag 26 vital points for his team, while Louw put up a brilliant time of 31:06 in the junior women’s race, edging out her North West teammate, Danielle Strydom with an incredible one second in the closest finish on Sunday.

Du Toit was in a class of his own in the junior men’s category and took first place with a great ride in a time of 40:05.

‘There was a drag on lap one and I used this opportunity to break away from the pack. It was well worth it, even though I had to put in a lot of effort. The race conditions were also perfect and I enjoyed the pace of the track,’ said an ecstatic Du Toit.

Potchefstroom Girls High’s Andrea de Waal posted a time of 33:08 to claim the third place for the North West team in the youth u.15 category.

All these first places and top ten  finishes were crucial to North West reclaiming its mountain bike title.

Credit must also go to Frans van der Berg, coach of the Turbo Snails group, under whose mentorship some of the country’s finest young mountain        bikers such as Louw, Van den Berg, Du Toit and the two Van Eeden siblings, Joné and Brendan were produced.

Brandon van der Berg, North West team captain, was delighted to once again lift the coveted trophy and puts their success down to hard work and a tremendous team spirit. ‘We had better top-placed positions than Gauteng, even though we had fewer riders. It was a fantastic achievement from everyone who gave it their all, even though the heat was very dehydrating. We also constantly motivated each other, on and off our bikes, which helped to keep a positive mindset.’

Phots: Elanie Kruger/Storie Kiekies