The explosive growth of mountain biking as a school sport was once again highlighted last weekend when more than 600 riders took to the track for the Gauteng finals of the Spur Schools Mountain Bike League presented by Anatomic.

Hoërskool Menlopark once again showed their supremacy staying undefeated at the top of the log securing eight podium positions and three series winners on a challenging and technical track.   They are also the defending national Spur Schools Mountain Bike League mixed and girls team champions. 

Midstream College finished overall second and Hoërskool Zwartkops secured third place following a record season with more than 2500 riders representing 86 schools battling it out for a place in the upcoming national championships.

Gauteng junior series winners Martien Venter and Saffron Vosloo, both from Hoërskool Menlopark, were also appointed team captains leading the defending national champions, Gauteng, in the inter-provincial finals in October.  

According to Gauteng league co-ordinator, Deon Steyn the year-on-year growth in the league has been amazing.  Since becoming part of the national Spur School Mountain Bike League in 2009, the numbers has shot up from 225 to 609 participants last year.  Steyn, who is one of only seven UCI International Moutain Bike Commissaires in South Africa, is invested in establishing the sport of mountain bike riding as an official school sport. He developed a special school commissaires’ training course, which he presented in Gauteng recently as part of his effort to formalise the sport. 

“The Anatomic High School MTB Series has become the biggest XCO series in South Africa, drawing more participants than provincial and even national races.  Up until last year the Gauteng Series was open to everybody and we had riders from Limpopo, Free State, NW and Mpumalanga participating in the Gauteng events.  The growth of the league necessitated that we split the regions to avoid racing fields becoming too big for the cross-country lap racing format (also the Olympic format) of the league,” said Steyn.

The league will culminate with the Spur Schools Mountain Bike League National Finals in October, when MTB fans from across Sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa and neighbours Zimbabwe and Namibia will congregate at Bekker School in Magaliesburg to compete as schools as well as provinces for the coveted Spur Schools MTB League trophy and top spot on the provincial log.