Philip Buys wins Trailseeker in the Waterberg
Local cyclists performed exceptionally well in this weekend's Nissan Trailseeker Lionman mountain bike event.
Pretoria’s Philip Buys was crowned winner in the marathon race at the Nissan Trailseeker Lionman mountain bike event the past weekend.
The women’s race was won by Samantha Saunders from Nelspruit.
The third round of the 2017 Gauteng Nissan Trailseeker Series attracted close to 2500 participants, who enjoyed the warm conditions and challenging bush trails of the Mabalingwe Nature Reserve in the Waterberg, north of Pretoria.
Buys from the Pyga Eurosteel team was challenged for most of the race by South African marathon champion, Nico Bell (Team NAD Pro) and Declan Sidey (Bells Cycling).
But Buys’s superior technical ability gave him the edge on the Vodacom mast climb and descent, which saw him claim victory in a time of 02 hours 41 minutes 26 seconds. Bell was second and Sidey third.
“There were quite a few technical sections that suited me and I knew exactly where to push the advantage,” said Buys.
In the women’s race, defending champion, Amy Beth McDougall (Valencia) was forced to withdraw with a mechanical, leaving Valencia teammate, Sanders relatively unchallenged to secure the win in a fast time of 3:04:54. Theresa Ralph (Galileo Risk) was second and Christie-Leigh Hearder third.
In the half-marathon, Hennie van Wyk from Vanderbijlpark was the fastest male and another cyclist from Pretoria, Tanya Kotze, was the first female to finish the race.
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