Shaun-Nick Bester gets mountain biking breakthrough with victory in big race
After a successful career as a road cyclist, Pretoria’s Shaun-Nick Bester is now also establishing himself as a top mountain bike rider.
Overnight leaders Andrew Hill and Shaun-Nick Bester put the hammer down from the start to surge to stage and overall victory on the final day of the PwC Great Zuurberg Trek mountain-bike race at Addo on Sunday.
Bester is the son of former Comrades marathon winner and Iron Man star, Nick Bester.
The TIB-Silverback-Best4Sport team won their second stage of the three-day event at the Zuurberg Mountain Village just outside Port Elizabeth to take the title in 8:53:46.
The women’s race was won by Ariane Luthi and Robyn de Groot, who dominated the event from start to finish to relegate the experienced Theresa Ralph and Sarah Hill into a distant second.
The outcome represented a remarkable comeback by Hill and Bester after a serious mechanical on Saturday saw them lose all but two seconds of their nine-minute advantage.
“It really was something of a miracle because we were able to secure the bolt we needed to fix Andrew’s problem from another rider who had also suffered a mechanical,” said Bester, who turned to mountain biking this season after a stint on the road in Europe.
Bester said after the delay they never thought they would keep the lead but they just went as hard as they could from then on.
“Saturday’s problem meant we were still stressing quite a bit for today’s stage and hoping that we would not have any further problems. From the start, we decided just to ride as hard as possible to try to build up a lead in case anything went wrong,” said a relieved and satisfied Bester after the race.
The talented young cyclist from Akasia in Pretoria said he had enjoyed his debut at the PwC Great Zuurberg Trek.
“The routes were great, with some excellent single-track sections and today the Hayterdale trails were really cool. You can see the race organisers have put a lot of hard work into the event and I would recommend this to anyone out there,” Bester concluded.
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