While a local cyclist from Pretoria won the South African road cycling championship this past weekend, several other riders with a connection to the Tuks cycling club also delivered good results during official races. Pretoria’s Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg is the South African road cycling champion after winning the 169km race on Sunday at Graskop. Willie Smit was the second rider to race across the finish line. Andries Nigrini, a current Tuks student, finished 12th and was the seventh-fastest in the 30km individual time trial. The 33-year-old Janse van Rensburg graduated in 2010 from Tuks with a degree in sports science. He is a former Tour de France rider (2015-2019) and was also three times selected to ride the Vuelta Espana.

Smit is a former law student at Tuks. In 2013, he won the USSA Cycling Championships in the “Striped jersey”. Smit won four of the five stages. He became a professional cyclist in Europe and has competed in most major tours at least once. The 20-year-old Anneke van der Walt, a first-year Tuks student, impressed by finishing fourth in the women’s under-23 time trial (20km). She was 10th in the road race. What is impressive about Van der Walt’s results is that she is more known for her mountain biking skills. As a junior rider, she has various marathon races. The past weekend is the first time she has competed in road cycling. Riders from TuksCycling also made their presence felt during the weekend’s Montecasino Classico (90km). Sascha Kreft finished second in the men’s under-23 race while his brother, Mikha, was 6th in the elite race. Malin Sanne was another top ten finishers. He was the ninth rider to sprint across the line. The Kreft brothers are also newcomers to road cycling.  

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