SLC cyclists: 4th place in mountain bike challenge
The girls mountain bike team (MTB) of Stanford Lake College was pipped to the podium with a point by York High School from the Southern Cape and finished fourth overall in the country with 48 points during the Spur Schools Mountain Bike League Championship held last week at Bekker School in Magaliesburg.
POLOKWANE – The girls mountain bike team (MTB) of Stanford Lake College was pipped to the podium with a point by York High School from the Southern Cape and finished fourth overall in the country with 48 points during the Spur Schools Mountain Bike League Championship held last week at Bekker School in Magaliesburg.
A field of 400 mountain bike riders representing 40 schools from across South Africa as well as teams from Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia competed for the coveted League Championship trophy.
Menlopark High School won the boys trophy after pocketing 116 points while the girls team took the trophy home by accumulating 75 points. Menlopark’s mixed team also went home with a trophy. Paul Roos Gimnasium and Midstream College finished second and third after claiming 101 and 76 points, respectively.
Newcomers to the league finals, Afrikaans Hoër Meisieskool and York High School, delivered surprisingly good performances to finish second and third with 56 points and 49 points, respectively.Stanford Lake College took the fourth spot with 48 points. The top five performances in the mixed team category saw Menlopark scoring an impressive 124 points for a comfortable win with Potchefstroom Gimnasium second with 100 points and Midstream College filling the last podium position by finishing third with 86 points. The day was marked by top class riding in hot conditions on a technical 4,5 km track with a 60 m climb. Stanford Lake College wrapped up an exhilarating 2015 mountain bike season and was crowned Limpopo regional champions of the Spur Schools Mountain Bike League with Louis Trichardt High School second and Merensky High School third. A team of 12 riders from Stanford Lake as well as the top six riders from Louis Trichardt and Merensky were joined by the season’s category winners to represent Limpopo at the Spur Schools MTB League Finals at Bekker School in Magaliesburg. The schools bike league is a joint initiative between Spur Steak Ranches and the trail advocacy group Amarider, and recorded stratospheric growth during the 2015 season with more than 400 schools and 10 000 cyclists competing nationwide.
According to league organiser, Meurant Botha, it was encouraging to see the increasing number of schools that have adopted mountain biking as an official school sport. “Schools are taking mountain bike riding to the next level through coaching clinics and high performance training camps, while constantly introducing new riders to the sport. On grass roots level various rider development programmes have been implemented around the country,” said Botha.
Botha added that none of this would have been possible without the vision and commitment of the Spur Group who have sponsored and invested over R7 million into the league and the development of mountain biking as a school sport since 2009.
Limpopo was represented by learners from:
• Merensky High School – Tzaneen.
• Hoërskool Frans Du Toit – Phalaborwa.
• Hoërskool Pietersburg (PHS) – Polokwane.
• Waterberg Academy – Vaalwater.
• Hoërskool Piet Potgieter – Mokopane.
• Ridgeway College – Louis Trichardt.
• Stanford Lake College – Haenertsburg.
• Hoërskool Louis Trichardt – Louis Trichardt.
endy@nmgroup.co.za
