The event, which doubled as the Masters Marathon Mountain Bike World Championships, saw Andrew McLean (50-54 years) and Greg Anderson (55-59 years) claim gold medals; Bruce Diesel (45-49 years) and Paul Furbank (55-59 years) secured silver medals; and David Cooke (35-39) a bronze medal in their respective age categories over a tough 70km course.
McLean’s winning time of 03 hours 54 minutes and 52 seconds was the third fastest time overall on the day. He was one of only three riders to break four hours on the course, which included over 2,000 metres of vertical ascent and which was made more challenging by rain the day before.
“I had a really good ride today. I think knowing the course after riding it at the national champs recently helped in terms of pacing myself, but the conditions were quite different, with mud and damp trails almost throughout the race. I just had to be a bit more cautious at times,” said McLean.
South African women’s marathon champion, Robyn de Groot, neatly bookended the weekend’s success for Cycle Lab Supercycling when she finished sixth overall and first South African in the Elite women’s UCI World Championships race on Sunday.
De Groot’s time of 04:12:36 placed her less than a minute outside the top five, an impressive effort at her first marathon world championships.
“Unlike at the national championships, where I virtually died in the last 15km, I was actually strong at the end today and really made good ground. I’m getting conditioned to these tough courses it seems,” said De Groot.
