Locals master the mud

LOCAL mountain bikers Gideon Bruckner and Dirk Barnard slid their way into eighth and seventh place in their respective categories at the SA Marathon Championships Masters (30 plus) held in Pietermaritzburg last week.

Bruckner competed in the 40-45 year age category with Barnard competing in the SA Masters group.

Riders were challenged by the 60km route which had 1800m of climbing worked in, as rain made the terrain slippery and muddy.

To make matters worse, the temperature dropped below 10 degrees.

Course designer Nic Floris made sure that riders had to toil along the whole route, with no time to slack off and freewheel.