PhotoPage - Nissan Trailseeker # 1 Hazeldean on Sat 25 Jun 2011

NISSAN TRAILSEEKER # 1

HAZELDEAN . GAUTENG

SAT 25.06.2011

Mountain Bike RACE CHANNEL

Adrien Niyonshuti (3rd), Max Knox (1st) and Waylan Woolcock (2nd).

Jaco du Preez, Jacques vd Merwe, Brendan Oberholzer & Quinton

van Wyngaardt in the parking area before the race.

Race Report written by Amy McDougall - Team Complete Cyclist

First of all, big ups to everyone who managed to drag themselves out of bed on Saturday morning. I’m sure only pure will power and the riders’ die-hard passion for mountain biking could bring the 2000 mountain bikers together at Tyger Valley College, with the temperature somewhere in the minuses I’m sure!

The race: There was a definite edge to the crispness in the air, as some of South Africa’s top mountain bikers gathered at the start line, waiting anxiously for the start gun to give it their all, with provincial points up for grabs. Being a relatively flat race I expected the pace to be fast, from start to finish!

It was a lot tougher than I anticipated, the main factor being the weather. It was freezing cold and extremely windy, which slowed us down and made some open sections almost unbearable.

The route saw us flying through beautiful farmlands, onto some grassy single track, through some nice technical forest sections and onto more district roads and jeep track. There were a few short, steep climbs to keep the blood flowing, but nothing too long or hectic. The last +- 25km was the best, filled with great undulating single track with sharp turns, a few drop-offs, river crossings and mean rocky sections, that the technically skilled would lap up and use to gain time on their less skilled counterparts. We ended up on some more district road, up a steep rocky climb and then to the finish.

Max Knox – team GHOST - DO IT NOW, won the men’s race in a time of 2:31:40, followed by Waylon Woolcock and Adrien Niyonshuty in a sprint finish for 2nd and 3rd position respectively, their times only 1 minute apart, 2,5 minutes behind Max Knox.

The lady’s race was won by MTN Qhubeka’s Ezsther Erdeyli in a time of 2:56:17. Carla Rowley was about 7 minutes behind her in second, and taking 3rd was Yolandi Du Toit, 2 minutes behind Carla.

The vibe afterwards was awesome as usual, comparing our wild and wonderful race stories with delicious Prego rolls, nice hot coffee, music, a bicycle store and jumping castle for the kiddies.

See you at Teak Place on the 23rd July for round 2!

Natali Zarrabi and Dieter Schutte proudly displaying

their medals at the finish.



Gerrit & Kathleen Faling and Elouise & Craig Metherell.	Jacques Janse van Rensburg leading the race after crossing the N4 at the Boschkop / Donkerhoek exit.	Raymond Oosterlaak, Joel Hieber, Stefan Colmanet and Craig Andrews just before the start of the 40km.