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SAMSUNG BUSINESS MTB CHALLENGE VAN GAALEN . GAUTENG SUN 30.10.2011 |
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Mountain Bike RACE CHANNEL | ||||||||||||
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Overall winners, Team Shumbala Racing - Powerade Cargo: Justice Makhale, Malcolm Barske, Drew Murphy & Dion Froneman, just after crossing the finish line in a time of 1:45:22.
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The 5 star buffet lunch at Van Gaalen's Cheese farm after the race. Lunch & drinks were included in the entry fee. |
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RACE REPORT
written by Amy McDougall - Team Crank Brothers
With the fourth and final race in the Samsung Business Challenge done and dusted, the series has come to an end. At the beginning of the year Rob Jackson and his team from Leverage Corporation promised that 2011 would be a blast, and, true to their reputation it was!!
The race was held at the wildly popular mountain biking venue, Van Gaalen’s Cheese Farm. Mother Nature did her bit for the riders with a huge storm the night before, blowing 3 trees over and leaving the course nice and muddy. Sounds fun!! Right?
Team Shumbala Racing consisting of Justice Makhale, Malcolm Barske, Drew Murphy & Dion Froneman won the men’s race. Justice Makhale writes: “We had a breakaway on the first climb; Dion was riding in the front with three guys. As I saw Dion riding strong in the front bunch, I pulled my team with me to the front. I said to Dion ‘let’s help the other two’ as they were struggling to finish strong, we pushed them all the way to the 1st place.”
Winning the mixed team race by a decent 9 minutes was the Educos Cycle Bees. Team member Bernelee Swart comments: “About 30min into the race we had our 1st place in mixed teams category and just had to keep up the teamwork. The perfect combination of single track, open roads and interesting obstacles, promised for a challenging yet enjoyable adventurous experience.”
As you can see this challenge is all about team work, well done guys!!
For those non racing snakes just wanting to have a good team building time, an extra “surprise waterpoint” was added 10km to the finish with free beer for everyone to enjoy and “kuier” before the end!
After the race the bikes were treated to a much needed bike wash and every rider (after a good shower) was treated to a fantastic 5 star buffet lunch, massages compliments of Mangwanani Spa and live entertainment from Mean Mr Mustard.
Loads of fun and team building was had by everyone as the series came to its conclusion; but don’t worry everyone there is always next year!!
Later!
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Just after the start & first turn left.
The surprise waterpoint with beer, 10km from the finish, managed by Slade, Sascha, Denise & Dwade with their 'can can' dance routine. Makes you wonder if the guys stopped to look at the beautiful legs or for the cold beer . . . |
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| Awaiting the start of the race. |
Riding through farm land. |
The 1st waterpoint, sponsored by Nashua Mobile, was popular and also a good place to wait for team members. |
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Washing the bikes is a dirty job, according to Natasha de Abreu & Amber Langley. |
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| Click here to view full race results |
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| Mens Teams | time | ||||||||||||
| 1st | Team Shumbala Racing - Powerade Cargo |
1:45:22 | |||||||||||
| Dion Froneman, Malcolm Barske, Drew Murphy, Justice Makhale |
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| 2nd | Team Trinity Cycles |
1:49:12 | |||||||||||
| Charl van Zyl, Tiaan van der Merwe, Raymond Oosterlaak, Stephan Corthing |
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| 3rd | Team Kievits Kroon 1 |
1:55:35 | |||||||||||
| Johan Scheepers, Jaco Scheepers, Petri Strydom, Adolph Krige |
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| Mixed Teams | |||||||||||||
| 1st | Team Educos Cycle Bees |
2:09:06 | |||||||||||
| Joshua Liebenberg, Joshua O'Connell-Maritz, Nicholas Deetlefs, Bernelee Swart |
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| 2nd | Team Treadmag | 2:17:19 | |||||||||||
| Sean Badenhorst, Dino Lloyd, Bonnie, Peter Assenmacher |
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| 3rd | Team Europcar | 2:17:29 | |||||||||||
| George Corbett, Brent Kinnear, Craig Kirton, Claudia Slatttery |
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| Ladies Teams | |||||||||||||
| 1st | Team Leverage Gals | 2:16:17 | |||||||||||
| Joke Hoffman, Lee Ziervogel, Suzie Assenmacher, Bonnie Swanepoel |
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Winning the Mixed Team Category - Team Educos Cycle Bees: Bernelee Swart, Nicholas Deetlefs, Joshua O'Connel-Maritz & Joshua Liebenberg, just before the start of the race.
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Race organiser Rob Jackson from The Leverage Corporation with regular helicopter pilot Nicole Jenkinson. The chopper is used for the aerial shots by the video camera crew. |
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| Team Supersport on a muddy section. |
The Samsung Business Challenge is a popular family outing with many children joining their parents.
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Small obstacles to cross the fences. |
The sign, 100m into the race! |
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Samsung Business waterpoint, the 2nd one in the race at 19km. |
Greg Kockett & Desmond Els, at the last waterpoint (Biogen) . . only 5km to go! |
Winning Ladies Team at prizegiving: Team Leverage Gals.
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Team Trinity Cycles (2nd overall) with their new kit sponsored by Office National: Tiaan van der Merwe, Charl van Zyl, Stephan Corthing & Raymond Oosterlaak.
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Pamina Bohrer & Linda Wagenaar (FNB Team 2), waiting for their team members at the Nashua mobile waterpoint. |
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A big thank you to land owner Henning Pretorius, most of the route traversed across his farms. |
Quintin Lamprecht (right), picking up some free drinks from the friendly barman. |
Well known band, Mean Mr Mustard, entertained the crowd. |
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Pure focus by Team Symantec!
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Keagan Turnbull (18 months) having huge fun while complying to the "no helmet no ride" rule!
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Dion Froneman (Shumbala Racing), leading the race after 10km.
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