NSR MTB » Events

Mongoose DH Series Results Round # 3

Francois — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:15:26 +0000

Eden is one of those REALLY FUN courses that flows nicely if you keep it smooth but you don’t over cook it as there is generally a high price to pay. Although very short with a winning time of 1:36 by Jonty Neethling it is full of obstacles one after another and little time in between to refocus…

There were some injuries most notably Vince Muir with a broken elbow and Gerard Walsh with torn ankle ligaments but otherwise a good weekend.

Its interesting to see the new group of young riders coming through with alot of competition in younger age categories. This is being fuelled by the sponsorship programme being offered by Action Cycles for 2011and lots of pit talk about who this is going to get it at the end of the Series.

The results overall are as follows:

1 2 EM JONTY NEETHLING 01.36.47

2 3 EM GARY BARNARD 01.38.47

3 5 EM LUKE DAVIS 01.39.18

4 9 EM STEFAN GARLICKI 01.39.36

5 51 VM CHRIS NIXON 01.40.23

6 4 SV MYLES KELSEY 01.42.39

7 11 JM DANIEL WALSH 01.43.30

8 16 EM N HANSEN 01.43.21

9 7 EM DANE OLSEN 01.43.33

10 14 SV DOMINIC BRIGHT 01.44.11

11 31 JM DURAN VAN EEDEN 01.44.50

12 25 SV PIETER ROSSOUW 01.44.54

13 35 SV THOMAS ROOD 01.46.02

14 8 EM JAMES KENNEDY 01.46.32

15 48 SV CLINT ELLIOTT 01.47.40

16 24 EM JUSTIN NOVELLA 01.48.15

17 42 YM ADI VAN DER MERWE 01.48.27

18 41 YM THEO ERLANGDEN 01.49.11

19 57 SV DAN FORSYTH 01.50.35

20 40 VM JULIEN LOUW 01.50.57

21 62 FM ANDRE VAN ROOYEN 01.51.32

22 10 JM CHRISTO VENTER01.51.37

23 20 VM VINCE MUIR 01.52.06

24 33 YM NICO-BEN KELLERMAN 01.53.18

25 23 SV DUANE SEARLE 01.54.17

26 67 YM ROMAN KUMPERS 01.55.36

27 70 SV BENNET NEL 01.56.11

28 19 EW RIKA OLIVIER 01.57.07

29 30 YM MARIUS BOTHA 01.57.51

30 55 FM NICHOLAS GATES 01.59.05

31 50 FM LOUBSER CLAASSEN 02.00.01

32 27 FM ALEC RUST 02.00.30

33 69 FM ANTOINE VAN HEERDEN 02.01.56

34 38 FM CRAIG SMITH 02.02.33

35 22 SV JP HUMAN 02.03.15

36 34 JB IEUAN UYS 02.04.02

37 75 FM WAYNE MATTHEWS 02.06.15

38 64 YM DYLAN GODFREY 02.07.31

39 49 FM JAMES EATWELL 02.07.34

40 43 VM TERTIUS CARSTENS 02.08.20

41 39 VM NICHOLAS CRITICOS 02.09.00

42 29 YM DANIEL ENGELBRECHT 02.09.11

43 89 FM GERHARD HUMAN 02.10.13

44 36 JB NEILL WALKER 02.11.29

45 68 FM ALEXANDER SEARLE 02.12.34

46 37 FM JAMES NUTTAL 02.13.35

47 46 SV DUANE BOSCH 02.14.36

48 74 FM RICHARD ARGENT 02.16.10

49 78 HT GLENN WILLEMSE 02.19.10

50 45 FM CHRISTO VAN EEDEN 02.19.14

51 65 FM FERDINAND KIDD 02.20.01

52 44 EW ERNA NEL 02.22.43

53 63 FM ALEX MANCINI 02.24.29

54 26 SB FRANCOIS DU TOIT 02.30.16

55 61 HT JULIEN DE MARIGNY 02.32.04

56 52 SB JASPER BARRETT 02.32.53

57 28 SB MATT MUIR 02.35.58

58 88 JM RYAN WILLIAMS 03.11.08

59 47 FM WESSEL FICK 03.22.32

60 71 FM LUKAS STANDER 03.25.43

The last round of the Western Cape Mongoose DH Series is on the 11^th and 12^thSeptember at Taal Monument in Paarl which is going to be loads of fun with a TAR road for shuttling Saturdays practice is going to be a blast. There is also a reduced entry fee for anybody who has taken part in the first three races, bring a friend along to race at the Taal Monument and you both only have pay half price.

Leov Takes 2nd Podium At Crankworx For Trek World Racing, Neethling 5th

Francois — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 08:15:57 +0000

Justin Leov is making some waves in the DH community and this flying kiwi looks set to become a serious contender on the world cup circuit. This is what Trek team management had to say during their last press release…

The final race at the Kokanee Crankworx in Whistler saw Trek World Racing take 2 top fives in the Pro Men’s Canadian Open Downhill yesterday, with Justin Leov (NZL) securing 3rd place on the podium and teammate, Andrew Neethling(RSA), just tenths behind in 5th.

Taking place on the hottest day of the week, conditions on the mountain were tough and saw the course become a serious dust bowl in the on-going dry weather. Already quite technical, the course remained largely unchanged from last year with lots of rocks and roots so the dust made things trickier still, loosening up the track and making it seriously slippery as well as hard for the riders to see.

A nail-bitingly close top 5 saw just 0.63 seconds between 2nd and 5th places, with Gee Atherton (GBR) taking the win posting 3mins 04.14secs, more than 5 seconds clear of 2ndplaced rider, Lewis Buchanan (SCO). Justin finished only 0.04 of a second behind Buchanan, while Andrew finished a slightly frustrating 0.59 seconds off Justins time and the podium spot he’d hoped for. Justin said: “It was good today. The course was pretty blown out and dusty and I was a bit nervous at the start gate that maybe I’d wash out on a couple of turns so I didnt go for anything too flashy. I just focused on riding down the hill to get back on the podium so I’m pretty happy with that.”

Andrew said: “It felt like a really good quali run I reckon, but unfortunately it was a race. I just lacked a bit of pace and we don’t do a quali at this race, and I feel I needed that. I felt good and really calculated but I got 5th and I wanted way more than that. If we had another race run I reckon I’d do better but we didn’t and that’s the format and I got beaten. It’s a good kick for getting focused on another race in two weekends”. Next stop for Andrew and Justin is the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Windham, NY, (USA) where the boys join the full Trek World Racing team for the 6th andfinal rounds of both the Cross Country and Downhill World Cup series taking place on 28/29 August 2010.

Follow the team on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/trekworldracing

For more information on the team visit: www.trekbikes.com/twr

Results:

1. Gee Atherton (GBR) 3m 04.14secs

2. Lewis Buchanan (SCO) 3m 09.16secs

3. Justin Leov (Trek World Racing) 3m 09.20secs

4. Troy Brosnan (AUS) 3m 09.27secs

5. Andrew Neethling (Trek World Racing) 3m 09.79secs

Western Cape Mongoose DH Series # 3

Francois — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:40:59 +0000

The Western Cape riders are still racing furiously in the ‘off-season’ and this coming weekend is no different. The third leg of the WC series will be held on 14 & 15 August in Eden forest…

Race organiser and bike master Chris Nixon passed on the info and details:

The third round is this coming weekend 14 & 15 August in Eden Forest. We will be using the old and I mean very old downhill course which was originally built by Paul Morris.

Just because its old does not mean you must leave your respect for it at home as this course has broken many bones and bikes and this includes me.

It will be interesting to see how the times will compare to previous races although there are some changes due to trees falling across the course. I am expecting things to be very close and small mistakes will be difficult to make up on this unforgiving course.

So hope to see you all there on Saturday and Sunday.

Registration:
Saturday 9:30am to 4pm

Practice:

Saturday 10am to 4pm

Sunday 8am to 9:30am

Racing:

Sunday from 10am

Entry fee R250.

Here are the coordinates:

-33.96891, 18.865167

Call me on 084 7777 802 or send email to chris@chrisnixon.co.za for more onfo.

TREK World Racing update

Francois — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 17:23:35 +0000

Justin Leov Scores First Podium for Trek World Racing At Crankworx. As per TREK World Racing press release…

Just a week after his gnarly crash at the UCI World Cup in Val di Sole (Italy), Trek World Racing’s Justin Leov (NZL) took second place in the Garbanzo Downhill at Crankworx considered the longest traditional downhill race in the world at more than 13 minutes. Taking place in the spectacular Whistler Mountains in Canada a mecca for mountain biking and one of the most awesome venues a downhill rider can hope to find the Garbanzo Downhill race is the equivalent of 3 World Cup Downhill’s run back-to-back, and a huge test of fitness.

Last year Justin set a new course record for the Garbanzo, at 13m 44secs (which was more than 40 seconds quicker than the old record of Gee Atherton’s). This year, in defending his title, Justin broke his 2009 record by an amazing 15 seconds riding the 12km course in 13 minutes 29 seconds. However Chris Kovarik (AUS), who finished 2nd behind Justin last year, completed the course in an impressive 13 minutes 22 seconds and set the new mark. In third place was Justin’s good friend and fellow New Zealander, Sam Blenkinsop.

Considering that only 7 days earlier, Justin was cleared from hospital after suffering concussion, it makes his podium place an even more remarkable achievement and promises good things to come in the following 7 days left of racing.

Teammate Andrew Neethling (RSA) also had a good run finishing 8th, hot on the back of his first World Cup podium in Italy last week. Andrew also looks set to get some great results here this week.

Justin said: “I’m just really happy with how today went considering last week and not being able to race in Italy. I had a pretty solid run, maybe saved a little energy in the top where I could’ve pushed a bit harder but to be honest I’m just happy with how the run went and to get down and be on the podium”.

Andrew and Justin will remain in Whistler for the duration of Crankworx, which runs until Sunday 15th August.

Follow the team on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/trekworldracing

For more information on the team visit: www.trekbikes.com/twr

Results:

1: Chris Kovarik (AUS) 13m 22.99secs

2: Justin Leov (Trek World Racing) 13m 29.85secs

3: Sam Blenkinsop (NZL) 13m 39.35secs

5: Nicolas Vouilloz (FRA) 13m 47.58secs

6: Gee Atherton (GBR) 13m 53.06secs

8: Andrew Neethling (Trek World Racing) 14m 06.94secs

GAS Downhill Club race #1

Francois — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:59:56 +0000

As both the National and Provincials series bid South Africa farewell for 2010, so the Gravity All Stars DH MTB club series kicked off the weekend of 31 Jul. – 1 Aug at fort Klapperkop on the infamous flat track…

A few GAS boys put in some work on the track the week before, getting some much needed maintenance done after the Nationals left it’s mark on the brand new track. By now the track is semi ridden in and combined with a little more experience on the track the times were significantly faster than those set at the Nationals.

The much anticipated electronic timing system made it’s very first debut as well. Earlier prototypes have been spotted at previous events, but not to the extent to which it’s full potential was utilised. As soon as the operators got their heads around the first fully functional version during the somewhat cautious qualifying runs, the entire field’s race runs were smoothly finished in 25 minutes. The accuracy of a beam system at the start and finish ensures 100% accuracy to a thousandth of a second and zero human reaction time delay.

There were a lot of surprises in terms of podium possitions and it is a clear indication that regular and consistant riding pays off and many riders have made significant improvements since the start of the 2010 season.

The results are as follows:

Start Numb Name Class Qualifiers Final

1 7 Brad Illingworth Elites 1:45.161 1:39.669

2 10 David Hogan Juniors 1:50.729 1:45.847

3 34 Laurentius Potgieter SubVet1:47.890 1:46.143

4 4 Cornel Claassen Elites 1:49.934 1:46.642

5 47 Dustin Rudman Elites 1:47.797 1:46.814

6 21 Marius Snyman Elites 2:20.308 1:47.563

7 12 Patrick Alexander Elites 3:06.140 1:48.420

8 24 Martin Dodson Sports 3:01.133 1:48.484

9 1 Vivian Viljoen Juniors 1:52.383 1:50.145

10 5 Anthony Brookes Sports 1:46.564 1:50.433

11 3 JP du Plessis Juniors 2:12.866 1:51.026

12 20 Marnus Swanepoel Elites 1:53.710 1:52.133

13 17 Nolan Couzyn SubVet1:58.483 1:54.630

14 8 Des Ellis SubVet1:59.981 1:54.816

15 27 Louis Van Sandwyk Elites 2:04.661 1:55.238

16 44 Warren Garbutt Sports 3:25.844 1:56.221

17 2 Damion van Tromp SubVet1:59.247 1:58.873

18 23 Tyronne Minnaar Juniors 2:43.084 2:02.258

19 48 Shuan Portman Sports 2:01.119 2:02.602

20 37 Geraldine van Tromp Sports 2:30.088 2:23.661

21 13 Tynan Usswald Juniors 2:35.393 4:01.568

22 33 Marc Price Sports 2:11.945 DNS

Further updates on the event and the track will be posted as soon as the photos and footage is ready.

UCI BMX Worlds Championship finals

Lloyd — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 10:41:49 +0000

South African Mountain Bike National Champs – Fort Klapperkop, Pretoria race report from Matt Smith Racing.

Francois — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:30:44 +0000

Matt Smith is a very well known and respected local DH racer and also an overall good rider of all two wheeled machines. Here is race report of the 2010 SA DH National Championship…

On the Edge

With the Regional and National Points races all wrapped up it was the turn of the one day race to crown the National Champions of South Africa.

For Matt Smith and all the Downhill racers 2010 has been a marathon of endless races all crammed into the first six months of the season and most, including himself were looking forward to the National Champs to end the very tough season on a high before the club season starts.

From the beginning of the year it was reported that the Champs would be at the old downhill venue of Fort Klapperkop in Pretoria. Over the last few seasons the venue has held many National, Regional and club races but before this particular race there was some confusion as to which course would be raced. Always known as a wheel eater of a track the Gauteng riders were hoping for some practice to gain a home town advantage. This was not to be.

The race organizers delivered a brand new track that was completed only the Thursday before the race weekend. This equaled the competition and Matt along with all the Gauteng riders lost any advantage they may have gained from a familiar track.

After walking the track on Friday Matt had this to say.

“I’ve always liked Fort Klapperkop as a race track. It reminds me of the races I did as a Junior when I first started out. I learned how to ride rocks and the harsh powdery dirt that we have in JoBurg and Pretoria on tracks like this. I practiced the National track that ran down the other side of the hill last year and was fast and comfortable on it so was hoping for something challenging like that or even the short flowing regional track we raced earlier this year.

None of this though as they have gone and built a brand new track completely and stretched it out so it can finish at the highway. The top section is a bunch of flat corners with some jumps and berms thrown in for good measure, then a road crossing, a long pedaling straight, a bomb hole, another long straight then a drop into a veldt with blind grass corners leading to the finish. The organizers are hoping for a two minute win time but I think it’ll be a bit shorter than that.

On first inspection it looks like a track that I may not enjoy but should be able to do well on. I’ll been in good shape all year and haven’t really let of the training cos of racing almost every other weekend so my form is good. The only problem I see is that there is no rest on this track so even though it’s short I’ll be pedaling flat almost the whole track.

Through Friday and Saturday practice the track did start to come to life in places but with it being brand new and not run in, it soon deteriorated and started blowing out on the corners and jumps.

There was some debate early in the weekend as to whether the racing would be run on International rules with a qualifier and one race run or as in the National Series and have two runs with the best counting. It turned out to be the later which was a good thing as a course like this could throw up punctures and mechanicals out of nowhere as rocks were being dislodged on every run.

Early Friday morning Matt Smith got a boost for the weekend. He received an email from Cycling South Africa informing him that he had been selected to represent South Africa at the upcoming Masters World Championships to be held in Brazil in September. This decision was based on his consistently high finished and commitment to the National Series.

“It’s so cool to be selected, the last time I made the National team was when I was half a lifetime ago when I was seventeen…a full 16 years ago!! I’m happy about the selection but I’ll try and use the news to build me up for racing this weekend. Nice to know I’m one of the fast guys and can really go for it now”.

Racing

“I’ve felt good the whole way through practice and actually enjoyed the old-school feel of the track with the drifting off camber corner that really suit my style. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had my foot clipped out so much and putting the bike sideways. I think that’s the advantage I have on the other guys in that I can use my experience on this terrain. I tried not to over train through practice as I knew it would make me too tired coming into the racing on Sunday.

My first race run felt good but way to loose and I racked up a whole load of mistakes but still had third fastest in the Sub-Veteran category. Kelsey was leading on a 1;46 with Rumbelow on the same second. I had a messy run with a 1;50 and Dirk Lourens had double flatted so was way off the back and none of the other Sub Vets were coming close.

In the second run I felt like I could pull back five seconds, that was my aim anyway. I absolutely pinned the top section as fast and hard as I could and it all held together so I

was fired up. I crossed the road and laid down some horse power in the long straight into the double. I had a sneaky line around the right hand side of the jump that had been working for me so I stuck with that and still felt fast. Only problem was I pedaled so hard into it I though I’d get kicked when I hit the landing so a braked a little bit for control. Then nice and quick through the bomb hole and down the fence and Super-moto sliding off the drop (one of my funnest sections and moves to pull). Dropped into the veldt section and was flying, knew it was a faster run but about four corners in I was out of juice. Tried to stand up and crank but my legs were gone. I carried speed where I could but could feel myself slowing down towards the finish and definitely lost time over the last ten seconds or so of the track.”

Matt improved his first run time by two and a half seconds to come home on a 1;48;52. This would have been good enough for a third place but Lourens had not punctured this time and punted Matt off the podium and down to fourth.

Results:

1^st Robin Rumbelow 1;44;60

2^nd Myles Kelsey 1;44;90

3^rd Dirk Lourens 1;48;32

4^th Matt Smith 1;48;52

“It’s hard not to be disappointed but I really don’t think I could have gone any faster on this track at the moment. My top section was as fast as any of the top pro-elites but I faded at the bottom and that’s something I need to work on. This result has come at the

end of one of the hardest seasons of my life. I don’t think I’ve ever raced so much and looking back now I was probably burnt out after the last National four weeks ago at Manklele so a top five was quite good considering.

I’ve nailed down number one plates in the Regional points and Champs and taken number four plated in the National Series and Champs so those results are pretty good and a strong base to build on for next season. The plan for next year is to podium every National and aim for a top three number in that and defend the number one plate at Regionals. A big goal for 2011 is to be crowned National Champion so I will fine tune my training towards a win at this event next year. There’s still plenty of racing to come the rest of this year and I’m looking forward to the more chilled out club season and

getting down to Natal for some of the Gravity dices too. I will also get on the Moto-x bikes a bit more and work on my upper body which showed me up a few times on the technical track.

Riding and racing is all about learning so you can get better and at the ripe old age of 33 there’s still a long way to go.”

So far this 2010 season Matt Smith has achieved the following results:

MTN National Points Series 4^th
Gauteng Regional Points Series 1^st
Gauteng Champs 1^st
MTN National Champs 4^th

Matt’s next race will on Sunday the 22nd of August for Round One of the Gauteng Gravity All Stars Club Series (Venue to be announced).

Big Thanks go out to all my Sponsors for giving me the equipment to hold it wide open!

Mongoose Bikes, Match Insurance, Thor MX, Von Zipper, Liqui Moly, Mikes Bikes in Greenside, Frerichs Customs, DC Shoes, Kenda Tyres and tubes, RedBull, Giro Helmets and KTM

MTN SA DH NATIONAL CHAMPS 2010

Francois — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 22:34:34 +0000

The 2010 SA national DH season was an eventful one with a healthy number of riders from all provinces taking part this year. The season drew to a close at Fort Klapperkop, Pretoria on Sunday 18 July…

In a somewhat unspectacular fashion the 2010 DH season came to a satisfactory close at a brand new track at Fort Klapperkop this past weekend after a frantic two week building session. Expectantly the track was not exactly the kind of track one would have wanted to present a championship event on, but thanks to the hard work of our local riders the day was a success. With a total length of 1043m and an altitude drop of 111m the track was deceptively fast and tested rider’s fitness and technical skill.

The results are as follows:

Pos No Class

1 2 EM Johann Potgieter 01.38.11

2 3 EM Hayden Brown 01.38.14

3 1 JM Tim Bentley 01.38.76

4 21 EM Jonty Neethling 01.39.32

5 49 EM Stefan Garlicki 01.41.39

6 5 YM Tiaan Odendaal 01.42.17

7 37 EM Ryno Fourie 01.43.02

8 7 SV Robin Rumbelow 01.43.36

9 69 EM Dirk van Schalkwyk 01.44.32

10 45 SV Myles Kelsey 01.44.71

11 24 EM Bradly Illingworth 01.44.74

12 12 EM Luke Davis 01.44.87

13 6 JM Simon Dinkelman 01.45.83

14 9 JM Alasdair Fey 01.46.24

15 8 EM Kelvin Purchase 01.47.55

16 36 YM Adi Van Der Merwe 01.47.77

17 39 SV Dirk Lourens 01.48.31

18 19 SV Matt Smith 01.48.58

19 11 EM Justin Cope 01.49.17

20 70 EM Dricus Pretorius 01.51.51

21 67 EM Dustin Rudman 01.53.21

22 72 SV Laurentius Potgieter 01.53.27

23 23 YM Kyle Davids 01.53.56

24 99 FM Ryan Peel 01.54.52

25 999 FM Andries Van Wyk 01.54.72

26 20 JB Alan Hatherly 01.55.14

27 22 JM Christo Venter 01.55.18

28 63 JM Vivian Viljoen 01.55.26

29 18 YM Peter Bentley 01.55.26

30 44 JB Jonathan Philogene 01.55.32

31 32 JM David Hogan 01.55.34

32 33 JB Chris Rigby 01.56.76

33 73 FM Anthony Brookes 01.57.05

34 65 EM Patrick Alexander 01.57.26

35 59 EM Doug Du Plessis 01.57.36

36 17 EM Izak Snyman 01.57.51

37 48 EM Mark Malherbe 01.57.83

38 100 EM James Kennedy 01.59.40

39 60 YM Jean-Pierre Du Plessis 01.59.96

40 68 FM Marco Pritchard 02.01.34

41 35 JB Luke Evans 02.01.71

42 62 SV Damion Van Tromp 02.01.83

43 64 VM Desmond Purchase 02.02.74

44 25 VM Norman Hatherly 02.03.33

45 51 SB Christopher Philogene 02.03.48

46 66 FM Warren Garbutt 02.07.93

47 28 EW Carla Freysen 02.08.22

48 54 SV Sean Oflynn Madden 02.09.71

49 71 VM Neil Evans 02.13.24

50 10 SV Devlin Fogg 02.27.20

Thank you to Zoon Cronje for the photos.

Greg Minnaar Racing Mongoose Downhill 2010 Series

Francois — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:50:52 +0000

Results of Event 7 # Howick Fire Tower 04 JULY 2010…

1 Hayden Brown EM 2.30.24

2 Tiaan Odendaal YM 2.33.97

3 Travis Browning EM 2.34.91

4 Simon Dinkelman JM 2.40.22

5 Alasdair Fey JM 2.42.58

6 Kelvin Purchase EM 2.43.97

7 Alan Hatherly SJB 2.44.64

8 Kyle Davids YM 2.53.98

9 Peter Bentley YM 2.58.43

10 Jonathan Philogene SJB 2.59.15

11 Shane Martin YM 3.00.57

12 Norman Hatherly VM 3.04.96

13 Ian Duxbury EM 3.05.87

14 Sam Bull YM 3.05.88

15 Fabien LeMasson EM 3.08.10

16 Chris Rigby SJB 3.09.57

17 Andrew Martin SJB 3.13.23

18 David Drummond SV 3.20.61

19 Christopher Philogene Sprog 3.26.39

20 Desmond Purchase VM 3.27.72

21 Dean Henning SV 3.32.95

22 David Blackman YM 3.34.21

23 Conrad Davies SV 3.34.50

24 David Moores YM 3.37.01

25 Tayla Brown JW 3.49.68

26 Craig Richards EM 3.55.93

27 Alex Bramley EM

And here is some race footage shot by Esmaralda Villalobos.

DH Avelanche at Mankele

Francois — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:35:27 +0000

Once a year Mankele bike park, just outside of Nelspruit, MP hosts one of the premier DH / all-mountain races in South Africa. Three days of adrenaline pumping fun and no climbs…

This is what the organisers had to say about the upcoming event:

” Hi all,

One week until a weekend of Mountain biking heaven!

The perfect winter race, NO CLIMBS, it makes you feel better about your non training/late sleeping hot chocolate over dosing mornings. The course looks awesome. Geoff, I and an undercover secret training downhiller went for a test ride on Wednesday. I was blown away, the new sections are super awesome. Believe it or not but we managed to add in more single track. D/hillers vs X-country. Fritz, Bryce, Ben Melt will be representing the XC boys so the D/H guys have got something to prove.

Stage One: Starts on a flat out peddling single track section that runs on the contour of the mountain leading you to the famous “Neil’s Diamond” bush tunnel drop in. If you have not dropped one in your pants after the drop, be sure to ride the half pipe style bush tunnel and remember to do it styling. Oh yes we have put in a chicken run. Once you pop out of the bush tunnel and regained feeling in your heart area be prepared for the best flowing single track which leads you to rock garden and slippery snake. This is one of my favorite sections at Mankele. 6,4km stage WICKED!

Stage Two: 3 2 1 and you will be doing close to 60km’s per hour within seconds! Down the old Sabie road into tight single track. This leads you to Snakes & Ladders (winter means: no snakes!!) drop into the bush tunnel and flat out, down Burry Standers favorite XC section. We have added a new section after the bush tunnel, it is fast and super cool. Geoff noticed that his front brake does work and the rocks are harder than his helmet. 4,6km stage WICKED!!

Stage Three: Now this stage is so cool it’s been ruled illegal. No one can have so much fun legally!! This is one mother of a stage. Fast flowing single track, with a view of note. It cuts into the new downhill top section. 2m high wooden berm, 27m boardwalk and some awesome tight tricky corners will take you all the back to Mankele. 4.3km stage WICKED!!!

Get your entry in ASAP www.mankele.co.za

R500 (Includes: Race, shuttle, tented accommodation and Saturday night supper, best fricken chicken you will ever eat).

Friday night: Race Briefing

Sat morning: Stage 1: 2 runs best time counts.

Sat Afternoon: Stage 2: 2 runs best time counts.

Sat Evening: Chicken time and prize giving. War stories around the fire.

Sunday morning: Stage 3: 2 runs best time counts

Prize giving, you cry because you must go home!! “