Needles bags 2011 SA Champs title
Andrew Neethling was on top form again this past weekend at the SA mountainbike DH Champs held at Contermanskloof in the Western Cape, sticking yet another feather in his winnings hat…A hot and pleasant Cape Town greeted riders from all over the country this past weekend at the Contermanskloof DH track just outside Durbanville for the 2011 South African National DH Championships. Contermanskloof is an area just outside of Durbanville well known for it’s wine and open cast mining activities and now has become a name to remember amongst DH enthusiasts from around the country. Nestled in the Durbanville hills this new venue and home of The Bike Shed played host to the 2011 SA National DH Championships on 5 & 6 March. Arriving at the venue shortly before the close of Friday practice after a 17 hour drive, the hot, dry and dusty countryside welcomes you with the sight of a steep and winding track running down a valley between two hillside slopes. The thought of a fresh and testing track makes the long haul from Joburg worth the time behind the wheel as one could see the dust trails of riders from the bottom.
Saturday morning 7am and the mercury is already touching the 27 degree mark, a sign that this is going to be a testing day for all. Heading up the shuttle road one can’t help but feel somewhat nervous as the finish line gets smaller and smaller and one automatically begins to imagine how steep the top section must be. The soft powdery soil soon became rutted and provide clear and distinctive lines to follow as you negotiate your way through the sequence of tight u-turns. But miss the lines and ruts and you find yourself tangled in the not so fine fynbos. The twisty-turny top section leads you into a 2.5 metre roadgap bridge and shoots you into the rock garden in the middle of the valley with a series of positive and negative gee climbs and dips as you criss-cross between the two opposing hillsides.
Sunday morning’s qualifying runs came with some surprises and saw some of the elites posting less impressive seeding runs and finding themselves smack bang in the middle or at the bottom of the starting line up. Johann Potgieter – a crowd favourite for the title – found himself in the middle of the field and had to set the bar early on. Occupying the hotseat after a blistering run the regular elite field all came across the line but no one unseated Pottie untill Andrew Neethling’s run came up. The recently crowned African Continental champion once again showed why he is set to be the next big South African downhill campaigner on the international scene with a very comfortable win at the end of the day.
The course left very little margin for error in terms of testing the riders on a technical level but also put your pedalling skills to the test towards the bottom as you would easily loose valuable seconds if your ability to churn over the cranks were not up to standard. But a very successful race and extremely enjoyable and testing track was the general consensus amongst the riders and congratulations to all the competitors who gave it their all. The ladies, junior, vets and subvets categories were also hotly contested with riders having to work hard for a podium spot.
The final results are as follows:
1 EM Andrew Neethling 02.14.92
2 EM Johann Potgieter 02.17.93
3 EM Stefan Garlicki 02.18.18
4 EM Jonty Neethling 02.19.64
5 EM Darryn Stow 02.25.39
6 EM Travis Browning 02.26.06
7 EM Adriaan Smit 02.26.46
8 EM Tim Bentley 02.28.39
9 EM Luke Davis 02.29.12
10 EM Dane Olsen 02.29.52
11 EM Duran Van Eeden 02.31.34
12 JM Tiaan Odendaal 02.31.49
13 JM Adi Van der Merwe 02.32.21
14 EM Bradley Illingworth 02.32.76
15 FM Robert Starke 02.34.59
16 EM Simon Dinkelman 02.34.77
17 EM Myles Kelsey 02.34.96
18 JM Samuel Bull 02.35.17
19 EM Kelvin Purchase 02.35.46
20 JM Kyle Davids 02.36.09
21 SV Mark Hopkins 02.36.89
22 FM Adriano Silver 02.36.92
23 EM Chris Nixon 02.37.18
24 YM Alan Hatherly 02.37.84
25 EM Alexander Bramley 02.38.02
26 EM Andrew Guess 02.38.48
27 SV Dominic Bright 02.38.68
28 EM David Hogan 02.38.68
29 SV Jaco Veldsman 02.38.80
30 EM Gearard Walsh 02.39.30
31 EM Hayden Brown 02.39.48
32 YM Theo Erlangsen 02.39.72
33 SV Alex Davies 02.40.09
34 EM Devon Katzen 02.40.38
35 EM Brad Purchase 02.42.08
36 JM Steve Jackson 02.42.86
37 VM Julien Louw 02.44.18
38 JM Alasdair Fey 02.45.31
39 JM Roman Kumpers 02.47.15
40 EM Gustav Kros 02.47.27
41 EM Mark Malherbe 02.47.62
42 EM Tyrone Van Rooyen 02.47.72
43 EW Anka Martin 02.48.12
44 EM James Kennedy 02.48.18
45 VM Paul Van der Riet 02.48.28
46 YM Kyle Fletcher 02.48.89
47 SV David Hartley 02.49.49
48 SV Andrew Little 02.50.44
49 VM Craig Mclosh 02.50.51
50 EM Andre Pretorius 02.50.58
51 FM Greg Mc Bride 02.50.84
52 EM Daniel Walsh 02.51.06
53 EW Rika Olivier 02.51.59
54 EM Marnus Swanepoel 02.51.89
55 EM Jason Gorman 02.52.06
56 JM Adrian Schwellnus 02.52.58
57 VM James Morland 02.53.90
58 EM Dustin Rudman 02.54.52
59 EM David Dinkelman 02.58.68
60 VM Norman Hatherly 02.59.96
61 FM Hanco Binneman 03.00.70
62 FM Julian Burke 03.02.64
63 FM Gustav Brandt 03.04.19
64 JB Christopher Philogene 03.05.18
65 FM Shaun Havenga 03.06.52
66 YM Dylan Godfrey 03.06.72
67 FM Alex Mancini 03.06.83
68 YM Julien De Marigny 03.07.11
69 JM Luke Bollman 03.09.98
70 JB Branen Mc Bean 03.10.22
71 SV Hennie Blignaut 03.10.48
72 EW Gina Nixon 03.13.08
73 SV Pieter Henning 03.15.27
74 JM Angus Thompson 03.16.98
75 JB Yulbremmer Keffers 03.18.36
76 EM Richard Argent 03.18.72
77 FM Loubser Claassen 03.18.81
78 JM Mitchell Davies 03.18.93
79 FM David Van Zyl 03.19.15
80 YM Luke Evans 03.20.18
81 VM Neil Evans 03.22.88
82 JM Marius Botha 03.24.12
83 YM Luke Le Roux 03.29.74
84 JB Sebastian Petersen 03.34.39
85 JB Behan Boshoff 03.41.62
86 SB Jasper Barrett 03.48.42
87 FM Christo Van Eeden 03.52.08
88 SV Francois Swanepoel 03.52.84
89 JB Jacques Prins 03.54.26
90 SB Francois Du Toit 03.54.59
91 YM Daniel Saunders 03.58.06
92 SB Matthew Muir 04.42.24
93 YM Thomas Sandell 04.42.39
94 EW Carla Freysen 04.44.96
95 YM Gen Worsdale 06.20.22
96 SV Conrad Davies 10.55.43
A big thank you goes out to Chris Nixon and the rest of the team who put up a great event. Also to Eric Palmer for the great pictures.
Tags: Andrew Neethling, Contermanskloof, DH SA Champs, SA Champs 2011
