MTN National series 2 and Wartberg Illovo Classic

Last weekend saw round two of the National MTN Series which was held in the beautiful town of Sabie. With its huge climbs, forests and amazing views it is always a mountain biker’s favorite! However this year the heavens opened leaving little view and heaps of mud to contest with.

A very dirty Gert

This being a UCI points event as well as a World Marathon champs qualifier the stakes were high and it attracted some international competition just in case the regular pro riders weren’t competition enough! From the gun Team Bulls as well as a resurgent Kevin Evans set a high pace and strung out the field in the very difficult conditions. Gert Heyns coming off a couple fantastic results the last two weeks was there for us and in the thick of things. He alternated between 4^th and 8^th place as riders were caught and dropped until he finally finished up in an incredible 5^th place overall and 3^rd South African!

Good looking podium!

This result combined with his result from Dulstroom gives the 20year old on his Dogma xc hardtail the overall series lead in the ultra marathon at this stage of the season!! This now adds to first round wins and leaders jerseys in the elite men’s National MTN marathon and junior women’s categories for our race team! Added to that a healthy lead in the USN series and Gauteng and KZN provincial series, a couple African champ medals and SA TT masters title amongst almost 40 other podiums and one could say the fluo gang is off to a good start!

Danielle and Christine for junior ladies podium

Then in KZN our young gun Alan Hatherly has been continuing on his winning streak with the junior and overall win in the 45km event at the Wartberg Illovo Classic. Alan has slowly been improving and working on his endurance and speed as he builds towards the SA XCO Cup series as well as the UCI World Cup series! His times and results have been equal to that of the best u23 and elite riders so far this season so we can still expect some big things from him when the season gets serious!

There is still a lot to do and achieve this season with our riders setting very high personal goals so a big thank you to all of you for the support, sponsorships and help getting us this far!

Next weekend is the Gauteng provincial then the taper to the first SA XCO Cup and round 3 of the MTN National series in Tulbach. Until then, happy trails!

Paul and Yolande