Victory on a mountain top for Beukes and Lill MyZA

Victory on a mountain top for Beukes and Lill:

The Ashburton Investments National MTB Series took over the quaint town of Kaapsehoop last weekend. Situated 1586m above sea level on the Highveld escarpment, this mountain village made for an epic season finale. For the first time in the popular mountain bike series, riders cross the finish line on a mountain top.

The first stage of the event had all eyes on Team Pyga Euro Steel’s Philip Buys and Matthys Beukes who entered into an epic battle for the series title. A lot was at stake for the mountain biking heroes, who took their place at the Kaapsehoop start line with less than a 200 point different on the series standings.

It was Beukes who came out on top on the first and second stage of the event. He did not fail to live up to his climbing abilities and maximised his strengths on the 1600m elevation gain each day:

“It was a challenging route, with a nice big climb at the end. I felt like I was riding in Europe somewhere! I want to do a lot more races like this,” said Beukes.

He admitted that his victory did not come easy: “I had to push extremely hard in those final 2km, and just managed to come out on top!”

Buys, who finished in a close second place, showed nothing but pride for his teammate: “All I can say is well done to Matthys! He had a rough season last year, and he made sure to make up for everything he missed out on.”

Reflecting on the season, he added, “So happy with the way it has all ended. This series is important to us – it has the most diversity, prize money and represents our sponsors really well. It’s also the ideal opportunity for youngsters to start smashing us elite riders, It’s been awesome to see guys like Wessel Botha come out here and actually challenge us.”

With marathon champion Nico Bell and his Team NAD Pro teammate, Gawie Combrinck out of the mix, it was HB Kruger and Waylon Woolcock who presented the next greatest threat. The BXC riders finished third and fourth respectively.

With the in-form Robyn de Groot and San Sanders absent from the event, Candice Lill (Dormakaba) completely dominated the women’s category.

“The conditions were tough on the first day especially. I had planned to break away and ride my own race each day, and I managed to execute that. Awesome to end the season this way,” said Lill.

Trailing behind her was Yolandi du Toit, who conquered the strenuous route in a true ‘never say die’ attitude to finish in second, and Vanessa Bell, who finished in third.

Du Toit described the final stage to be extremely tough. “Stage two was more challenging for me than the first day. Despite having better conditions, we climbed 1600m in 54km!” she said.

Kaapsehoop was a race of unparalleled beauty that boasted exquisite singletrack trails through the De Kaap Valley.

Sections of the race took riders through the Blue Swallow Reserve, a countryside that is characterised by rolling hills and Blue Swallows that the area is renowned for.

Beukes made sure to boast about the beauty of the trail: “The trails here are just incredible. Even with all the pressure, I found myself often looking out and taking it all in,” he said.

For the full list of results visit https://www.saseeding.org/

Stage 1 Results

Full Marathon – men

1 Matthys Beukes (Team Pyga Euro Steel) 2:41:13

2 Philip Buys (Team Pyga Euro Steel) 2:43:27

3 HB Kruger (Team BCX) 2:51:40

4 Waylon Woolcock (Team BCX) 2:52:55

5 Shaun Nick-Bester 2:53:43

Full Marathon – women

1 Candice Lill (Dormakaba) 3:13:01

2 Yolandi du Toit (Garmin) 3:23:54

3 Dalene van der Leek 3:51:23

4 Vanessa Bell 3:54:23

5 Janice Venter 3:58:55

Stage 2 Results

Full Marathon – men

1 Matthys Beukes (Team Pyga Euro Steel) 2:16:16

2 Philip Buys (Team Pyga Euro Steel) 2:17:15

3 HB Kruger (Team BCX) 2:17:35

4 Wessel Botha (Lynnwood Cyclery) 2:19:54

5 Declan Sidey (Specialized Bicycles) 2:20:06

Full Marathon – women

1 Candice Lill (Dormakaba) 2:44:45

2 Yolandi du Toit (Garmin) 2:50:01

3 Vanessa Bell (Bell’s Cycling) 2:58:00

4 Dalene van der Leek 3:09:14

5 Melanie Roux 3:09:15

Overall results

Full marathon – Men

1 Matthys Beukes (Team Pyga Euro Steel) 4:57:29

2 Philip Buys (Team Pyga Euro Steel) 5:00:42

3 HB Kruger (Team BCX) 5:09:15

4 Waylon Woolcock (Team BCX) 5:14:11

5 Shaun-Nick Bester 5:15:06

Full Marathon – Women

1 Candice Lill (Dormakaba) 5:57:46

2 Yolandi du Toit (Garmin) 6:13:55

3 Vanessa Bell (Bell’s Cycling) 6:52:23

4 Dalene van der Leek 7:00:37

5 Melanie Roux 7:14:02

Source: MyPR

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