{"id":19471,"date":"2013-04-28T00:10:10","date_gmt":"2013-04-27T22:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/pros-play-cards-close-to-their-chests-at-joberg2c\/"},"modified":"2013-04-28T00:10:10","modified_gmt":"2013-04-27T22:10:10","slug":"pros-play-cards-close-to-their-chests-at-joberg2c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/pros-play-cards-close-to-their-chests-at-joberg2c\/","title":{"rendered":"Pros play cards close to their chests at joBerg2c"},"content":{"rendered":"

The pre-race favourites played their cards close to their chests on the 116km neutral opening stage of the nine-day Old Mutual joBerg2c mountain bike race from Heidelberg in Gauteng to Frankfort in the Free State on Friday.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s runner-up and former winner Neil MacDonald, riding with FedGroup-Itec team-mate Brandon Stewart, finished safely inside the top 30 (4:56:47) in a bunch that also featured Waylon Woolcock and Lourens Luus of RE:CM and the Cannondale-Blend pairing of Charles Keey and Darren Lill.<\/p>\n

Two-time women\u2019s category winner Ischen Stopforth and ad hoc partner Yolande de Villiers, who won the mixed category at the inaugural event four years ago, proved to be a powerhouse new ladies\u2019 combination.<\/p>\n

Stopforth and De Villiers, riding in the sponsor\u2019s colours, led the entire elite field into the Wilgerivier High School sports fields to take the 116km stage in 4:38:18.<\/p>\n

They crossed the line three seconds ahead of the first men\u2019s team \u2013 British marathon racers Ben Thomas and Tim Dunford of Itec 4.<\/p>\n

Thomas and Dunford were followed home by Contego\u2019s Louis Bresler-Knipe and Kevin van Hoovels in 4:44:35, with Itec 2\u2019s Paul van Zweel and Peter Lee Jeffries a further two seconds off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say we were looking for a stage win but we got one,\u201d said Stopforth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started steady and just kept that pace. We didn\u2019t stop too much and just enjoyed the route.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stopforth, who finished second alongside Hanlie Booyens in the women\u2019s event at the Absa Cape Epic, said she and De Villiers were both feeling strong.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re obviously looking for the overall win but a stage race is a long thing. You have to stay healthy, you have to stay on your bike, so we\u2019ll just keep it steady.\u201d<\/p>\n

Father and daughter pairing Abbey and Robyn de Groot (Born and Bred) took the mixed category in 3:47:24.<\/p>\n

Day one of the 910km race also featured a unique dragon boat crossing of the Vaal Dam.<\/p>\n

Olympic gold medallist Matthew Brittain was in his element alongside fellow rower and riding partner Rob Dormehl as they swopped pedals for paddles for the crossing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lot of fun, we just got into the boat and paddled across, it wasn\u2019t too serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked whether there were any potential Olympians aboard his boat, the Avis rider simply laughed. \u201cNot in the rowing event!\u201d<\/p>\n

The racing starts in earnest on the 95km second stage from Frankfort to Reitz on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Visit www.joberg2c.co.za or follow the race on Facebook or @joberg2c_journo.
\nIssued by:<\/p>\n

Full Stop Communications<\/p>\n

Coetzee Gouws
\n082 575 7991
\n041 368 4992
\ncoetzee@fullstopcom.com
\nwww.fullstopcom.com<\/p>\n

On behalf of:<\/p>\n

Old Mutual joBerg2c<\/p>\n

URL<\/strong>: http:\/\/www.joberg2c.co.za<\/a>
Twitter<\/strong>: https:\/\/twitter.com\/fullstop<\/a>
Facebook<\/strong>:
YouTube<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Author: Coetzee Gouws<\/strong> from Full Stop Communications<\/a>. Originally distributed by MyPR.co.za<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

No of Images Uploaded: One<\/strong><\/p>\n

To gain access to One<\/em> image\/s please Like, Tweet or +1 this article:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Images:<\/strong>
\"dragon-boats\"
\nOlympic gold medallist Matthew Brittain (left) and fellow rower Rob Dormehl (right) during the traditional dragon boat crossing of the Vaal Dam on the opening stage of the nine-day Old Mutual joBerg2c on Friday. Photographer: Thys Dullaart<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pre-race favourites played their cards close to their chests on the 116km neutral opening stage of the nine-day Old Mutual joBerg2c mountain bike race from Heidelberg in Gauteng to Frankfort in the Free State on Friday. Last year\u2019s runner-up and former winner Neil MacDonald, riding with FedGroup-Itec team-mate Brandon Stewart, finished safely inside the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[3257,1452],"class_list":{"0":"post-19471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-mypr","8":"tag-public-relations","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}