Comfortable victories for Buys and Redecker at Free State XCO Cup Series Finale

The Happy Valley Conservancy played host to the fifth and final round of the STIHL 2016 SA XCO Cup Series in Bloemfontein on Saturday 18 June. Novus OMX Pro MTB Team’s Cherie Redecker and Team SCOTT LCB’s Philip Buys took the respective wins in the Elite Women and Men’s category at the first UCI Category 2 cross-country event to take place in the Free State.

The clover leaf-like course made for excellent spectator viewing, and there was a great showing of supporters at the venue.

National Women’s XCO Champion, Redecker, came out with 200 points from her win, which resulted in her taking the overall Series win as well. She said: “I had so much fun today – what an awesome weekend of racing and spending time with friends.

Elite Women’s race winner Cherie Redecker (Novus OMX Pro Team) enjoyed the flow of the technically challeging track to take a decisive victory in her category at the fifth and final round of the STIHL 2016 SA XCO Cup Series (UCI Cat 2) at Happy Valley Conservancy in Bloemfontein, Free State, on Saturday 18 June. Pieter Herbst

A two-week mid-season break gave Elite Men’s race winner Philip Buys (Team Scott LCB) more punch on the bike at the fifth and final round of the STIHL 2016 SA XCO Cup Series (UCI Cat 2) at Happy Valley Conservancy in Bloemfontein, Free State, on Saturday 18 June. Johan Roux

“The Bloemfontein course was great. It was well built, technically challenging and had a great flow to it. I wasn’t short of support especially with Stephen and Heiko popping up all over the course shouting words of encouragements and making sure that I didn’t slack off the pace. It was great to take the win and overall series title.”

When asked to say which STIHL SA XCO Cup was her favourite, Redecker said it was particularly difficult to say. “I know that each province has put a lot of effort in organising their event, but if I have to choose, then I’d say Bloemfontein was my favourite. The track was great and I felt on form physically and mentally.”

Redecker expressed gratitude to her team, coach and sponsors for their support in helping her to become a competitive XCO racer.

The wind had begun to pick up for the start of the Elite Men’s race, which was lead from the start by Buys, with Kargo Pro MTB Team’s Alan Hatherly taking second place, enough to score the points for the overall Series title. Arno du Toit (Team SCOTT LCB) fought hard, and delivered a consistent race, resulting in a third place finish. The dice of the day went to Julian Jessop and Jan Withaar in a titanic battle for fourth and fifth place, with Jessop winning by a whisker.

Elite Men’s winner Buys, said: “I felt pretty good and happy to win the final race of the Series. After the Port Elizabeth race I was starting to fade a bit because of accumulated fatigue, so I took a two-week mid-season break and feel plenty more punch on the bike now. There’s still some work to do before Worlds, but all is good in training. The track was really fun – it was a very natural track that I thoroughly enjoyed.”

Overall Men’s Cup Series Winner, Hatherly, who hails from KwaZulu-Natal, spoke about the altitude difference between Bloemfontein and home. “It had an affect coming from sea level but we got here on Friday to avoid the effects of altitude, which I definitely think was the better choice for me. Of course I could still feel the air was thin but it was bearable. The descents were super fun,” he said.

When chatting about the Series win, Hatherly said: “On the whole, the Series went really well for me by being consistent at each event. I would have to say Cape Town was my favourite; everything went to the book that day and the course suited me to the tee. Having international riders there also made it really incredible to have done well there. I’m really happy to have kept my overall Pro-Elite Series title again for 2016, and I look forward to heading to Europe this coming week for World Champs in Czech.”

The Junior Women’s race saw Kristen Louw (Kargo Pro MTB Team) take a decisive victory against Allison Morton, winning her three-lap race by two-and-a-half-minutes at the fifth and final round of the STIHL 2016 SA XCO Cup Series (UCI Cat 2) at Happy Valley Conservancy in Bloemfontein, Free State, on Saturday 18 June. Pieter Herbst

Reinhard Zellhuber (Russell White Academy/Merida/32Gi) beat Jarrod van den Heever by nearly one and a half minutes over the four-lap Junior Men’s race at the fifth and final round of the STIHL 2016 SA XCO Cup Series (UCI Cat 2) at Happy Valley Conservancy in Bloemfontein, Free State, on Saturday 18 June. Johan Roux

The Junior Women’s race saw Kristen Louw take a decisive victory against Allison Morton, winning her three-lap race by two-and-a-half-minutes. Louw also took the Junior Women’s Series title while Danielle Strydom finished in second place after only competing in three events out of five. Morton finished third on the Series Log.

Reinhard Zellhuber beat Jarrod van den Heever by nearly one and a half minutes over the four-lap Junior Men’s race. Van den Heever’s second place was enough to secure the overall series title after five races, placing him on top of the log with 751 points. Henry Liebenberg placed second on the Series Log, with Pieter du Toit and Reinhard Zellhuber finishing in third and fourth places respectively.

STIHL 2016 SA XCO Cup Series Results Co-ordinator, Grevile Ruddock, said: “It has been some years now since we had this number of unique individuals participating in the XCO discipline of the SA National Cup Series. There are 485 unique individuals on the Series Log, with sustained solid participation particularly in the younger ages categories and Elites. There were over 70 participants in each of the Youth, Junior and Elite Men groups, and also much-improved participation from Nippers through to Youth in the female categories.”

The next National event on the racing calendar is the once-off 2016 SA MTB National Championships for the cross-country and downhill disciplines, which takes place at the world-class venue of Cascades MTB Park in Pietermaritzburg on 16 and 17 July. More details will be coming soon on www.cyclingsa.com.