For the first time since 2007 both the men’s and women’s titles at the Sunday Tribune Jeep Hill are owned by local KZN stars after Rourke Croeser and Jeannie Dreyer emerged as champions in the prestigious 97km mountain bike race on Sunday.
Image credit: Jon Ivins
Dreyer’s big win means that she now claims the Quattro ROAG Series overall women’s top spot, having overtaken Brenda Potts in the standings. Potts, who was the fourth woman home, now lies in second place. Andrew Hill, who has consistently retained his number one position as overall male, still holds tightly to the coveted position with a fifth overall finish on Sunday.
While both Jeannie Dreyer and Rourke Croeser collected their first victories in the gruelling race from Hilton overlooking Pietermaritzburg to Hillcrest near Durban and both set new records, their manner in which they won could not have been more different.
Croeser had a 97km battle with Brandon Stewart and Brendon Davids and only claimed the title and the R15 000 winner’s cheque when he edged out his two rivals with an incredible display of sprinting.
Image credit: Jon Ivins
In contrast, Dreyer opened a gap on her rivals on the first big climb of the race and spent over 70 kilometres riding solo and holding off a chasing pack to secure her four-minute victory.
Dreyer crossed the line in 4:23:29 with American team member Kendall Ryan second (4:27:30) and Natalie Bergstrom third, four seconds further back. Croeser, Stewart and Davids were all credited with the identical time of three hours, 34 minutes and 42 seconds – ten minutes and ten seconds faster than the record set by Burry Stander in the inaugural race held in 2006.
For Stewart the narrow loss was the second heartbreaking finish in this gruelling event. In 2007 he lost an equally close sprint for the line when Stander collected the second of his four victories in this race. That thrilling 2007 finish was also the last time two KZN riders held the men’s and women’s titles with Amy-Jane Munday taking the women’s win that year.
Image credit: Jon Ivins Photography
Croeser looked to have blown his chances of victory as he reached the Shongweni Club fields where the race finishes. The young star, who has never finished Hill 2 Hill before yesterday, inexplicably thought there was a sharp turn just before the finish and he started to veer left on a side rode off the course as the final sprint started.
He realised his rivals were going straight and turned back into the finish chute, but handed what should have been a race-winning advantage to Stewart, who led the race to the final 50 metre finishing straight. Incredibly Croeser managed to overcome the advantage he had given to Stewart and somehow edged his front wheel a couple of centimetres ahead as they crossed the line.
The weather conditions this year were perfect with cool weather early on in the day and a tail wind for much of the race pushing the riders to quick times. The rain earlier in the week also hardened the track which contributed to fast riding conditions while a slightly shortened course ensured the average time for the field was just under six hours for the first time ever.
