Paarl MTB team wins at Wiesenhof
2006-01-19
A RECORD number of 225 riders took part in the third 24 Hours of Wiesenhof mountain-bike team relay event over the weekend.
This included 49 solo riders and 34 teams that took their family and friends to enjoy a weekend of camping around the dam at this beautiful game reserve between Paarl and Stellenbosch.
Huguenot Cycles from Paarl continued their unbeaten run in Western Cape 24 hour racing by winning the Open Team category by six laps from Somerset West based Team WBS Airborne.
Huguenot managed to complete a record 67 laps, partly thanks to Jacques Rossouw’s consistent record lap times.
The Paarl rider showed the form that has taken him to numerous national championship titles.
Huguenot Cycles also triumphed in the veteran category while Natal’s Maverick cycles took the honours in the mixed class.
The Somerset West Mavericks junior team won its category by seven laps.
Organisers of the event, Dirtopia, has put together five 24 Hour mountain-bike events since December 2003 and calls this year’s event the most successful with riders coming from Gauteng and Kwazulu-Natal to take part. It is a very social event as it builds cameraderie between teammates and riders.
The sporting part of a 24 hour mountain-bike event revolves around a massive relay, where solo riders or teams of four and up to eight people compete to ride as many laps as possible in a 24 hour time frame.
The lap distance was approximately 7km with 70% wide and flowing single track. Riders commented that the route was well balanced and enjoyable.
On Saturday the riders ran to their bikes at 12:00 for a Le Mans start and the race was on.
The weather was not as hot as previous years, but a strong northwesterly wind certainly made things interesting.
In the evening a full moon helped with the night vision and cooler weather made for excellent riding conditions.
In the solo category Russell Palm annihilated the field with a total of 40 laps - totalling more than 280km and going the whole distance without any sleep.
Second overall and first in the women’s category was Hanlie Booyens with an astonishing 33 laps.
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