Maties dominate inaugural Varsity Sports MTB Challenge : 2016-10-03
Photo credit Robert Ward
Cyclists from Stellenbosch University dominated both days of the first ever Varsity Sports MTB Challenge held in the Cape Winelands over the weekend.
Maties had done all the hard work during stage one on Saturday and just needed to protect their lead to be sure of securing overall Varsity Sports MTB honours on Sunday. The final general classification reflected the Stellenbosch students’ dominance: Maties finished in a cumulative time of 4:47.50, with UP-Tuks in second place (4:53.33) and UCT in third place (4:56.14) over the two days.
Cycling and Mountain Biking joined the HP Unit in 2016. “We have a very talented group of student athletes as one can see from Maties taking the inaugural Varsity Sport competition this weekend and winning USSA in July…yet again! We are very excited about our current IMAS interventions that has been added in their preparation plan and we look forward to supporting them pushing the boundaries of their performances in seasons to come,” said Sean Surmon, head of the Maties Sport HP unit.
Highlights from day one included a memorable 15 km climb through shady plantations towards the top of Du Toitskloof Pass, swooping downhills and manicured trails across private wine farms, while the outstanding features of day two were undoubtedly the unique Boschendal trails looping through forests and around farm dams.
Maties team captain CP van Wyk enjoyed the race and thinks that his riders worked together well as a team. He is very pleased with this opportunity for student cyclists to shine. His team mates were Ian Lategan and Jacques Lloyd.
Photo credit: Robert Ward
The Maties women’s team of Vera Adrian, Mariske Strauss and Nicky Giliomee crossed the line together and were all smiles as they described their experience.
“It was an amazing race in beautiful surroundings and it was great riding together in this format,” they said. Their time over two days was 5:32.34, with UP-Tuks in second place (6:26.28).
Maties Sport manager Candice Appollis-Williams was extremely proud of the Maties cyclists. The Maties team won the USSA competition earlier this year and have now cemented their reputation as arguably the best university cycling club in the country.
“For them to have dominated the way they did proves that our high performance cycling programme is leading the way,” she said.
Although the official varsity teams were predictably at the sharp end of the race, the Varsity MTB Challenge offered a world-class riding experience to both alumni and non-varsity-affiliated mountain bikers as well. Cyclists could nominate a university to ride for and earn points for that university. It came as no surprise that Stellenbosch University won that competition as well, earning a total of 3453 points. UCT was second with 2619 points.
Photo credit Robert Ward
Copy: Maties Sport and Varsity Sport