The injury that brought a premature end to his debut Absa Cape Epic has continued to plague South African cross-country mountain bike champion Burry Stander, jeopardising his chances of a good result at Round 4 of the Mazda MTN SA Cup in George on Saturday and hampering his build-up to the Olympic Games.

The 20-year-old Stander, who races for the Mr Price GT team, has been struggling for the past 10 days to recover from the Iliotibial Band (ITB) Syndrome that forced him to quit the Cape Epic on Stage 3 whilst wearing the leader’s jersey.

He’s in a completely different class when it comes to cross-country mountain bike racing, which is why the current South African and African champion, Burry Stander, will find his biggest opposition coming from himself at the 2008 Mazda MTN SA Championships, which take place in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday.

Barring any kind of mishap, Stander, who is currently 25th on the International Cycling Union world rankings, is expected to completely dominate the Elite men’s race on Saturday in search of his third consecutive national Elite title.

The talented youngster Marc Bassingthwaighte from Team Garmin-DCM won this weekend’s fourth round of the Mazda MTN Cross Country National Cup series in George and took the overall lead in the National series.

An elated Bassingthwaighte beat MTN Energade’s Mannie Heymans into second place in humid conditions and on a technical circuit in and around George in the Eastern Cape.

Mpumalanga delivered the 2008 Mazda MTN National series champion on Saturday in a big showdown at the spectacular new venue close to the Sudwala caves. The Mankele Mountain Bike park presented an adrenaline fuelled event that pulled the crowds with the action packed racing as well as top local band Prime Circle.

The presence of world class mountain biker Burry Stander (MR Price GT) caused quite a stir and even though he won the race it was Marc Bassingthwaighte from Garmin DCM laid claim to the Mazda MTN National series title. Bassingthwaighte lead the points standings going onto the race and opted to rather consolidate and not risk losing the series by crashing out or not finishing.