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Monday, 08 September 2008 |
Written by Sean Badenhorst [293 hits]
 Max Knox (DCM Chrome) and Yolandi du Toit (Garmin DCM) produced dominant victories in the men and women’s races respectively at the 2008 Mazda MTN N3TC Dirty Harry Mountain Bike Marathon in Harrismith at the weekend.
It was Knox’s first Mazda MTN Series race win in three years while Du Toit’s performance was her maiden Series victory and her first major mountain bike race win since she began mixing off-road racing with her already successful road racing career.
Knox took the pace out hard from the start, stringing the field out on the early long, steady climb, which took the riders up the lower slopes of the Platberg Mountain. He was joined by teammate Brandon Stewart, the current South African Elite men’s cross-country champion, who has yet to make a big impact on the marathon discipline this year.
“Brandon and I raced really well at the Mugg & Bean 24-Hour race last weekend and are both in really good form at the moment,” explained Knox.
We combined really well and just kept the pace fast, but steady which gave us quite a decent lead by the time we hit the second half of the race.
But with 10km remaining Stewart was forced to stop to repair a puncture, leaving Knox to ride on to the finish alone where he claimed the victory in a quick two hours, 47 minutes and 46 seconds.
Melt Swanepoel (MTN Energade) caught and passed Stewart to secure the runner-up place just more than three minutes after Knox had finished with Stewart claiming third place another three minutes later.
“It would have been really nice for Max and I to take the 1-2 today riding in our new team colours,” said Stewart. “It is frustrating because I took it easy on the downhills with the aim of avoiding any problems and I punctured on a flat, smooth road. But that’s racing I suppose. It was still a good result and well done to Max and Melt who rode brilliantly today.”
“It was warm and dusty conditions, but the course was quite fair,” remarked Knox. “It’s going to be the venue for next year’s SA marathon championships, but they’ll need to make it a bit longer as the times were quite fast today.”
Like Knox, Du Toit’s strategy was to start out hard and then see who her main contenders would be after the first climb. But she didn’t see another woman throughout the race as she charged across the finish in a respectable 03hr31min56sec.
“In the beginning, I just tried to stay with the top men as long as could and I was obviously going quite well because when I reached the singletrack section after the climb I was the leading woman,” explained Du Toit, who is the 2006 Pick n Pay 94.7 Cycle Challenge road race champion.
I just put my head down and time-trialled to the finish and was lucky enough to have no mechanical or physical problems. The course actually suited me because it wasn’t very technical and the climbs were long and steady, which I like.
Second place went to Du Toit’s Garmin DCM teammate, Samantha Oosthuizen in 03:36:30 with Carla Rowley (MTN Energade) rounding out the top three in 03:42:23.
Leading Junior Bryce Munro (DCM Chrome) opted to race the shorter Ferdevco 36km Half-marathon and won comfortably, while Genee Steyn (USN), also a Junior category racer, captured the women’s title in the shorter distance event.
The Chandelier Marathon in Oudtshoorn on 25 October doubles as Round 6 of the 2008 Mazda MTN National Series.
Mazda MTN N3TC Dirty Harry 76km Marathon 2008
Harrismith, Free State
Leading results
MEN
Overall
1 Max Knox (DCM Chrome) 02:47:46
2 Melt Swanepoel (MTN Energade) 02:51:24
3 Brandon Stewart (DCM Chrome) 02:55:39
4 Francois Theron (Team USN) 02:57:31
5 Philip Buys (Team USN) 02:58:30
6 Renay Groustra (Red Mongoose) 03:03:44
7 John Paul Pearton (Team USN) 03:05:53
8 Paul Cordes (IMC Racing) 03:06:57
9 Rourke Crouser (Red Mongoose) 03:07:24
10 Wouter Staats 03:07:25
Junior
1 Shaun-Nick Bester (Harmony) 03:14:37
2 Sebastian van den Heever 03:31:07
3 Mark Bridges 03:35:24
Senior
1 Wouter Staats 03:07:25
2 Deon Gerhard Froneman 03:12:58
3 Jean-Pierre Ten Napel 03:21:02
Sub-Veteran
1 Paul Cordes (IMC Racing) 03:06:57
2 Jock Green (Garmin DCM) 03:10:04
3 Brett Dickson 03:12:57
Veteran
1 Damian Booth 03:14:23
2 Martin Hogan 03:32:19
3 Manuel Rublialos 03:34:22
Master
1 Christopher Brand 03:20:19
2 Jose de Sousa 03:45:56
3 Dennis Lawrie 03:50:22
Grand Master
1 Johan Botes 04:34:56
2 Brent Eliasov 05:49:03
3 Elton Prytz 05:56:43
WOMEN
Overall
1 Yolandi du Toit (Garmin DCM) 03:31:56
2 Samantha Oosthuizen (Garmin DCM) 03:36:30
3 Carla Rowley (MTN Energade) 03:42:23
4 Caitlin de Wet (Red Mongoose) 03:48:12
5 Carmen Bassingthwaighte 03:53:47
Senior
1 Carmen Bassingthwaighte 03:53:47
2 Jenni Soutar 04:21:19
3 Sarah Colvin 04:50:10
Sub-veteran
1 Sarah Wielopolska 04:03:44
2 Natalie Unstead 04:10:34
3 Karyn Southgate 04:27:18
Veteran
1 Sarah van Heerden 04:02:27
2 Catherine Gibbings 04:29:56
3 Christa Diederichs 05:00:52
Ferdevco 36km Half-Marathon
Harrismith, Free State
Leading results
MEN
Overall
1 Bryce Munro (DCM Chrome) 01:29:28
2 Arno du Toit 01:34:11
3 Jaco du Toit 01:34:12
WOMEN
Overall
1 Genee Steyn (USN) 01:52:05
2 Beatrice Hogan 01:52:20
3 Nikita van Antwerp 02:02:25
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Last Updated ( Monday, 08 September 2008 )
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