KwaZulu-Natal’s newly-crowned Under-23 World Cup champion, Burry Stander, conquered a strong field, a tough route and muddy conditions to win the 2008 Pick n Pay Asishove Mountain Bike Challenge in Pinetown on Saturday.

The 21-year-old Mr Price GT rider won the inaugural edition of the race last year and was closely marked by his main rivals throughout most of this year’s event, which took place at Giba Gorge Mountain Bike Park as part of the Pick n Pay Amashovashova Weekend Cycling Festival.

Max Knox and Brandon Stewart, both of Team Garmin DCM, broke clear of the field shortly after the start with Stander in close attendance. With 35km of the race on singletrack, passing was difficult, but the trio took turns to push the early pace and open a gap on the rest of the field.

On a steep climb around halfway, Stewart, the current Elite South African cross-country champion, dropped off the pace, leaving Knox and Stander to battle for the win. Stander managed to create a small gap on a steep, rocky downhill, 7km from the finish and extended his lead on Knox in the final kilometres to clock a fast one hour, 55 minutes and 40 seconds.

Second-placed Knox was the only other rider to break the two-hour mark in 1:57:02, with Stewart rounding out the podium places in 2:00:14.

In the women’s race, pre-race favourite Samantha Oosthuizen (Garmin DCM) had to work hard to win a race-long duel with local rider, Shawna Thunder (The Leigh Group). Oosthuizen, who represented South Africa at mountain bike marathon world championships in Italy earlier this year, eventually claimed the win in 2:35:06, just on three minutes quicker than runner-up Thunder. Annik Crymen was third overall in 3:01:35.