There was high drama on day four of the Old Mutual joBerg2c mountain bike race as Louis-Bresler Knipe and Kevin van Hoovels took advantage of a wrong turn by the lead group to snatch victory on the first of the climbing stages on Monday.
The Contego riders were eventually chased down but held their nerve in a dramatic four-team sprint to the finish on the 122km stage from Sterkfontein Dam in the Free State to Winterton in KwaZulu-Natal.
Knipe and Van Hoovels took the win in 4:46:32, a second ahead of race leaders Waylon Woolcock and Lourens Luus of RE:CM, with Brandon Stewart and Neil MacDonald of FedGroup-Itec a further four seconds back.
Woolcock and Luus retain their overnight lead with their aggregate time of 17:09:55 putting them 26 seconds ahead of second-placed Stewart and MacDonald. Keey and Lill remain third with a combined time of 17:10:45.
After struggling with a nagging knee problem, which saw him hanging off the back of the lead bunch for most of the stage, Knipe said he was thrilled with his team’s reversal of fortune.
“The racing started really hard and I was just struggling at the back the whole time. My partner’s super-strong, so he was helping me.”
After an early breakaway high in the mountains, the top five teams – with Bridge riders Nico Pfitzenmaier and Timo Cooper also in the mix – rode together all the way down the escarpment into KZN.
Just after the second waterpoint at the 77km mark, the top four teams missed a left-hand deviation into a section of track and went straight down a cattle path instead.
“We shouted to them,” said Knipe, who was 20 seconds off at the time. “But they were in racing mode and didn’t hear.
“So going up Spioenkop, we just gassed it and rode as hard as we could.”
By the third waterpoint at 90km, Knipe and Van Hoovels had opened up a two-minute gap, which the chasing teams worked hard to close down.
They finally caught them on Puffadder Pass, 16 kilometres later.
“They got us going over the last hill and we just stayed together till the finish.”
The stage win puts the 23-year-old Knipe and his 27-year-old Belgian partner in fourth position in the overall standings – just over six minutes behind Woolcock and Luus
“We’re q.uite far off on the general classification, so unless something like this happens again, we’d need a lot of luck.”
Last year, Knipe and then-partner Dave Morison were gifted the bottom step on the winners’ podium following the withdrawal of Westvaal-Columbia’s Gawie Combrinck and Nico Bell due to illness.
In the mixed category, there was another epic battle on historical Spioenkop as RE:CM’s Erik and Ariane Kleinhans fought to maintain their lead over Catherine Williamson and Jarryd Haley of bizhub-Rocky Mountain.
The RE:CM duo managed to open up a lead on the technical descent, which they extended on Puffadder Pass en route to the finish for a time of 5:08:45 (17:59:16).
Williamson and Haley finished in the runner-up spot in 5:10:36 (18:03:30), with the Fischer-BMC pairing of Jane Nüessli and Yves Corminboeuf taking a distant third in 5:21:20 (18:23:19).
The joBerg2c women’s team of Ischen Stopforth and Yolande de Villiers came home in 5:35:18 (19:00:00) to take back a stage from overnight leaders Yolandi du Toit and Nicci Grobler of USN-bizhub, who finished in 5:36:08 (18:53:38).
Cherise Stander and Lise Olivier, riding in the colours of the Burry Stander Foundation, finished third on the day in 5:49:13 (19:11:59) to round out the overall podium.
The 102km fifth stage takes place from Winterton Country Club to the Glengarry Resort in Kamberg on Tuesday. The 910km race finishes at Scottburgh on May 4.
Worth the effort
Day 4 of the Old Mutual joBerg2c provided for hard work, but great rewards as the area on the border of Free State and Kwa-Zulu Natal turned on stunning views and fantastic singletrack.
After leaving Sterkfontein Dam there was an initial hard climb and rocky descent but this was followed by the pick of the tracks so far this race. We climbed to the top of the escarpment at Retiefs Pass and then the fun began. The track skirted the edge of a cliff for a kilometre or two, providing stunning views across the valley to the south and to the Drakensberg Mountains bordering Lesotho.
The descent was even better. It was a track very similar to Skyline at Mt Stromlo, only it was longer and better. It rolled down the side of the hill and any mistake to the right would result in a long tumble. A lot of rocks to skirt and a bunch of small creek crossings, we finished the descent off the escarpment with a completely rutted dirt road down to the first water point.
Another effort followed by reward was the climb of the historic battlefield of Spioenkop, past the memorials at the top, and then a super descent to the next valley. The views from the top were again stunning and the track down the side first class.
I’d like to do those tracks again.
And our race? Team Enervit (second in Masters GC) had a major mechanical, so we managed second on the stage and GC. I don’t think they’re far behind us, though, so expect them to reclaim their GC place tomorrow. There’s a huge gap in class between the fastest two teams in Masters (USN Masters and Enervit) and us.
We’re now in Winterton. I won’t go on about the great hospitality again, as it’s probably getting boring. Suffice to say that I lost 5 kg racing in Mongolia last year. I don’t think that will happen here.
Visit www.joberg2c.co.za or follow the race on Facebook or @joberg2c_journo.