Van Heerden and Beyers continue to dominate in Bellville
NEWLY-CROWNED African Continental Track Champion in the Points Race, Steven van Heerden rode a calculated race to accumulate the most points to add the National Championship title to his repertoire at the South African National Track Championships at the Bellville Velodrome yesterday.
Van Heerden utilised race tactics to claim his victory, which play out so prominently in events like the Points race.
“Going into the race, I knew I had my work cut out as there were a few strong guys there with us – guys that are fast in the sprint and I had to tire them out in the beginning and get my points on the board earlier, which placed less pressure on me in the end,” Van Heerden said.
“From there, David and I got away and we put more pressure on the guys to just get more points on the board. It was a fine race and I enjoyed it a lot.”
David Maree and Evan Carstens finished in second and third place, respectively.
Bernette Beyers continued her fantastic form to rack up two more gold medals when she won the Elite Women’s Scratch Race, beating Charlene du Preez and Jennifer Abbott who won silver and bronze respectively, as well as grabbing the Elite Women’s 500m Time Trial title.
When chatting about her victories, she said: “Today was an exciting but emotional day with two golds, and the 500m Time Trial being one of my main events. Scratch, being an endurance 10km race, was fast and hard and we had a lot of attacks from the girls with Charlene pushing the bunch to the limit. I had to work out a strategy to make an attack before the end. Being a sprinter, my legs were getting tired from not training for the longer events, and felt I wouldn’t be able to hold a sprint on the last lap.”
Beyers has many races still to come this week, including the all-round Omnium event on Saturday. After taking the Points race title at the African Continental Championships last month, Beyers managed to bag the SA National title as well yesterday afternoon. “The field was strong, and very different field to the African Champs,” she said.
In the Junior Women’s category, Courtney Smith continued her impressive form adding more gold medals to her tally, when she won the Time Trial and Scratch races today.
The 2017 South African National Track Championships continue throughout the week, with the final events taking place on Saturday. For more information and results, please visit: https://www.cyclingsa. com/2017-sa-track-champs/