Davids, Dreyer show their class in gruelling Hill 2 Hill mountain bike race

BRENDON Davids yesterday cruised to his third victory in three years in the 100km Compendium Hill 2 Hill Mountain bike race from Pietermaritzburg to Hillcrest when he notched up a massive 10-minute victory over last year’s runner up Travis Walker.

Davids was simply in a class of his own as he matched the great Burry Stander by winning the race three times in three years. His winning time was three hours 52 minutes 56 seconds, significantly slower than his previous best times, but that was due to changes in the route which added to the race time.

In the women’s race, Jeannie Dreyer was way too strong for her young rivals and also collected her third win in the tough 100 km ultra marathon, but she has taken four years for her three wins with her second position behind Robybn de Groot last year spoiling a perfect record.

“I rode quite an aggressive race from the start because I was marked the whole time,” Davids said.

“I think after racing on the road I now only start really ticking over after about two hours so once we got to there it was almost like I went on to autopilot and I was able to keep it steady. The course is difficult now. The new stuff is great and, much better from a mountain biking perspective.”

There was always one only one winner in the women’s race with Dreyer building a big lead on the climb to the first Queen of the Hills hotspot and she was never challenged as she rode home in an impressive solo effort for nearly 80km. Dreyer finished in a time of 4:51:38, nearly 21 minutes clear of young Christie-leigh Hearder with Candice Parker-dennison third.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” said Quinn, who has more than a passing interest in events. His wife Heide still holds the SA 400m record for women (50.05 sec); a record that Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya will be gunning for as she aims to do the triple in the 400m, 800m and 1500m.

She’s the defending champion in all three disciplines and will doubtless draw in the crowds with her power running.

Quinn predicts the 100m potentially being the single most exciting race in SA athletics history. The field is top heavy with class. Olympic finalist Anani Simbine sits top of the pile with a 9.89 SA best set in Budapest last year. With Usain Bolt about to shuffle off, Simbine will be among the world’s best three or