SA’S BEST MTB RIDERS COME TO THE COUNTRY’S BEST VENUE
South Africa’s best mountain bikers will once again converge on the country’s top ranked mountain bike park on May 25 to 26 to find the national champion at the annual Sappi Karkloof Classic Trail Festival.
The festival weekend has always been one of the country’s most popular weekends for mountain bikers, and for 2024 rides have an added incentive as Cycling South Africa has designated the event as the national marathon championships for the second time in three years.
The decision is entirely warranted: The popular Marriott Karkloof Country Club trail park has been ranked as the best in South African by Tread magazine, and it will be appropriate to see the country’s premier riders fighting for their national titles on the top trails.
Team PYGA Euro Steel will also no doubt be delighted to bring their full squad to the event and will be looking for a third win in a
row at the Sappi Karkloof Classic.
In 2022 Philip Buys claimed the South African champion’s jersey when he beat Marc Pritzen and Tristan Nortje to the top step of the podium. Last year, his young first-year team-mate, Michael Foster, rode to a convincing victory over Danial van der Watt.
This year Buys and Foster are sure to return with the help of teammates Pieter du Toit and Jaedon Terlouw, while Pritzen and Nortje will also be on the start line in the colours of Honeycomb Pro Cycling.
However, the rider they will all be worried about is sure to be Toyota Specialized’s Matt Beers. The 2023 SA Champion (in both gravel and MTB) proudly wore his South African Champions’ MTB jersey as he powered to victory in the recent Absa Cape Epic and he would like nothing better than to keep the rainbow flag jersey on his shoulders for a second year.
Others to watch include the Imbuko squad of Marco Joubert
and Wessel Botha, and Insect Science’s Arno du Toit and Herman Fourie.
The women’s race will see KZN local Candice Lill defending her title, with her biggest challenge likely to come from 2022 Champion Amy Wakefield, last year’s Karkloof winner Sarah Hill and Hayley Preen, while KZN locals Hayley Smith and Joanna van de Winkel will be hoping to use local knowledge to cause an upset.
The Sappi Karkloof Classic Trail Festival weekend is an actionpacked two-days of trail sport. On Saturday runners take centre stage with 21km and 9km trail runs.
Then on Sunday, the mountain bikers have a big choice of distances that include the 85km championship event (for elite, licensed riders only), 60km, 40km, 20km and a 10km fun ride, while a 9km fun trail run will also be held on Sunday.
The 60km and 40km distances will be the national championship events for the various age-group riders, ranging from youth up to grand masters. Nippers, sprogs and sub juniors must compete in the 20km non-championships event.
All entries are via ROAG at ROAG.ORG.