Gawie Combrinck and Nico Bell secured a virtually insurmountable lead going into Saturday’s final stage of the Old Mutual joBerg2C mountain bike marathon, but the big drama on Friday was in the mixed category where Candice Neethling and Darren Lill set themselves up for the biggest payday in mixed racing.
Combrinck and Bell proved once again they are without doubt the strongest team in the nine-day race from Heidelberg to Scottburgh when they notched up their fourth stage win on Friday. By winning the stage from Donnybrook to Highflats in a time of 3.46.17, the Team NAD pairing have extended their overall lead from just under five minutes to a comprehensive 12 minute.
For the Team Telkom duo of Johan Rabie and HB Kruger, the only “hope” for a win is a serious mechanical failure or severe crash for the race leaders.
With R80 000 up for grabs to the winner of the mixed category, Lill and Neethling started the stage with the daunting task of needing to make up seven minutes in order to pass former British Champion Catherine Williamson and her South African partner Johan Labuschagne.
Lill and Neethling started fast and used Neethling’ skills on the long and tricky singletrack descent down the Umkomaas Valley to push the pace from the gun. And fortune favoured the brave pair as Labuschagne hit a rock even before the descent started and punctured his tyre in three places.
The overnight leaders struggled to repair the punctures but were then stuck behind slower riders on the narrow descent and at the first water point 38km into the 99km stage Lill and Neethling had a massive 12-minute gap and were the effective leaders.
Lill and Neethling finished more than 11-minutes up on their rivals for an overall lead of more than four minutes and, barring problems, should get their hands on the big cheque.
In the solo category Calvin Beneke increased his lead over Charles McFall.
STAGE RESULTS
Teams
1 Nico Bell and Gawie Combrinck (NAD Pro MTB) 3.46.17
2 Johann Rabie and Hendrik Kruger (Team Telkom) 3.53.29
3 Andrew Hill and Tyronne White (Thule PYGA TIB Insurance) 3.58.11
4 Pieter Seyffert and Hanco Kachelhoffer (Altech Karan Beef Pro Cycling) 4.01.22
5 Darren Lill and Candice Neethling (Dorma USN Purefit – 1st mixed) 4.09.04
Mixed
1 Darren Lill and Candice Neethling (Dorma USN Purefit) 4.09.04
2 Amy Mcdougall and Grant Usher (Valencia Lanham-Love) 4.13.13
3 Sonya Looney and Yuki Ikeda (FreakShow Defeet Topeak Ergon) 4.15.30
4 Johan Labuschagne and Catherine Williamson (The Bicycle Company Mitas) 4.21.27
5 Peter Vesel and Ivonne Kraft (MDM Team) 4.25.30
Solo
1 Calvin Beneke 3.58.12
2 Charles McFall 4.01.22
3 Brennan Anderson 4.02.00
4 Raf de Bakker 4.05.37
5 Michael Robinson 4.08.08 – Independent Media