{"id":16709,"date":"2017-05-20T16:35:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-20T15:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2017\/05\/20\/kruger-and-buchacher-dominate-in-paarl-r6568\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T06:48:05","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T06:48:05","slug":"kruger-and-buchacher-dominate-in-paarl-r6568","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/kruger-and-buchacher-dominate-in-paarl-r6568\/","title":{"rendered":"Kruger and Buchacher dominate in Paarl"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Using home-ground knowledge to his advantage, HB Kruger led from start to finish to take the honours in the 60km feature race at the Bestmed Paarl MTB Classic mountain bike race at Rhebokskloof Wine Estate today.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image\" href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-58780-0-07507300-1495298396.jpg\" data-fileid=\"962602\" data-fileext=\"jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-fileid=\"962602\" class=\"ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed\" alt=\"ccs-58780-0-07507300-1495298396.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-58780-0-07507300-1495298396.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/a><span class=\"italic text-sm text-slate-500 block mt-1 mb-4\">BCX rider HB Kruger led from start to finish to claim the honours in the 60km feature race of the Paarl MTB Classic in Rhebokskloof Wine Estate today. Photo: Robert Ward<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old BCX pro from Paarl crossed the finish line in a time of 2:43:58, just under three minutes ahead of Robert Hobson, who stopped the clock in 2:46:34, with Jurgens Uys completing the podium in 2:48:30.<\/p>\n<p>The Boland event, which also offered a 30km option, was reinstated this year after a hiatus of a year and Kruger said it had the potential for significant growth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are amazing trails in this region and Paarl is a proper playground for mountain bikers,\u201d said Kruger, who won the Liberty Winelands Encounter alongside teammate Waylon Woolcock last month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt can definitely grow because it is very well organised, the course is well marked and there is a great vibe here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was delighted with his performance, even more so because it came in his backyard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was great to be able to ride to the start from my home, do the race, and then ride home afterwards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Kruger said the Bestmed Paarl MTB Classic, which is presented by ASG Events and the City of Drakenstein, offered a testing course with a total ascent of 1 700m.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is a lot of climbing for this distance but being from Paarl I knew what to expect so I went quite hard up the first climb.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI built up a bit of gap and then I paced myself during the race and tried to stay alert to what was happening behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kruger said the conditions were dry and slippery, which meant he had to stay focused throughout.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe biggest challenge is going up Paarl Mountain, but there is some great single-track going down into Rhebokskloof.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, it is a fairly long section and you still have to work coming down because it\u2019s easy to make a mistake and take a tumble if you are not focused.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said he had a technical issue over the closing 10km when his chain kept on slipping off the jockey wheel, but was able to manage the situation.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image\" href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-58780-0-86548300-1495298404.jpg\" data-fileid=\"962603\" data-fileext=\"jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-fileid=\"962603\" class=\"ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed\" alt=\"ccs-58780-0-86548300-1495298404.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-58780-0-86548300-1495298404.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/a><span class=\"italic text-sm text-slate-500 block mt-1 mb-4\">Cape Town\u2019s Carmen Buchacher (centre) won the women\u2019s race in the Paarl MTB Classic in in Rhebokskloof Wine Estate today. At the podium presentation were, from left, Bestmed executive in marketing and distribution Chris Luyt, Robyn Assad (fourth), An-Li Kachelhoffer (second), Buchacher, Bianca Martinaglia (third) and Rozanna Schreiber (fifth). Photo: Robert Ward<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In the women\u2019s race, Capetonian Carmen Buchacher also dominated from early on to lay the foundation for a comfortable victory and the 29-year-old was pleased to sign off in style before leaving for Europe later in the day.<\/p>\n<p>She clocked 3:11:51 to beat Team Bestmed-ASG\u2019s An-Li Kachelhoffer (3:30:06) and Bianca Martinaglia (3:44:50).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI took the lead from the start and there was not that much pressure,\u201d said Buchacher.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was able to hold a steady pace throughout and to be cautious on the single-track because I\u2019m flying out this evening so could not afford any mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She backed up Kruger\u2019s view, describing it as \u201ca phenomenal event\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor example, they ensured there were enough water points along the way, especially where the sections were a bit hectic, so the general rider was well looked after.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Adding to that, she said it was \u201ca beautiful region and the weather is great\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The men\u2019s 30km race was won by Rudi Koen in 1:16:37. He was followed home by Fourie Fick in 1:22:06 and Bobby Troskie in 1:24:21.<\/p>\n<p>Yolande Peacock took the women\u2019s title in 1:55:43, followed by Marike Jordaan in 2:11:03 and Yolanda Engelbrecht in 2:30:22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Using home-ground knowledge to his advantage, HB Kruger led from start to finish to take the honours in the 60km feature race at the Bestmed Paarl MTB Classic mountain bike race at Rhebokskloof Wine Estate today. BCX rider HB Kruger led from start to finish to claim the honours in the 60km feature race of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":35840,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1362,578,579,1363,1364],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-16709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-bestmed-paarl-mtb-classic","tag-carmen-buchacher","tag-hb-kruger","tag-paarl-mtb-classic","tag-rhebokskloof"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16709"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=16709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}