Last year\u2019s women\u2019s winners, Jennie Stenerhag (front) and Robyn de Groot, will be back, but in different teams and categories at the Momentum Health Tankwa Trek, presented by Biogen, South Africa\u2019s most prestigious three-day mountain bike stage race, which takes place from 11-13 February. Photo credit: www.zcmc.co.za<\/span><\/div>\nLeading the South African challenge are Team NAD\u2019s Nico Bell and Gawie Combrinck. They were fourth last year at their first attempt and will know what to expect this time around as they challenge for the podium. Another strong South African team is the Telkom BCX pair of Waylon Woolcock and HB Kruger. Woolcock was third overall last year (with Darren Lill), while Kruger was fifth at the recent Attakwas, confirming his good form and showing Woolcock that he\u2019s sure to be a very capable teammate.<\/p>\n
Also expected to feature at the front of the race is the South African\/Swiss pairing of Matt Beers and Konny Looser (Red-E Ryder).<\/p>\n
The women\u2019s division is packed with strong teams, all in pursuit of the generous prize money, UCI rankings points and Cape Epic preparation.<\/p>\n
Former Tankwa Trek winner, Ariane L\u00fcthi, the Swiss marathon champion, will be using the race to get to know her new Cape Epic teammate, Germany\u2019s Adelheid Morath. Racing as Team Spur, they will be wary of the Team Meerendal\/CBC pairing of Switzerland\u2019s Esther S\u00fcss and Sweden\u2019s Jennie Stenerhag. Youngsters, Candice Lill and Vera Adrian, racing as Team dormakaba will also be daily and overall podium contenders as they set their sights on tackling their first Cape Epic next month.<\/p>\n
Other strong combinations are the OMX Pro\/Ultimate Cycling pair of Mariske Strauss and Yolande de Villiers and the Garmin\/Galileo Risk team of Yolandi du Toit and Theresa Ralph.<\/p>\n
There is certain to be strong interest in the mixed category with a number of strong combinations. South African marathon champion Robyn de Groot will be pairing up with her Ascendis Health stablemate, Gert Heyns for what should be a formidable partnership.<\/p>\n
Mounting what should be a strong podium challenge are the Valencia pair of Grant Usher and Amy Beth McDougall, and the Velocity Sport Lab duo of Carmen Buchacher and Uwe Hochenwarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pretty excited to be doing Tankwa Trek with Gert. Firstly, it\u2019s awesome to do a race together as the new-look Team Ascendis Health. We don\u2019t have Mixed racing as a priority for our season as I would like to support the women\u2019s racing category as much as possible. With Tankwa Trek, however, we thought long and hard and decided it would be a great way to prep for the Cape Epic next month,\u201d said De Groot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m grateful that Gert is willing to help me with my Epic preparation. I can learn a lot from him for sure and have no doubt it will be worthwhile racing Tankwa Trek together,\u201d added De Groot.<\/p>\n
The total cash purse for the 2017 Momentum Health Tankwa Trek, presented by Biogen is up by an impressive 60% and sits at R410 000, which includes R80 000 each for the winning men and women\u2019s teams and R10 000 for the first men and women\u2019s teams each to the summit of the Merino Monster on Day 2.<\/p>\n
The UCI Elite teams get daily prize money up to fifth place and up to 10th place overall, while there also is daily podium recognition for Veteran (40-49) and Masters (50-plus) categories both of which are expected to produce intense racing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI rode the Tankwa Trek for the first time last year. It\u2019s very tough race and I was really impressed with the women that competed. I felt it wasn\u2019t right that they put in the same effort as the men but had less prize money, so I spoke to Dryland about us adding value to the women\u2019s category,\u201d said Heimar Anderson, Managing Director of Anderson Transport, which also does logistics support for Dryland Event Management.<\/p>\n
Because of Anderson Transport\u2019s sponsorship, the Elite women\u2019s prize money is equal to the men\u2019s, paying down to fifth place on each stage and 10th in the final General Classification.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also want to give recognition to the women that don\u2019t race, but whose sons, brothers, fathers and husbands are given the support that allows us to do races like the Tankwa Trek. It\u2019s really something that\u2019s not often recognised, but should be,\u201d added Anderson.<\/p>\n
A new partner for the Tankwa Trek is Mpact, South Africa\u2019s leading paper and plastics packaging group with a strong environmental awareness. Mpact is an appropriate brand partner for Dryland Event Management, which is committing to environmentally sound practices where ever possible in their events.<\/p>\n
\u201cCeres is a key fruit-producing area in South Africa, where top quality apples, pears, nectarines, plums, cherries and vegetables are grown. Most of this fruit is exported to a number of countries across the world. Mpact has been supplying a significant volume of cartons into the Ceres region for over 40 years and it is therefore important we support the Tankwa Trek. The 700 riders partaking in this year\u2019s Tankwa Trek will also be riding on most of our customers\u2019 beautiful farms as the route traverses through this unique and beautiful area,\u201d said Johan Stumpf, Managing Director Mpact Corrugated.<\/p>\n
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The 2017 Momentum Health Tankwa Trek will be based at Kaleo Guest Farm, with all three stages starting and finishing at the same venue.<\/strong>
Friday 11 February: 89km | 1990m ascent
Saturday 12 February: 87km | 2200m ascent
Sunday 13 February: 89km | 1250m ascent<\/p>\nThe race will be \u2018live-tweeted\u2019 from @TankwaTrek account and there will be daily highlights on SuperSport 8 at 20h00. For more information, visit http:\/\/www.tankwatrek.co.za<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Germany\u2019s Karl Platt and his Swiss teammate, Urs Huber, are motivated to defend their title at next week\u2019s Momentum Health Tankwa Trek, presented by Biogen, but will be up against stronger opposition than last year at the world\u2019s most prestigious three-day mountain bike stage race. Last year\u2019s winners, Karl Platt (left) and Urs Huber, are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[481,1784,94,752],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-17141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-karl-platt","tag-momentum-health-tankwa-trek","tag-tankwa-trek","tag-urs-huber"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17141","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=17141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17141"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=17141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"ccs-58780-0-86032000-1486123412.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-58780-0-86032000-1486123412.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Last year\u2019s winners, Karl Platt (left) and Urs Huber, are motivated to retain their title at the 2017 edition of the Momentum Health Tankwa Trek, presented by Biogen, South Africa\u2019s most prestigious three-day mountain bike stage race, which takes place from 11-13 February. Photo credit: www.zcmc.co.za<\/span><\/div>\n