{"id":17464,"date":"2016-10-25T06:10:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T05:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2016\/10\/25\/de-groot-stenerhag-ready-for-w2w-title-defense-r5735\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T07:31:38","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T07:31:38","slug":"de-groot-stenerhag-ready-for-w2w-title-defense-r5735","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/de-groot-stenerhag-ready-for-w2w-title-defense-r5735\/","title":{"rendered":"De Groot, Stenerhag ready for W2W title defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

South African National Marathon Champion, Robyn de Groot and Swedish Marathon Champion, Jennie Stenerhag will team up the weekend of 11 \u2013 13 November 2016 to defend their title at the 2016 FNB Wines2Whales (W2W) Mountain Bike (MTB) Race.<\/p>\n

Riding for Team Ascendis Health, De Groot and Stenerhag claimed gold in 2015 after completing Stage One (72km), Stage Two (67km) and Stage Three (75km) of the FNB W2W MTB Race in an impressive combined time of 09 hours 46 minutes 19 seconds. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be the third time that I take part in the FNB W2W MTB Race,\u201d says De Groot. \u201cI love the event. It features fantastic mountain biking, has one race village with no moving around and there\u2019s a superb atmosphere. Jennie and I always race to win, but even as a professional athlete it\u2019s important to have balance and enjoy the experience along the way. This year W2W announced that it\u2019s already healthy prize purse has been increased. As a result I expect the ladies racing category to be very exciting.\u201d <\/p>\n

According to Stenerhag, the FNB W2W MTB Race is one of her favorite races. \u201cTaking the win with Robyn was a great feeling. It was a tight and exciting ladies race. That made the win even more special. Our goal will be to successfully defend our title. Of all the stage races that I have done, W2W has the most fun route. It\u2019s the event that features the most single track. It\u2019s also challenging with a lot of climbing. It\u2019s the perfect combination of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

An exciting new team that just might throw a spanner in the works for De Groot and Stenerhag, is Team Spur\u2019s Ariane Kleinhans and Cherie Redecker. <\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-22253900-1477375476.jpg\"<\/a>Ariane Kleinhans in action. Photo Credit: Craig Kolesky.<\/span><\/p>\n

Currently the reigning Swiss Marathon Champion, Kleinhans is confident that her team is up for the challenge. \u201cOur goal is to win, but also to enjoy the amazing event as much as possible,\u201d says Kleinhans. \u201cW2W is one of South Africa\u2019s greatest stage races. The route and the organization of the event are absolutely first class. Cherie and I are both pretty strong technical riders and fairly good climbers. We also get along really well. I am looking forward to teaming up with her.\u201d <\/p>\n

According to Redecker, who is the current SA XCO Cup series winner, she is extremely excited to be racing. \u201cI\u2019ve wanted to race W2W since the event\u2019s inception,\u201d says Redecker. \u201cIt is a privilege to race with Ariane. We are going to have a great time and I know I will learn a lot from her. Having only ever worked at W2W, I am really looking forward to experiencing the event from a rider\u2019s perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other top teams that will be vying for the top spot on the podium will include: Candice Neethling with Vera Adrian (Team Dormakaba Time Freight), Theresa Ralph with Samantha Sanders (Team Galileo Risk Valencia) and Michelle Lombardi with Hanlie Booyens (Team Tiletoria Ladies).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African National Marathon Champion, Robyn de Groot and Swedish Marathon Champion, Jennie Stenerhag will team up the weekend of 11 \u2013 13 November 2016 to defend their title at the 2016 FNB Wines2Whales (W2W) Mountain Bike (MTB) Race. Riding for Team Ascendis Health, De Groot and Stenerhag claimed gold in 2015 after completing Stage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":39412,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[891,885,314,361,404,15],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-17464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-fnb-w2w","tag-fnb-wines2whales","tag-jennie-stenerhag","tag-robyn-de-groot","tag-w2w","tag-wines2whales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17464","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=17464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17464"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=17464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}