{"id":17784,"date":"2016-08-04T10:10:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-04T09:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2016\/08\/04\/gert-heyns-wins-at-round-two-of-the-sram-gravity-enduro-series-r5339\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T07:50:37","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T07:50:37","slug":"gert-heyns-wins-at-round-two-of-the-sram-gravity-enduro-series-r5339","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/gert-heyns-wins-at-round-two-of-the-sram-gravity-enduro-series-r5339\/","title":{"rendered":"Gert Heyns wins at round two of the SRAM Gravity Enduro Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gert Heyns (Scott LCB Factory racing) took out the win in Round Two of the SRAM Gravity Enduro Series presented by YT Industries on Sunday 31 July 2016 held at Jonkershoek. Heyns, better known for his prowess as marathon and cross-country racer surprised himself and the other top contenders by taking the win ahead of Lance Morris and Theo Erlangsen.<\/p>\n

Heyns\u2019 combined time of 17:01,8 was eight seconds faster than second place, with all of the top six completing the four-stage event in under 18 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-43200400-1470305074.jpg\"<\/a>Gert Heyns on his way to overall victory during round 2 of the 2016 WP SRAM Gravity Enduro series, held at Jonkershoek, Stellenbosch. Photo credit: Ewald Sadie | www.esphotography.co.za<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoyed the event,\u201d Heyns commented afterward, visibly elated with his win, although it wasn\u2019t his first enduro title. \u201cI\u2019ve always liked the gravity side of things and about a year ago I bought an enduro bike, just for fun – mostly just to practice my skills and enjoy the trails. The week I got the bike there was an enduro happening so I took part and surprised myself with the win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis event fitted into my programme perfectly so I was eager to give it a bash again.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Heyns \u2013 who hails from George \u2013 he went into the event confident of a good showing but weary of the tough competition. \u201cI tend to be quite good at racing blind and reading the lines and those kinds of things,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, being Jonkershoek I knew that everyone knew those trails well, so it felt a bit more like a downhill race where everyone already knew the lines and I was worried that that might count against me.\u201d<\/p>\n

While that may have been a factor on the day, conditions certainly weren\u2019t. Sunday 31 July proved the ideal day for enduro racing, as it day dawned cold and misty but cleared up during the morning. There had been a fair amount of rain in the week leading up to the event, leaving the trails grippy and dust free for the 90-odd riders to take on the four timed stages.<\/p>\n

According to Heyns the racing was important to him but it was far more important to soak up the vibe and enjoy the good trails on offer. \u201cThe vibe at these events is a lot more chilled than at the marathon and cross-country races I\u2019m used to,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s all about having a good weekend and having fun on the trails and riding with your mates – it was good to step into that kind of atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he will most likely be in the hunt for a few more titles this season. \u201cThe rest of my racing season is pretty relaxed and I can do the events I want to do and I think there are a few of the enduro races that fits into my schedule so I\u2019m going to try and fit them in.<\/p>\n

Top results<\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. Gert Heyns\n<\/li>\n
  2. Lance Morris\n<\/li>\n
  3. Theo Erlangsen\n<\/li>\n
  4. Gary Barnard\n<\/li>\n
  5. Martin Zietsman<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    Photos by Ewald Sadie | www.esphotography.co.za<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Gert Heyns (Scott LCB Factory racing) took out the win in Round Two of the SRAM Gravity Enduro Series presented by YT Industries on Sunday 31 July 2016 held at Jonkershoek. Heyns, better known for his prowess as marathon and cross-country racer surprised himself and the other top contenders by taking the win ahead of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":41006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[220,463,2340],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-17784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-enduro","tag-gert-heyns","tag-sram-gravity-enduro-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17784","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=17784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17784"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=17784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}