![\"ccs-62657-0-13567900-1463582756.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-13567900-1463582756.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Following some strong performances over the past few years, Concept Cyclery Ballito powered by Burry Stander athlete Julian Jessop hopes to kick start his marathon season with a strong performance in the 60km Sappi Karkloof Marathon at the 2016 Sappi Karkloof Classic Trail Festival on Sunday 5 June. Anthony Grote\/ Gameplan Media<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe Karkloof Classic is always such a great race and one of the most prestigious events in KZN so it\u2019s definitely one you want to do well at,\u201d says Jessop.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will look to do my absolute best, as I always do, at this year\u2019s race and just keep focusing on the controllables rather than the uncontrollable such as my final position,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
While hesitant to predict an outcome of this year\u2019s clash, Jessop brings good form into the race on the back of a strong showing at the recent leg of the STIHL SA XCO Cup Series where he finished fourth behind the country\u2019s lead trio in the cross country discipline, James Reid (Team Spur), Alan Hatherly (Kargo Pro MTB Team) and Philip Buys (SCOTT LCB Factory Racing).<\/p>\n
\u201cThings have been going well for me on the cross country front but as that season starts to come to a close, I\u2019ll look to do more marathons.<\/p>\n
\u201cKarkloof is the weekend before the final Cup Series national and then there\u2019s just SA Cross Country Champs left after that so I\u2019d definitely say this is the start of my marathon season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the differing demands of the two disciplines, Jessop is confident he can make the transition in time for him to be competitive at this year\u2019s Sappi Karkloof Marathon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really change too much in my training regardless of whether I\u2019m preparing for cross country or marathon; instead I\u2019ll just look to add a few longer rides on the weekend in order for me to get used to that extra hour of racing a 60km event like Karkloof requires.<\/p>\n
\u201cKarkloof does have some of the best single track around plus the three major climbs are all followed by a big descent and so my cross country skills will definitely be to my advantage on those downhills,\u201d says Jessop.<\/p>\n
While Jessop\u2019s career remains in its infancy, the young star has already shown what he is capable of at the renowned KZN Midlands event while having also proven he has what it take to mix it up with some of the sport\u2019s top senior competitors and will undoubtedly be a force to be reckoned with again in 2016.<\/p>\n
The 2016 Sappi Karkloof Classic Trail Festival takes place at Karkloof Country Club on Saturday, 4 and Sunday, 5 June. The event offers 21km, 10km and 5km trail running races, 60km, 40km, 20km and 10km mountain bikes events as well as an Enduro. Entries can be submitted via www.roag.co.za<\/a> while more information can be found at www.karkloofmtb.co.za<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fast emerging dual mountain biking star Julian Jessop will look to kick start his 2016 marathon season with a strong showing at Sunday, 5 June\u2019s 60km Sappi Karkloof Marathon, the feature race of the 2016 Sappi Karkloof Classic Trail Festival, having spent much of the first half of the year focusing on the cross country […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":42544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1013,421,1318],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-18148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-julian-jessop","tag-karkloof-classic","tag-sappi-karkloof-classic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18148","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=18148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18148"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=18148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}