{"id":18257,"date":"2016-04-28T14:15:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T13:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2016\/04\/28\/rabie-and-kruger-fight-back-at-joberg2c-r4675\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T08:20:49","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T08:20:49","slug":"rabie-and-kruger-fight-back-at-joberg2c-r4675","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/rabie-and-kruger-fight-back-at-joberg2c-r4675\/","title":{"rendered":"Rabie and Kruger fight back at joBerg2c"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After losing the overall lead on a dramatic day yesterday, Johann Rabie and HB Kruger fought back to win the seventh stage of the Old Mutual joBerg2c mountain bike race at Mackenzie Club outside Ixopo today.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"w-full aspect-video\">\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"200\" height=\"113\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7icFgoj-o5Q?feature=oembed\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Telkom pair finished the 82km ride from Glencairn on the Sani Pass road in 3:03:06 (26:01:22) to claim their third stage of this year\u2019s event.<\/p>\n<p>New leaders Gawie Combrinck and Nico Bell, from NAD Pro, were second in 3:03:07 (25:56:21) to preserve their five-minute lead.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Hill and Tyronne White of Thule-Pyga-TIB raced to yet another third-place finish in 3:07:57 (26:41:13) and must be odds-on favourites to place on the bottom step of the podium in two days\u2019 time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYesterday I had one of those days where you feel bad and your legs seize up,\u201d said the 24-year-old Kruger, who lives in Paarl in the Western Cape.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image\" href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-95150700-1461853041.jpg\" data-fileid=\"718784\" data-fileext=\"jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-fileid=\"718784\" class=\"ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed\" alt=\"ccs-62657-0-95150700-1461853041.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-95150700-1461853041.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/a><span class=\"italic text-sm text-slate-500 block mt-1 mb-4\">HB Kruger (right) and Johann Rabie of Telkom chasing the leaders during the seventh stage of the 2016 Old Mutual joBerg2c. Photo: Full Stop Communications<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI struggled the whole day to get going and we fought the whole day. But Gawie and Nico were the strongest and definitely deserved to win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kruger, who grew up in Pretoria, said they tried to make it hard on the drags after the start to see whether they could create a situation to make up lost time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGawie and Nico countered us and managed to open a slight gap. So we had to chase and slowly but surely closed it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not sure whether they had some trouble in the mud at the bridge, but we caught up with them just after the first waterpoint and from there we rode together.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the finish it was a case of getting our position right and going flat-out to the line and luckily we could take the win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kruger said it dragged all the way to the finish and they knew it would be difficult to come from behind in the sprint.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter seven days of racing we are probably getting slower, but it is definitely becoming harder.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said the race was never won or lost before it reached the beach at Scottburgh after nine days and that they had not lost heart.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTomorrow is technical and a lot can happen on a stage like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said he felt better than the previous day and hoped to be his old self again for the eighth stage through the Umkomaas Valley.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image\" href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-59280200-1461853042.jpg\" data-fileid=\"718785\" data-fileext=\"jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-fileid=\"718785\" class=\"ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed\" alt=\"ccs-62657-0-59280200-1461853042.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-59280200-1461853042.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/a><span class=\"italic text-sm text-slate-500 block mt-1 mb-4\">Candice Neethling (right) and Darren Lill of Dorma-USN-Purefit en route to winning the seventh stage of the 2016 Old Mutual joBerg2c. Photo: Full Stop Communications<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Darren Lill and Candice Neethling, from Dorma-USN-Purefit, continued their relentless march to the top of the Lanham-Love Attorneys mixed category after winning their third stage in 3:14:26 (28:02:24).<\/p>\n<p>Former leaders Grant Usher and Amy McDougall, riding for Valencia-Lanham-Love, had another solid day in the saddle to place second in 3:21:28 (28:10:07).<\/p>\n<p>The overall leaders, Johan Labuschagne and Catherine Williamson of The Bicycle Company-Bestmed, looked the worst of the contenders when they finished in 3:22:06 (27:54:42).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a really good day for us,\u201d said the 33-year-old Lill.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere have been some changes to the route, but I think the changes suited us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe more single-track, the better for Candice. She is possibly a bit better on those sections than the other girls and is in essence getting free time there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As in previous stages, their strategy was to stay with the front bunch for as long as possible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was a tough drag before the first single-track and we knew if we could hang onto the leading men it would aid us quite a bit \u2013 and we were able to do so.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom there, we basically just tried to keep it steady the whole day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lill, a former national road champion who lives in Cape Town, said racing in the mixed category was all about managing the lady.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI tried to look after Candice as much as possible and she rode like a star. She bombed all the single-tracks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were able to make up good ground on a relatively short stage and there is at least one very tough day to come. We\u2019re definitely going for the win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image\" href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-07245000-1461853043.jpg\" data-fileid=\"718786\" data-fileext=\"jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-fileid=\"718786\" class=\"ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed\" alt=\"ccs-62657-0-07245000-1461853043.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-07245000-1461853043.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/a><span class=\"italic text-sm text-slate-500 block mt-1 mb-4\">Catherine Williamson (left) and Johan Labuschagne of The Bicycle Company-Bestmed chase the mixed category leaders during the seventh stage of the 2016 Old Mutual joBerg2c. Photo: Full Stop Communications<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The 34-year-old Williamson, who is trying to add a mixed title to her wins in the women\u2019s section, said she had been battling over the past two days.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery time it goes uphill, I\u2019ve been struggling. I think we went a bit hard in the first half of the race and are now paying for it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut on the other hand we had to take advantage of the roads that suited us best.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The leaders in the veterans\u2019 and masters\u2019 categories are Robert Daniel\u2019s Corrie and Richard Muller (29:59:28) and Cycle Lab\u2019s Greg Anderson and Deon Kruger (27:55:12) respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Valencia\u2019s Samantha Sanders and Anriette Schoeman head the women\u2019s section (31:20:47), with Calvin Beneke (26:53:57) and Patsy Hime (31:56:15) in charge in the solo category.<\/p>\n<p>The penultimate stage of the 900km race will take riders over 99km to Jolivet in the Highflats region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After losing the overall lead on a dramatic day yesterday, Johann Rabie and HB Kruger fought back to win the seventh stage of the Old Mutual joBerg2c mountain bike race at Mackenzie Club outside Ixopo today. The Telkom pair finished the 82km ride from Glencairn on the Sani Pass road in 3:03:06 (26:01:22) to claim [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43014,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[579,286,1748,1305],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-18257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-hb-kruger","tag-joberg2c","tag-johann-rabie","tag-old-mutual-joberg2c"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18257","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=18257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18257"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=18257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}