![\"ccs-62657-0-99702100-1456143286.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-99702100-1456143286.jpg\")
<\/a>Karl Platt, Urs Hurber and Max Knox forming the lead pack of the Ultra Marathon elite men at Sabie | Photo Credit: ZC Marketing Consulting<\/span><\/p>\nRabie lost the lead group, but German champion, Karl Platt (Team Bulls) and Gert Heyns (SCOTT LCB Factory Racing) made contact. But Huber was intent on keeping the pace hot and only Knox and Platt were able to respond. Huber then attacked and neither Platt nor Knox could match the Swiss ace, who went on to finish first in a time of 04 hours 54 minutes 38 seconds.<\/p>\n
Platt rolled home in second place in 4:55:28 with Knox taking third place in 5:01:40. Heyns claimed fourth place with Nico Bell (Team NAD), outsprint Darren Lill (USN Purefit) for fifth place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very happy to win here again. I have been very focussed for the past few weeks on this race and it is good to win it again. It was quite hot out there, but I have been in South Africa for the past two weeks so have got use to the conditions. I am going home tomorrow then back for the Cape Epic,\u201d said Huber.<\/p>\n
Huber and Platt will once again team up to try and win the Cape Epic next month. Their one-two finish at Sabie, as well as other recent race successes confirm they\u2019re on track to be title contenders for certain.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was hot out there and in places a bit slippery after the light rain yesterday. I knew the race would be hard so I tried not to pace too much in the beginning. I flatted after 10km and I had to stop a couple of times to sort out my gears. Each time I chased back to the front group, so I spend some energy. Sabie is one of the hardest races in the world. The high altitude, the humidity, the heat and the terrain all make is super tough,\u201d said Platt.<\/p>\n
The women\u2019s race became a duel between defending champion, Ariane Kleinhans (Team Spur) and De Groot. Kleinhans has struggled with her early season form compared to previous years and was forced on the defensive at Sabie, having to chase a clearly in-form De Groot virtually from start to finish.<\/p>\n De Groot claimed the Queen of the Mountain title at the summit of The Mamba after 28km. Kleinhans was just a few seconds back. But as the 72km race progressed, De Groot managed to extend her lead over the two-time Cape Epic women\u2019s champion.<\/p>\n De Groot clocked a time of 3:45:55 with Kleinhans crossing the finish in 3:51:04. Candice Neethling (Dorma) rounded out the podium places in 4:00:57.<\/p>\n \u201cSabie is always a toughie. Fortunately I felt pretty comfortable. I wanted to come here and push myself hard. Sabie is the last one-day race until nationals and I wanted to do the SA Champion jersey proud. So, here it is,\u201d smiled De Groot.<\/p>\n \u201cI suffered today. This is such a tough race. It\u2019s nicer to lead the race, but Robyn just rode away. She was the strongest. Congratulations to her on the win. While I suffered, I did really enjoy that last section of singletrack though. Well done to everyone that finished. This is one of the toughest races,\u201d said Kleinhans.<\/p>\n The Ashburton Investments National MTB Series now moves to South Africa\u2019s Free State province for Round 3, on 18 April.<\/p>\n For more information, visit www.nationalmtbseries.co.za<\/a>. For full results, visit: www.jumpertrax.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n Elite men \u2013 112km Ultra-marathon:<\/strong><\/p>\n 1 Urs Huber (SUI) Team Bulls 4:54:38 Elite women \u2013 72km marathon:<\/strong><\/p>\n 1 Robyn de Groot (RSA) Ascendis Health 3:45:55 Switzerland\u2019s Urs Huber and South Africa\u2019s Robyn de Groot were the mountain biking king and queen of Sabie after winning the men and women\u2019s titles respectively at Round 2 of the Ashburton Investments National MTB Series at the weekend. For Huber (Team Bulls), it was his second Sabie victory after having claimed the title there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":44359,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[904,361,69,752],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-18681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-national-mtb-series","tag-robyn-de-groot","tag-sabie","tag-urs-huber"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18681","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=18681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18681"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=18681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>All smiles at the finish line after a tough race, Robyn de Groot (left) Areiane Kleinhans (right) | Photo Credit: ZC Marketing Consulting<\/span><\/p>\nLeading results<\/h2>\n
2 Karl Platt (GER) Team Bulls 4:55:28
3 Max Knox (RSA) Valencia 5:01:40
4 Gert Heyns (RSA) SCOTT LCB Factory Racing 5:08:19
5 Nico Bell (RSA) Team NAD 5:15:26
6 Darren Lill (RSA) USN Purefit 5:15:29
7 Gawie Combrinck Team NAD 5:17:07
8 Waylon Woolcock (RSA) USN Purefit 5:17:57
9 Lourens Luus (RSA) PSG Giant 5:23:32
10 Dylan Rebello (RSA) Momsen 5:37:06<\/p>\n
2 Ariane Kleinhans (SUI) Team Spur 3:51:04
3 Candice Neethling (RSA) Dorma 4:00:57
4 Theresa Ralph (RSA) Galileo Risk 4:03:13
5 Vanessa Bells (RSA) Bells Cycling 4:07:06
6 Amy Beth McDougall (RSA) Valencia 4:11:19
7 Sanet Coetzee (RSA) 4:2511
8 Liesl Lourens (RSA) 4:34:47
9 Mariette Hattingh (RSA) 4:37:59
10 Julia Kotze (RSA) 5:08:04\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"