{"id":18846,"date":"2016-01-20T10:10:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T10:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2016\/01\/20\/more-prize-money-in-the-joberg2c-mix-r4003\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T08:46:53","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T08:46:53","slug":"more-prize-money-in-the-joberg2c-mix-r4003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/more-prize-money-in-the-joberg2c-mix-r4003\/","title":{"rendered":"More prize-money in the joBerg2c mix"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Organisers of the Old Mutual joBerg2c have announced that mixed teams will receive equal prize-money to men in the 2016 race.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur research has shown that women prefer racing longer stage races with a male partner,\u201d said race director Craig Wapnick<\/p>\n<p>He said the extra cash commitment was made possible by commercial law firm Lanham-Love Attorneys, who had come on board as prize-money sponsors for the mixed category.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image\" href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-51419200-1453284563.jpg\" data-fileid=\"664479\" data-fileext=\"jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-fileid=\"664479\" class=\"ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed\" alt=\"ccs-62657-0-51419200-1453284563.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-51419200-1453284563.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/a><span class=\"italic text-sm text-slate-500 block mt-1 mb-4\">Sonya Looney (FreakShow) from the United States, the current world 24-hour champion, will team up with Yuki Ikeda (Topeak Ergon) from Japan. Photo: Supplied<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are also experts on matrimonial matters, which is why this is a perfect partnership. Mountain biking either leads to marriage or divorce,\u201d Wapnick quipped.<\/p>\n<p>The move, which will see the top mixed team earn a R50 000 bonus, is aimed at attracting more female riders to the nine-day event, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlthough we would have loved more female-only teams taking part, the growth has been slower than anticipated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite us trying to attract women with equal prize-money in the past, we have not had the support. Yet, the mixed category continues to grow.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a chicken and egg story but we made the decision to support the mixed to capture the imagination of strong local and international teams.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leading the international entries in the mixed section so far are Sonya Looney (FreakShow) from the United States, the current world 24-hour champion, and teammate Yuki Ikeda (Topeak Ergon) from Japan.<\/p>\n<p>They will face top local teams such as Grant Usher and world single speed champion Amy Beth McDougal (Valencia\/joBerg2c), who placed second and first respectively in the inaugural Munga recently.<\/p>\n<p>Usher pipped Ikeda for the last podium position at last year\u2019s world single speed champs in Japan.<\/p>\n<p>Wapnick said they had seen the same trend unfolding in other long stage races.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf more women\u2019s teams start entering, we will adjust the prize-money accordingly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m sure that once more females are introduced to our event through the mixed section, they might start forming teams.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut, for now, we would rather have more women riding than not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The prize purse for the Old Mutual joBerg2c will be R350 000, which is an increase of around 40 per cent.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, City Lodge will sponsor the age group categories with fantastic accommodation prizes worth R150 000.<\/p>\n<p>Go to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.joberg2c.co.za\" rel=\"external nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.joberg2c.co.za<\/a> tor a full breakdown of the prize-money.<\/p>\n<p>Entries for the 2016 race, which takes place from April 22 to 28, close on January 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Organisers of the Old Mutual joBerg2c have announced that mixed teams will receive equal prize-money to men in the 2016 race. \u201cOur research has shown that women prefer racing longer stage races with a male partner,\u201d said race director Craig Wapnick He said the extra cash commitment was made possible by commercial law firm Lanham-Love [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":44819,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[286,1305,2876],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-18846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-joberg2c","tag-old-mutual-joberg2c","tag-sonya-looney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18846","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=18846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18846"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=18846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}