![\"ccs-62657-0-34745400-1442312394.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-34745400-1442312394.jpg\")
<\/a>“Riders in the mist” Knox on his way to taking the KOM.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/a>Big smiles and mud as Max Knox realises he has won the series title.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nAlso in the running to claim the series crown was South African champion, Gawie Combrinck (EAI Cycling). He too responded well to the challenge by tussling with Knox at the head of the race for the big points haul, but in the end failed to match Knox in the closing stages and had to settle for second place which, based on his time behind the winning time, gave him 3815 points and put him in third overall, just 22 points behind Looser.<\/p>\n
Misty, cool conditions greeted the riders at Dullstroom, a town that\u2019s located just over 2000 metres above sea level. The 116km ultra-marathon route took the riders down the escarpment and into in the surrounding valleys before bringing the riders back up to the finish.<\/p>\n
The conditions, combined with the distance and 2500 metres of vertical ascent, saw a gradual splitting of the front pack in the early stages with a group of eight still in the mix as they reached the climb to the King of the Mountain prime where the race-winning move was to come. Nico Bell (RECM), the 2013 and 2014 series champion, punctured and lost contact with the group just before the climb.<\/p>\n
Rourke Croeser (Full Dynamix USN) and Knox began to increase the pace at the base of the KOM climb and Combrinck added a big attack, which left the group in tatters with around half of the race remaining. Knox drove the pace up the climb, claiming the KOM prize ahead of Croeser and Combrinck. Croeser managed to get onto Knox\u2019s wheel and the pair rode together at the front with Combrinck chasing on his own.<\/p>\n
Croeser rode for some distance with a flat tyre before he stopped at the final tech zone to get another wheel. Combrinck passed him in the process and charged on in pursuit of Knox and the coveted series crown. But he was unable to catch Knox and had to settle for the runner-up spot. Croeser managed to hold onto third with a hard-charging Bell recovering well from his early mechanical to claim fourth place. Matthys Beukes (SCOTT LCB) rounded out the top five.<\/p>\n
\u201cA championship cannot be won in the first race of a series but it can be lost,\u201d said Knox, who was outside the top 10 at the series opener in January. \u201cI had a bit of pressure today. I knew If I could win the race I could win the series, which in my eyes is one of the most prestigious awards… Being the most consistent rider throughout the year is quite difficult to achieve. I\u2019m super stoked to the win the series again!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is always hard racing at altitude and Max just had the better legs today. Visibility is tricky in the mist. You can\u2019t always see what\u2019s coming so puncture risks are higher. I sat on the front of the bunch where possible in order to reduce the risk of punctures and it worked out well for me,\u201d said Combrinck.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m more used to 90-minute full-out efforts. The last hour of the race hurt me today. I had a flat wheel that I had to ride for 20km that made things tougher. I\u2019ve been through a difficult time in my career recently and took a week off training. Today was about showing face and being back in the public eye,\u201d said Croeser.<\/p>\n In the women\u2019s race, De Groot was able to establish herself a dominant lead from early on. The South African champion, winner of the national series in 2013, had no series title to chase, but she was hungry for the win and to defend the race crown she\u2019d won in 2014.<\/p>\n De Groot clocked a winning time of 03:23:08 and collected the 4000 points on offer for the victory. That put her 509 points behind Kleinhans for the runner-up spot in the 2015 series. Theresa Ralph (RBS) claimed second place in Dullstroom and third in the series with Vanessa Bell securing third place in the final round of the series.<\/p>\n 2015 Ashburton Investments National MTB Series<\/strong> Elite men \u2013 116km Ultra-marathon:<\/strong><\/p>\n 1 Max Knox (RSA) Biogen-Volcan 4:36:16 Elite women \u2013 75km marathon:<\/strong><\/p>\n 1 Robyn de Groot (RSA) Ascendis Health 3:23:08 2015 Ashburton Investments National MTB Series<\/strong><\/p>\n Final leading standings Men:<\/strong><\/p>\n 1 Max Knox (RSA) Biogen Volcan 18419 points Final leading standings Women:<\/strong><\/p>\n 1 Ariane Kleinhans (SUI) RECM 19844 points There were seven rounds in the 2015 Ashburton Investments National MTB Series, with the five best results of each rider counting towards the final series rankings. For more information, visit www.nationalmtbseries.co.za<\/a>. For full results, visit: www.saseeding.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Max Knox (Biogen Volcan) showed that he responds well to pressure when he won the final round and claimed the 2015 Ashburton Investments National MTB Series title in Dullstroom, in South Africa\u2019s Mpumalanga province at the weekend. South African champion, Robyn de Groot (Ascendis Health) claimed the women\u2019s race title, but had to settle for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":46896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1022,522,904,361],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-19304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-dullstroom","tag-max-knox","tag-national-mtb-series","tag-robyn-de-groot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19304","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=19304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19304"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=19304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Robyn de Groot post win interview<\/span><\/p>\n
Round 7, Dullstroom, Saturday 12 September 2015<\/strong>
Leading results<\/strong><\/p>\n
2 Gawie Combrinck (RSA) EAI Cycling 4:39:16
3 Rourke Croeser (RSA) Full Dynamix 4:41:51
4 Nico Bell (RSA) RECM 4:48:54
5 Matthys Beukes (RSA) SCOTT LCB 4:56:13
6 Adriaan Louw (RSA) Contego Swift 4:48:57
7 Guylin van den Berg (RSA) iXS Sport 5:01:49
8 Alan Gordon 5:05:07
9 Thinus Redlinghuys 5:05:12
10 Stu Rawlinson 5:05:45<\/p>\n
2 Theresa Ralph (RSA) RBS 3:35:11
3 Vanessa Bell (RSA) 3:39:27
4 Dalene van der Leek (RSA) 3:44:08
5 Susan Sloan (RSA) 3:44:18
6 Adrienne Moolman (RSA) 3:49:48
7 Mariette Hattingh (RSA) 3:56:18
8 Bonny Swanepoel (RSA) 3:58:26
9 Wilmarie du Plessis (RSA) 4:01:13
10 Karyn Southgate (RSA) 4:10:46<\/p>\n
2 Konny Looser (SUI) Wheeler iXS 18203
3 Gawie Combrinck (RSA) EAI Cycling 18177
4 Nico Bell (RSA) RECM 16995
5 Erik Klienhans (RSA) RECM 16302
6 Darren Lill (RSA) 16209
7 Adriaan Louw (RSA) Contego Swift 15989
8 Guylin van den Berg (RSA) (iXS Sport) 14638
9 Alan Gordon (RSA) 14460
10 Thinus Redlinghuys 14158<\/p>\n
2 Robyn de Groot (RSA) Ascendis Health 19335
3 Theresa Ralph (RSA) RBS 16805
4 Candice Neethling (RSA) Pam Golding\/Freewheel Cycology 16769
5 Vera Adrian (NAM) 16109
6 Vanessa Bell (RSA) 14989
7 Cherise Stander (RSA) RECM 14031
8 Mariette Hattingh (RSA) 11547
9 Jennie Stenerhag (SWE) Ascendis Health 10846
10 Michelle Beetge (RSA) 10526<\/p>\n