{"id":19599,"date":"2015-07-22T11:35:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-22T10:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2015\/07\/22\/race-report-2015-south-african-xco-championship-r3134\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T14:19:29","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T14:19:29","slug":"race-report-2015-south-african-xco-championship-r3134","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/race-report-2015-south-african-xco-championship-r3134\/","title":{"rendered":"Race report: 2015 South African XCO Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2015 XCO SA Championship went down this past weekend at the ever popular town of Stellenbosch, with loads of spectators flocking there to show their support despite the bitterly cold morning temperatures. The 4.8km Coetzenburg loop was mostly the same as for the WP Championship, however course designers Hanno Lategan and Corrie Muller added in a number of A-line \/ B-line options to step up the difficulty as this was a National event. Some A-line options featured very technical rock drops, a steep log chute onto the start \/ finish area and a super tricky rock garden which caught out a number of riders. Because of heavy torrential downpours the Friday afternoon and evening, the race director kept all A-lines closed until 12pm, leaving just enough time for the mud to dry out a bit and reduce the chances of injury.<\/p>\n

A total of 20 different categories meant riders from all shapes, sizes and ages signed up for the day. First off would be the nippers and sprogs with an early 8am start, with the last category of Elite men starting at 2pm. Most notably would be the Youth and Junior men’s categories, totalling 34 and 37 entries respectively, meaning XCO racing in South Africa has a very bright future. As for the Elite women’s racing. It was a very small lineup of riders on the start line, and with team OMX rider Cherie Vale fresh of the World Cup circuit in Europe, it was an easy win with a margin of just under 7 minutes to second place. Contrasting to the women’s race, Team RECM’s James Reid took an impressive sprint finish win over team Kargo Pro MTB’s Alan Hatherly, so close that the times registered as exactly the same.<\/p>\n

\nHaving the SA XCO Champs in Stellenbosch was fantastic. The home town support was awesome and motivated me to push harder. Despite half the women’s field being out due to injury\/flu I focused on racing against time. The course was muddy and slippery in sections but the storm from the previous day hadn’t done too much damage. As a precaution, the A-lines were closed for our race. I felt slow at the start but soon found my rhythm, making up time especially on the climbs with my super light Silverback SBC 3.0. It was an exhilarating feeling taking the National Championship title and something that I have been working towards for the past 3 years. I couldn’t have done it without all the support and I am very grateful to be part of the Novus OMX Pro Team.
\nCherie Vale \/\/ Novus OMX Pro Team<\/cite>\n<\/div>\n
\nI’m super relieved to have won the race, but it really was not easy. I felt horrific for the first half of the race, but kept giving it everything. It didn’t feel like I went any faster in the latter half of the race, more like the others slowed down. I got to them, attacked with one last roll of the dice and managed to draw Alan Hatherly and Travis Walker out. From there it was a flat out fight to the line and thankfully I got the hole shot once down on the field and finished it off.
\nJames Reid \/\/ Team RECM<\/cite>\n<\/div>\n

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Alec Coleske – 1st Nipper Boys<\/p>\n

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Marco Strydom – 2nd Nipper Boys<\/p>\n

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Hendre De Villiers – 3rd Nipper Boys<\/p>\n

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Olivia Penfold – 1st Nipper Girls<\/p>\n

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Jeanine Badenhorst – 3rd Nipper Girls<\/p>\n

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Luca Ruwiel – 1st Sprog Boys<\/p>\n

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Ben Du Plessis – 2nd Sprog Boys<\/p>\n

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Justin Chesterton – 3rd Sprog Boys<\/p>\n

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Chante Olivier – 1st Sprog Girls<\/p>\n

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Chloe Bateson – 2nd Sprog Girls<\/p>\n

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Marjone Strydom – 3rd Sprog Girls<\/p>\n

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Megan Bircher (far left) – 1st Sub Junior Girls<\/p>\n

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Sabine Thies – 2nd Sub Junior Girls<\/p>\n

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Kelsey Van Schoor – 3rd Sub Junior Girls<\/p>\n

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Luke Moir – 1st Sub Junior Boys<\/p>\n

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Cwynton Collett – 2nd Sub Junior Boys<\/p>\n

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Daniel Van Der Walt – 3rd Sub Junior Boys<\/p>\n

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Cherie Vale warming up.<\/p>\n

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Cherie Vale – 1st Elite Women<\/p>\n

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Candice Neethling – 2nd Elite Women<\/p>\n

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Hanli Cilliers – 3rd Elite Women<\/p>\n

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Hayley Smith – 1st Under 23 Women<\/p>\n

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Sarah Hill – 2nd Under 23 Women<\/p>\n

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Rozalia Kubyana – 3rd Under 23 Women<\/p>\n

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Frances Du Toit – 1st Junior Women<\/p>\n

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Genevieve Van Coller – 2nd Junior Women<\/p>\n

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Kristen Louw – 3rd Junior Women<\/p>\n

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Tiffany Keep – 1st Youth Women<\/p>\n

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Danielle Strydom – 3rd Youth Women<\/p>\n

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Neil Bradford – 1st Veteran Men<\/p>\n

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Warren Price – 2nd Veteran Men<\/p>\n

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Jeroen Swart – 3rd Veteran Men<\/p>\n

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Corrie Muller – 1st Master Men<\/p>\n

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Jimmy Redman – 2nd Master Men<\/p>\n

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Guy Lanfear – 3rd Master Men<\/p>\n

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Linus Van Onselen – 1st Grand Master Men<\/p>\n

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Clive Gaven – 2nd Grand Master Men<\/p>\n

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Johann Trotzky – 2nd Youth Men<\/p>\n

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Chris Du Plessis – 3rd Youth Men<\/p>\n

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Brand Du Plessis – 1st Sub Vet Men<\/p>\n

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Dan Fowler – 2nd Sub Vet Men<\/p>\n

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Matthys Koekemoer – 3rd Sub Vet Men<\/p>\n

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Elite men start line.<\/p>\n

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Philip Buys leads out the Elite men.<\/p>\n

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Travis Walker – 3rd Elite Men<\/p>\n

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Philip Buys – 5th Elite Men<\/p>\n

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Alan Hatherly – 2nd Elite Men<\/p>\n

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Rourke Croeser – 4th Elite Men<\/p>\n

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James Reid – 1st Elite Men<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-60390900-1437561604.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Top 3 Elite women:<\/p>\n

1. Cherie Vale – 01.36.47 5<\/p>\n

2. Candice Neethling – 01.43.56 5<\/p>\n

3. Hanli Cilliers – 01.56.32<\/p>\n

Top 3 Elite men:<\/p>\n

1. James Reid – 01.28.41<\/p>\n

2. Alan Hatherly – 01.28.41<\/p>\n

3. Travis Walker – 01.29.05<\/p>\n

Full results can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thanks to our sponsors: Novus Holdings, Subaru Cape Town, Sappi, Mondi, PWC, Durbanville Commercial Printers (DCP) for making this event such a success.<\/p>\n

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The 2015 XCO SA Championship went down this past weekend at the ever popular town of Stellenbosch, with loads of spectators flocking there to show their support despite the bitterly cold morning temperatures. The 4.8km Coetzenburg loop was mostly the same as for the WP Championship, however course designers Hanno Lategan and Corrie Muller added […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56410,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[416,56,196],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-19599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure-and-travel","tag-ewald-sadie","tag-sa-mtb-champs","tag-xco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19599","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19599"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=19599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}