A long awaited and welcome return for the SRAM WP Gravity Enduro series, saw round one take place at the popular Helderberg Trails, just outside Somerset West. With some good rain a few days prior, and a fair amount of sunshine in between, the soil was perfectly tacky and conditions were great all round for racing. A very crisp and cloudless morning meant riders wrapped up with long sleeves and other warm gear, but the long and steep 5.5km climb up liaison 1 quickly heated things up.<\/p>\n
As per usual, stage 1 started at the radio mast, but incorporated a few newly built sections. Theo Erlangsen completed the 1.9km descend in 02:30.09, narrowly beating Matt Lombardi by 0.1 seconds. Stage 2 was slightly shorter at 1.8km, and was taken by Matt Lombardi with a time of 02:41.54. At 2.7km, stage 3 was the longest stage of the day and combined a wide variety of elements including part of the DH track, some sculpted berms and a few natural rock gardens. A winning time of 06:02.62 was posted by Matt Lombardi, crowning him king of Helderberg, with a total racing time of 11:14.37, almost half a minute in front of his nearest competitor.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n