{"id":19914,"date":"2015-05-30T17:25:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-30T16:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2015\/05\/30\/wolhuter-hill-sprint-to-stage-victory-at-zuurberg-r2659\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T10:52:43","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T10:52:43","slug":"wolhuter-hill-sprint-to-stage-victory-at-zuurberg-r2659","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wolhuter-hill-sprint-to-stage-victory-at-zuurberg-r2659\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolhuter, Hill sprint to stage victory at Zuurberg"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chris Wolhuter and Andrew Hill took one back from overnight leaders Kevin Evans and Pieter Seyffert as they sprinted to the stage win on day two of the three-day PwC Great Zuurberg Trek near Port Elizabeth on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image\" href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-47332000-1433006574.jpg\" data-fileid=\"539833\" data-fileext=\"jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-fileid=\"539833\" class=\"ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed\" alt=\"ccs-62657-0-47332000-1433006574.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-47332000-1433006574.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"italic text-sm text-slate-500 block mt-1 mb-4\">Chris Wolhuter (left) and Andrew Hill (second from left) outsprint Kevin Evans and Pieter Seyffert (far right) to claim the second stage of the three-day PwC Great Zuurberg Trek near Addo outside Port Elizabeth on Saturday. \/\/ Photo: Full Stop Communications.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Wolhuter and Hill, riding in the colours of TIB Insurance, finished in 3:43:01 to hold the Biogen Volcan-Altech Autopage duo at bay by a single second to claim the 78km queen stage that took in remote portions of the Addo Elephant National Park.<\/p>\n<p>Cycle Lab\u2019s Andrew Mclean and Bruce Diesel finished a distant third in 4:03:00 on the tough stage that featured almost 2 000m of climbing.<\/p>\n<p>Evans and Seyffert retain their positions at the top of the leaderboard with an aggregate time of 6:23:29 and will take a 1:18 lead into the final day.<\/p>\n<p>The young Isostar team of Jurgens Uys and Jason Meaton finished fourth in 4:03:25 to remain third in the general classification in 6:52:24.<\/p>\n<p>The stage is now set for an interesting showdown on the fast-paced 50km final stage.<\/p>\n<p>While Wolhuter and Hill may have the technical advantage on the Hayterdale cross-country trails, the race could come down to the final climb up Zuurberg Pass, where Evans and Seyffert asserted their authority on the opening stage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think a minute\u2019s enough to win this race if you don\u2019t have any bad luck or mechanicals,\u201d said Evans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAndrew and Chris were stronger today than yesterday, so our goal was just to ride with them, not lose time and defend our lead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The race started at a brisk pace as the riders descended into the valley from Camp Figtree towards Slagboom Dam, with the foursome going clear on the technical Monty\u2019s Python climb just before the first waterpoint.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen we climbed up and out of the Addo Park grasslands, where I just sat at the front and rode a nice consistent pace,\u201d said defending champion Hill.<\/p>\n<p>On one of the recommended portage sections after the second waterpoint, the Isostar youngsters caught the leaders but the elastic snapped once more when the tempo was increased.<\/p>\n<p>There were some anxious moments for the overall leaders when Evans\u2019s chain kept dropping, forcing him and Seyffert to chase back several times in the vicinity of the radio mast high on the northern ridge of the Zuurberg mountains.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe then set a really strong pace through the third and fourth waterpoints along the Karoo Koppies section, with a tailwind behind us and a nice smooth track,\u201d said Hill.<\/p>\n<p>However, his turn for trouble came when a lead motorbike crashed in front of him, snagging a roll of farm fencing and his rear wheel in the process.<\/p>\n<p>After extricating Hill from the barbed wire, the foursome paced together on For Pete\u2019s Sake, the final sting in the tail climb, before deciding the stage in a nail-biting finishing sprint.<\/p>\n<p>In the women\u2019s race, the Merrell team of Andrea Shirley and Sanmari Woithe claimed their second stage victory in 5:10:12 for a combined time of 8:44:58.<\/p>\n<p>Multiple Cape Town Cycle Tour champion Anriette Schoeman and Africa Silks teammate John Wakefield won the day in the mixed category in 4:47:23 for an overall time of 8:01:50.<\/p>\n<p>Visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.greatzuurbergtrek.co.za\" rel=\"external nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.greatzuurbergtrek.co.za<\/a>. Follow <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/zuurbergtrekker\" rel=\"external nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@zuurbergtrekker<\/a> or find the race on Facebook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chris Wolhuter and Andrew Hill took one back from overnight leaders Kevin Evans and Pieter Seyffert as they sprinted to the stage win on day two of the three-day PwC Great Zuurberg Trek near Port Elizabeth on Saturday. Chris Wolhuter (left) and Andrew Hill (second from left) outsprint Kevin Evans and Pieter Seyffert (far right) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":47831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[476,1464,630,3189,1777,1323],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-19914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-andrew-hill","tag-chris-wolhuter","tag-great-zuurberg-trek","tag-kevin-evans","tag-pieter-seyffert","tag-pwc-great-zuurberg-trek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19914","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=19914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19914"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=19914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}