RMB Change a Life MTB Academy’s Dumisani Shabalala (33rd), Martin Dreyer (16th), John Ntuli (8th) and Sthembiso Masango (6th) celebrate theirs and the rest of the team’s success in the 50km Classic event of the Pietermaritzburg MTB Festival that took place on Easter Sunday last weekend. \/\/ Photo: Supplied\/<\/span><\/p>\nGameplan Media.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThere is nowhere to hide in cross country. It is so intense, you are not able to draft, it\u2019s technical and you go full gas throughout and si it was great to see John\u2019s result and Sthembiso did well in the elite men\u2019s HC cross country event too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the valley providing such an ideal natural mountain biking playground, marathon is definitely more of our thing and for Sthembiso to stand on the podium with James Reid and Travis Walker in the senior men\u2019s category really was amazing!\u201d said Dreyer.<\/p>\n
Steady rain meant conditions were testing throughout the weekend and having already experienced Saturday\u2019s muddy XCO course and more rain overnight, the RMB Change a Life outfit braced themselves for the worst ahead of Sunday\u2019s 50km clash.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we set off on Sunday, to our surprise it wasn\u2019t half as muddy as expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe minor detours to avoid problem areas, plus the virgin track played into the hands of the event with its great surface.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess that\u2019s what you get when you\u2019ve got the world\u2019s best trail builder in Nick Floros involved in the mix!<\/p>\n
While Masango looked to challenge the front of the field, he was closely followed home by Ntuli in eighth place and the ever-improving Ndumiso Dontso in eleventh while Dreyer himself kept the banter from the rest of the academy\u2019s riders at bay for a little longer as he edged out Sipho Kupiso, Mboneni Ngcobo and Bongumusa Zikhali for 16th position.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have our own dices within the academy at each event and before the race the guys had been saying I was getting old.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said to them the night before that this grey beard was going to beat them in the morning and it was great to prove just that to most of them. It keeps them from ragging me for a little while longer!\u201d laughed Dreyer.<\/p>\n
The RMB Change a Life MTB Academy now turn their attention towards the local KZN MTB Cross Country Series third leg in Eston before looking for strong showings against the country\u2019s best at the Clarens leg of the Ashburton National MTB Series in the Free State and the Nedbank sani2c.<\/p>\n
SUMMARY OF RESULTS \u2013 RMB CHANGE A LIFE MTB ACADEMY<\/strong><\/p>\nPIETERMARITZBURG MTB FESTIVAL<\/strong><\/p>\nXCO<\/strong><\/p>\nElite Men<\/strong><\/p>\n17. Sthembiso Masango 1.41.15<\/p>\n
Sub-Vet Men<\/strong><\/p>\n1.John Ntuli 1.14.41<\/p>\n
50KM CLASSIC<\/strong><\/p>\nOverall<\/strong><\/p>\n6.Sthembiso Masango 2:26.16<\/p>\n
8.John Ntuli 2:30.26<\/p>\n
11.Ndumiso Dontso 2:34.15<\/p>\n
16.Martin Dreyer 2:39.24<\/p>\n
17.Sipho Kupiso 2:42.38<\/p>\n
18.Mboneni Ngcobo 2:42.58<\/p>\n
19.Bongumusa Zikhali 2:45.20<\/p>\n
23.Mazwi Msimango 2:48.16<\/p>\n
25.Siyanda Masango 2:51.56<\/p>\n
33.Dumisani Shabalala 3:01.47<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chocolate eggs weren\u2019t the only cause of the sugary sweet aftertaste left in the mouths of Martin Dreyer\u2019s RMB Change a Life MTB Academy this Easter after the team\u2019s telling impression left on the Pietermaritzburg MTB Festival held at Cascades MTB Park last weekend. The fast emerging outfit handled the wet and slippery conditions with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":48786,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[950,1259,2815,2484],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-20199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-cascades","tag-change-a-life","tag-pietermaritzburg-mtb-festival","tag-rmb-change-a-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20199","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=20199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20199"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=20199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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