Men\u2019s solo category winner Dylan Rijnberg (left) receives his trophy from Barden Tyres\u2019 Thomas Rundle at the Pretoria Boys High School 24-Hour Mountain Bike Challenge last weekend. \/\/ Photo: Supplied.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe individual men\u2019s competition was won by Alberton\u2019s Dylan Rijnberg, who completed 68 laps (408km).<\/p>\n
Reigning women\u2019s champion Nicky Booyens, who lives in Pretoria, notched up 57 laps (342km) to retain her title.<\/p>\n
Rijnberg said he was very happy to have won after finishing third on a single-speed last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI decided to come back on a bicycle with gears and win it. It was a personal goal of mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unlike other mountain bike races, he said setting a manageable pace was one of the hardest parts of this event but also critical to success.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re used to racing fast, so you actually just have to tell yourself to slow down.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew the hardest work would be on the climb, so I\u2019d put it in the easiest gear and go up at a normal pace. Then I\u2019d slowly build my speed back up on the flats.\u201d<\/p>\n
A veteran of five 24-hour races, Rijnberg said his strategy had been to concentrate on finding the smoothest and most efficient line along the track.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you focus too much on your time or count every lap, it\u2019ll just mess up your head.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he maintained his energy levels by consuming energy drinks and race food every hour.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour legs are actually quite strong but it\u2019s your back, hands, shoulders, neck and heart you\u2019ve got to look after.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat being said, I think your head\u2019s got to be stronger than your body for these types of races.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old said he had opted to do a full 12-hour stint from the start at 10am on Saturday morning, followed by a short break and then another ride until midnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I just had a three-hour rest and was back on the bike at about 3.30am.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the second half of the race, in the early hours of Sunday morning, had been the toughest.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour body goes into a state where it wants you to stop. If you get off your bike, it goes into recovery mode where it thinks the most strenuous part is over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rijnberg, who races for Lawprint, said his nearest rival had been Sebastian Jahnke, who completed 66 laps.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe rode together. At one stage he passed me right in front of where his family were camping and they were cheering, so I thought it was for the lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no idea how many laps I\u2019d done.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two riders pushed each other, with Jahnke trying to pull away on the hills and Rijnberg catching him again on the flats.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end, we were both just so tired.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked whether he would be back next year, Rijnberg said he was already considering it.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though my back is still sore, I\u2019ll definitely think about it because I do enjoy the racing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can train as hard as you like but it doesn\u2019t prepare you to race an entire day.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information, find 24hr Pretoria Boys High School MTB Challenge<\/a> on Facebook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 400 Gauteng mountain bikers pushed their endurance to the limit as they took on the Pretoria Boys High School 24-Hour Mountain Bike Challenge last weekend. More than 400 riders turned out for the fourth edition of the Pretoria Boys High School 24-Hour Mountain Bike Challenge, presented by Barden, on September 6. \/\/ Photo: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":51327,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4383,4782,4783,4781],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-20923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-24-hour","tag-dylan-rijnberg","tag-nicky-booyens","tag-pretoria-boys-high-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20923","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=20923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20923"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=20923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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