{"id":21487,"date":"2013-10-21T08:15:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T07:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2013\/10\/21\/buys-beukes-strike-first-blow-at-bridge-cape-pioneer-trek-r1034\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T12:21:17","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T12:21:17","slug":"buys-beukes-strike-first-blow-at-bridge-cape-pioneer-trek-r1034","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/buys-beukes-strike-first-blow-at-bridge-cape-pioneer-trek-r1034\/","title":{"rendered":"Buys, Beukes strike first blow at Bridge Cape Pioneer Trek"},"content":{"rendered":"

Philip Buys and Matthys Beukes (SCOTT Factory Racing) lived up to their billing as stage favourites when they stormed to victory on the Prologue of the 2013 Bridge Cape Pioneer Trek international mountain bike stage race, which started in South Africa\u2019s Western Cape province on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-41808-0-36324700-1382341705.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The pair of 25-year-old South Africans clocked a time of 35 minutes and 29 seconds for the 14.8km course at Buffelsdrift Game Lodge, near the town of Oudtshoorn. Second place went to the Asrin Cycling 1 team of James Reid (RSA) and Jens Scheurmans (BEL), who were just 18 seconds down, with third place secured by the FedGroup Itec team of Brandon Stewart (RSA) and Konny Looser (SUI) in 36:08.<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s race produced a nail-biting finish with the top two teams separated by just five seconds. Team RE:CM\u2019s Ariane Kleinhans (SUI) and Annika Langvad (DEN), last to start, stopped the clock on 42 minutes exactly, snatching the lead from the Wheeler BMC pair of Esther Suss (SUI) and Jane Nuessli (GBR) with defending champions Yolande Speedy (RSA) and Yolande de Villiers (RSA) rounding out the podium places in 45:16.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were hoping to have a bigger cushion, but we\u2019re very happy to take the win and the Yellow Jersey,\u201d said Buys. \u201c(Runners-up) James and Jens are on hardtails, which is the best type of frame for this short, twisty course. But there\u2019s a lot of rough terrain and distance to go and we\u2019re content with our choice to use dual suspension frames.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prologue took place in overcast, warm conditions on trails built by Beukes, which the SCOTT Factory Racing team used to their advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the singletrack I followed Matthys because he knows all the faster lines and when the trail opened up I went to the front to do the pace-setting. It worked out well like that. It was such a short stage that we pretty much went flat out the whole way,\u201d explained Buys.<\/p>\n

For the winning women\u2019s team, RE:CM, the stage went smoothly, with Langvad, a two-time marathon world champion and the current Danish cross-country champion, taking charge for most of the stage.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-41808-0-07977200-1382341709.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAnnika was setting a very fast pace and I just tried to hang in there as well as I could. We had no problems out there, other than some traffic, as we caught some riders. But I think all the women\u2019s teams had to deal with traffic,\u201d said Kleinhans.<\/p>\n

The top Mixed team on Sunday\u2019s opening stage was the Cube Nutswerk 3 pair of Mirre Stallen (RSA) and Nard Clabber (NED), who were just 16 seconds quicker than Asrin Cycling 2\u2019s Nizaam Esa (RSA) and Catherine Williamson (GBR). Defending champions, Jennie Stenerhag (SWE) and Craig Gerber (RSA) were third, 40 seconds down, setting the scene for an exciting podium tussle.<\/p>\n

Other category winners on Sunday were; Veteran: Cube Nutswerk 2 \u2013 Micha de Vries (NED) and Rik van den Hanenberg (NED); Master: Wilde 3 \u2013 Isak Visagie (RSA) and Lieb Loots (RSA); Amateur: Contego Giant 2 \u2013 Sakkie Hannekom (RSA) and Hannes Hannekom (RSA); Solo Male: Darren Lill (RSA \u2013 Cannodale Blend); and Solo Female: Bettina Uhlig (GER).<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s Stage 1, a 105km haul from Buffelspoort to Calitzdorp, climbs a total of 1768 metres. With Tuesday\u2019s huge prize-money queen stage looming, it\u2019s expected that some teams will take a conservative approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, some teams will be saving themselves for Tuesday. We\u2019ll ride defensively and go for a stage win if we\u2019re in contention. But we\u2019re not going to worry too much about the Yellow Jersey. We\u2019re racing for a week, not a day and will be sure to pace ourselves accordingly,\u201d said Buys.<\/p>\n

By contrast, the women\u2019s leaders\u2019 attitude to Monday\u2019s stage is more aggressive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t be taking it easy tomorrow. We will try and win again. Yes, Tuesday will be a hard day, but this is the Cape Pioneer Trek and everyday is hard, so it doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d smiled Kleinhans.<\/p>\n

\nFor full results, visit www.capepioneer.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Image credits: Zoon Cronje<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philip Buys and Matthys Beukes (SCOTT Factory Racing) lived up to their billing as stage favourites when they stormed to victory on the Prologue of the 2013 Bridge Cape Pioneer Trek international mountain bike stage race, which started in South Africa\u2019s Western Cape province on Sunday. The pair of 25-year-old South Africans clocked a time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2298,4668,703,54],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-21487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-ariane-kleinhans","tag-bridge-cape-pioneer-trek","tag-matthys-beukes","tag-philip-buys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21487","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=21487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21487"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=21487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}