Howick \u2013 On the back of the exciting news that the 2013 Sappi Karkloof Classic MTB Festival has broken its entry record, passing 2480 entries in the flurry of last minute entries, the race received a further boost when international under 23 star Rourke Croeser confirmed his entry for this year\u2019s festival.<\/p>\n
Despite having competed in the event many times before the local member of Shaun Peschl\u2019s recently formed Kargo Pro MTB team will however be tackling the event for the first time in three years after a two year sabbatical in Europe.<\/p>\n
Kargo Pro MTB team member and international under 23 sensation Rourke Croeser is eager to put in a strong title challenge at Sunday’s 60km Sappi Karkloof Classic, the feature race of this weekend’s Sappi Karkloof Classic MTB Festival.<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Photo: Zoon Cronje\/ Gameplan Media<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve missed the last two Karkloof Classics but I\u2019ve done it several times in the past so it will be great to be back again this year and it\u2019s always awesome to be able to support races that are so close to home and of the quality of the Karkloof Classic,\u201d said Croeser.<\/p>\n \u201cOutside of the MTN National Series events the Karkloof Classic is one of the biggest races on the calendar in South Africa. It is probably the best course in South Africa and a phenomenal amount of work goes into getting ready for the festival.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is also just such a great family atmosphere throughout the festival and it\u2019s definitely one of my local favourites!\u201d<\/p>\n After his solid performance at the recent ABSA Cape Epic where he and partner Shan Wilson narrowly finished outside the top 20 overall, Croeser was forced to take a short term layoff due to a minor knee injury.<\/p>\n He is however now back in training and is determined to put the various lessons he learnt throughout the remarkable adventure to good use.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Epic really was awesome! From my side it was more about gaining some experience than worrying too much about the result, but we managed to finish nineteenth [in their category] and it really was a great few days.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately I just picked up a bit of patella tendonitis from the Epic though, which meant I was off the bike for ten days or so. Luckily it wasn\u2019t anything too serious though and I\u2019ve been moving forward nicely and riding again for the last little while so I will definitely be good to go for this weekend.<\/p>\n Not only is the event is renowned for offering a great course set to thrill and excite competitors throughout their 60km journey, but will almost certainly serve up a highly competitive start list as well, something Croeser is looking forward to immensely.<\/p>\n \u201cI think my best result has been a fourth in 2009 and I\u2019ve also won the Sprint Shootout event at Karkloof as well so I have definitely put in a couple good performances there and would love to do well again this year.<\/p>\n \u201cIdeally I\u2019d love to win it this year. It\u2019s always nice to do well at home. It\u2019s difficult to know just how things will go after a bit of a break but I actually think the rest has done me good and I\u2019m really hungry to do well this weekend.<\/p>\n \u201cThe field is always great at the Karkloof Classic and a couple of guys from Gauteng and the likes usually come down for the race so it certainly won\u2019t be easy.<\/p>\n \u201cA guy like Brandon Stewart, if he makes it down from the Mzansi Tour, is always a good competitor and Andrew Hill is riding extremely well at the moment, so I\u2019ll certainly have to work hard to even just have a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n A solid performance at the KZN event and using the opportunity as an invaluable confidence booster ahead of an important phase in his year will be something Croeser will also be desperately hoping to achieve at Sunday\u2019s encounter.<\/p>\n \u201cMy year\u2019s primary focus is obviously the World Champs in Pietermaritzburg in August. But, in the build up to that, I\u2019ve still got the World Cups so doing well at big local events such as the Karkloof Classic are still hugely important for me as I prepare for those,\u201d said Croeser.<\/p>\n \u201cWith this event being just five weeks before the first World Cup I eyed this race as one of my key trial runs right at the start of the year already as it will be ideal preparation.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully now I can just go out there and have a good day on the bike.<\/p>\n The Sappi Karkloof Classic MTB Festival takes place from 19-21 April at Karkloof Country Club. Riders and spectators alike can stay up to speed with all the news and developments via the event\u2019s Facebook page (Karkloof Mountain Bike Club) or on Twitter (@KarkloofMTB). More info can also be found at www.karkloofmtb.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Howick \u2013 On the back of the exciting news that the 2013 Sappi Karkloof Classic MTB Festival has broken its entry record, passing 2480 entries in the flurry of last minute entries, the race received a further boost when international under 23 star Rourke Croeser confirmed his entry for this year\u2019s festival. Despite having competed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-21914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21914","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21914\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21914"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=21914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}