{"id":22440,"date":"2012-02-17T10:05:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-17T10:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/rocking-start-for-sa-xco-amp-dhi-series-r54\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T12:43:29","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T12:43:29","slug":"rocking-start-for-sa-xco-amp-dhi-series-r54","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/rocking-start-for-sa-xco-amp-dhi-series-r54\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocking Start for SA XCO & DHI Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Venues have been confirmed for the remaining South African cross-country and downhill races as part of the SA national series.<\/p>\n

Following a fantastic start at the first round in Cape Town at the weekend, which raised the bar in terms of technicality, organisation and crowd support, organisers will no doubt rise to the challenge to deliver an equally high standard in all aspects of the remaining events, offering the competitors and supporters optimum value.<\/p>\n

2008 mountain bike Olympians Burry Stander (Specialized) and Yolande Speedy (Epic Sports) claimed the titles of the opening XCO cup race, which was held at the Willowbridge Mall \u201cSlammer\u201d track in Durbanville. Johann Potgieter (Mongoose) delivered a superb run and took top honours in the DHI event held at Contermanskloof on the outskirts of Durbanville.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s race saw Stander win the 7-lap elite men\u2019s race on the very challenging 4.2km course in 01 hour, 24 minutes and 19 seconds, clocking the fastest lap of the day in 11 minutes 50 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m very happy with my form and my performance today. This is the best I have ever felt at this time of the year. It is a big year with the Olympic Games in London so there is no lack of motivation or focus,\u201d said Stander, who will be an Olympic medal contender come August.<\/p>\n

Team Contego’s Philip Buys finished second in 01:26.02 with Marc Bassingthwaighte (01:29.57) third. Buys recorded the second fastest lap time, only one second slower than Stander, in 11:51.<\/p>\n

Rourke Croeser (Orange Monkey) won the 6-lap U23 race in 01:30.46, with James Reid (360Life) and Brendon Davids (Specialized Sho-air) filling second and third places respectively.<\/p>\n

Yolande Speedy made her return to XCO racing with a commanding performance, breaking 16-minutes in four of her five laps, completing her race in 01:18.40, and winning by a margin of 5:20 against her closest rival.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy race went really well,\u201d said Speedy. \u201cIt was the first time I\u2019ve raced XCO on my 29\u201d bike and it handled the course well. It was also a proper cross-country course and good to see an increase in the technical level.<\/p>\n

Candice Neethling (BMC SA) won the U23 race, completing four laps in 01:05.45.<\/p>\n

All credit went to Western Province on presenting an excellent event and setting the standard at the onset of the series.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for the SA XCO Series #1 Results <\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s downhill race at the popular Contermanskloof track saw all the top contenders lining up to open the local season with maximum points.<\/p>\n

In the elite race, it was Andrew Neethling, Stefan Garlicki, Jonty Neethling and Johann Potgieter vying for the fastest descent of the day. Unfortunately for Andrew, Stefan and Jonty, they all suffered punctures in the qualifying run, giving Johann the confidence boost he needed ahead of the finals.<\/p>\n

Potgieter\u2019s final run was sublime, and he clocked the fastest time, 1,16 seconds ahead of Andrew with Garlicki finishing third.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe event was awesome, with about 87 riders taking part,\u201d said Pottie. \u201cThe weather was good, and the course in excellent condition. I am so stoked to take the win \u2013 Andrew (Neethling) is an awesome athlete and ranked number 9 in the world at this stage, so to beat him is unreal!\u201d Potgieter will tackle the RockyRoads UCI MTB World Cup opener in Pietermaritzburg next month before he heads off to Europe to compete.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for the SA DHI Series #1 Results<\/p>\n

Dates and Venues for remaining events \u2013 2012 SA XCO & DHI Series<\/span><\/p>\n

\"xco_dates.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Venues have been confirmed for the remaining South African cross-country and downhill races as part of the SA national series. Following a fantastic start at the first round in Cape Town at the weekend, which raised the bar in terms of technicality, organisation and crowd support, organisers will no doubt rise to the challenge to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":53988,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-22440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22440","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=22440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22440"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=22440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}