Mondi Herald Addo Mountain Bike Challenge

It was third time lucky for MTN-Energade’s Kevin Evans as he soloed to his first victory in the Mondi Herald Addo Mountain Bike Challenge on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth on Sunday.

Evans (3:15:07) made the most of the tough conditions on a breezy, overcast day to stretch his lead to three minutes at the Addo Polo Club finish.

DCM’s Brandon Stewart (3:18:07) – who won in 2008 – was second after sprinting clear of Mr Price-GT’s former u/23 national cross country silver medallist Renay Gouwstra.

Evans, 32, who was beaten in the sprint the previous two years, took charge of the 85km Extreme Challenge – the day’s feature race – at the King of the Mountains prime after about 30km.

“Renay attacked at the bottom and that split the group completely,” said Evans, who hails from Plettenberg Bay. “But he went a bit too early and ran out of gas before the summit.

“I passed him and from then on I was unlucky enough to be on my own. With my track record here, I wasn’t going to leave it to chance so I pushed hard,” said the six-time MTN Series champion, who announced earlier this week that he would be joining Team 360Life in 2011.

Shortly afterwards, Evans consolidated his advantage on the steep and rocky gradients of Fig Tree Hill – the highest point on the course – to open up a margin of almost two minutes on his pursuers.

“I managed to maintain my momentum and pedal up the entire climb, which really gave me a boost. I think the guys who did the Pioneer had an advantage on that type of ascent.”

Stewart, another rider fresh from the Pioneer, also managed to stay on his bike on the “slippery” climb, hauling himself back into contention after losing ground early on.

“I started the climb eighth and was second to the top. From there Renay and I basically rode together until the finish. I knew I was the stronger sprinter and that was that.”

The race got off to a super quick start as the main contenders jockeyed for position heading to the sprint prime – won by Evans – at 9km.

The sprint served as a launch pad for the first major move as four riders – Evans, Gouwstra, Charles Keey (Blend Properties) and local rider Conrad Viljoen (Mecer-NMMU) – moved clear.

Stewart was the major absentee as he struggled to get on terms with the early speed. “I didn’t panic and just kind of rode my own pace until we hit Fig Tree,” he explained at the finish.

After the climb, he and Gouwstra set off after Evans and reduced the deficit by 30 seconds before the latter managed to pull away again. “I thought that if I kept the gap at about a minute I would stand a good chance,” said Evans.

“I must say, the last 10km felt extremely long. It is only in the Eastern Cape where you can race in circles and it feels like a headwind all the way.”

Evans said the up and down nature of the new course made it tougher than in previous years. “I’m extremely happy to win this race at last. Now I can tick this box and go on vacation.”

Former Olympian Erica Green (4:08:45) made it a hat-trick of wins in the women’s section. She was followed by PE riders Gail Willimot (4:10:04) and Andrea von Holdt (4:28:22).

CAPTION: MTN-Energade’s Kevin Evans solos to victory in Sunday’s Mondi Herald Addo Mountain Bike Challenge. Photo: Coetzee Gouws/Full Stop Communications

Issued by:


Coetzee Gouws
041 368 4992
082 575 7991
coetzee@fullstopcom.com
http://www.fullstopcom.com/

On behalf of:

The Mondi Herald Addo Mountain Bike Challenge

DCM Cape Pioneer Trek presented by KHS

Zoon Cronje, pic


The DCM Cape Pioneer trek, presented by KHS, took place over the last 6 days, and what a unique event it was. Riding wise, the race took us through the best and most beautiful parts of the Garden Route, Klein and Groot Karoo. We traversed over the Attakwas mountains, the Outeniqua mountains, the Kamannasie mountains, the Swartberg mountains (twice) and the Rooiberg mountains. 13500meters of vertical climbing over nearly 700km in 6 days, with a winning time of just over 28hrs, it is definitely not a race for the faint hearted, and ensures only the toughest men and women would complete it. If you are one of those who became a Pioneer like myself, you have my utmost respect!

The unique part of the event to me was the social side of the race. Everyone is at the end of a very long season and although the racing was fierce in the front at times, off the bike the vibe between riders was unmatched compared to any other event. With world class riders and previous world champions like Christoph Sauser, every professional rider was approachable at any time and the camaraderie amongst the top teams and amateurs alike was what sets this event apart. What a great race to end off a long season. However, like I mentioned, no easy feat to just finish this race, as Katot, the route designer had made sure you didn’t earn your “stripes” for nothing!

It would be difficult, and long, for me to recap the whole race, stage for stage, but I can just give you a short recap of what transpired at the head of the race over the six days.

Max Knox and Thomas Zanhd (DCM) took control of the race from start to finish. The first day through the Attakwas trail, being such an unforgiving stage, took care of a lot of the competition due to bad luck. Many top teams suffered multiple punctures, crashes and mechanical breakdowns, which essentially shaped the rest of the race to come.
It was basically down to three teams after day 1, DCM1 winning the first stage, Adrien Niyonshuti and myself (MTN/Energade) losing 3minutes to finish 2nd, and DCM2, Brandon Stewart and Jacques Janse van Rensburg losing a further minute to come in 3rd.

Max and Thomas proved strongest again when they beat Adrien and myself again on the second stage by 2minutes, DCM2 unfortunately losing a bit more time after getting lost in the final 5km with Sauser and Bundi.

There was some action again on day3, when after a long stage, it was going to come down to a sprint finish amongst DCM1, Sauser and Bundi, and ourselves. Adrien was looking for his first big stage win, Bundi was on his retirement race and so wanted to win a stage before ending his career. On an uphill finish, Adrien proved the fastest crossing the line first, however I was unable to come around Bundi to try take the stage. Lots of mixed emotions for all of us after a grueling stage. But nothing a cold beer wouldn’t fix between all of us!

Day 4 was essentially the day that ended our hopes of going for the overall win, when Adrien broke his chain 50km into the 110km stage. We lost about 3minutes repairing the chain, but unfortunately the bulk of the time we lost was due to a hot relentless headwind. I had to pace most of the remaining 60km alone, whilst DCM1 and Sauser/Bundi took turns to make up a big time difference. DCM2 had some mechanicals again that day so Adrien and I still managed 3rd, but our stage win hunt was starting to look ominous.

Day 5 took us over the Swartberg Pass, and with a thousand meter climb, the race was split up immediately. Adrien and I won the second of three king of the mountain competitions that day, and after the top of the climb, it was DCM1 and 2, and ourselves (MTN/Energade). Again it was coming down to a sprint finish, this time Brandon being the fastest, Adrien crossing in second, and the Jaqcues just beating me by half a wheel to give DCM2 their first stage win of the tour. Disappointment for Adrien and myself again!

The final stage, 114km, the Rooiberg Pass, and Sauser and Bundi with slightly fresher legs, wanting to end Bundi’s career with a win. On our side, Adrien the talented young rider from Rwanda wanting to win his first big stage race, and myself, with completely smashed legs, owing him that victory! Again it was DCM1, Sauser/Bundi and us. With 15km remaining, I had to resort to “road” tactics, and Adrien and I took a sneaky flier down the right hand side of the road to try ride away. However Bundi and Sauser were quick to shut us down, whilst DCM1 were just enjoying a front row seat to the action.
Bundi then countered and I had to chase. Group together again. The final 5km I attacked, Bundi chased, I attacked again, Bundi again chased me. Sauser then countered and Adrien followed him. Immediately I sat up and watched them get a gap. I knew now it would be sprint between just Bundi and myself. Not knowing the finish, I made sure to stay on the front, and got into the final corner first, winning our first and the final stage. Payback for Adrien at last, who was over the moon with winning a stage.

It was a privilege and pleasure to ride with him, and the whole tour was the most amazing vibe at a race I’ve experienced.
Thanks to Dryland, Carel, Henco and DCM for sponsoring the event. Thanks to our team for our support and anyone else I may have left out, I apologize, I still have too much Karoo dust and rocks stuck in my head.



Next race will be the Addo Mondi, but I might need to travel back to the Karoo to find my legs, and motivation. Till then, cheers.
Kevin Evans



Provisional results:

1st Max Knox/ Thomas Zanhd (DCM1) 28hrs08min
2nd Kevin Evans/ Adrien Niyonshuti (MTN/Energade)
3rd Sauser/ Bundi (Specialized/Songo.info)

MTN Ride Crater Cruise

Zoon Cronje, pic

Otherwise known as “The dirty dash for cash”, the Crater Cruise has always been a popular event in which riders from all disciplines come to compete for the biggest payout in mountain biking for the year. This year would be no different and along with the usual offroad teams, quite a few roadies switched their thin wheels for “dik” wheels to compete for the overall title.
The race begins with a 5km neutral zone, and once over the Vaal River, its race on!
The roadies like to go hard on the tar and the first hotspot comes before the tar turns to gravel. The first 30km is fairly straight forward, the corrugations were as bad as ever, and the early sections of jeep track helps to thin the big group out a bit. I was planning on riding similar tactics to last years race, as that worked out well for me, and the race always boils down to elimination.
The road up to the King of the mountain is not actually much of a mountain but the speed up there was fast and the pace hard. I was feeling good and decided to have a small dig here again. I rolled over the King and I rode a hard tempo all the way up the concrete track to hurt the group a bit and make guys have to dig a little deeper. Strong winds on the day made the race even harder, and I could see guys were on the ropes already, and we hadn’t even got to the hard climb yet! I followed Garmin’s Phillip Buys up the steep rocky climb who was just matching Brandon Stewarts hard tempo. Once down the other side, and onto the halfway point, the group contained three riders from DCM, three riders from Garmin/Adidas, Ben-Melt from Specialized/Mr Price and myself. This would make for some interesting tactics I thought and waited eagerly to see how it would play out. The extreme heat and dry and sandy conditions would soon start taking its toll on the riders.
As the race drew on, riders would begin to dehydrate rapidly, my only saving grace was stopping at the second last water point to fill an extra bottle which would see me to the end. Once we were back onto the district roads, with about 20km to go, I put in a big tempo effort in the same place I have in the past. Only Jacques and Brandon were able to get onto my wheel, as we quickly opened a gap the remaining riders. Jacques and I rolled through, taking hard turns, with Brandon just managing to hang on to the wheels, unable to contribute though. As we turned under the tar road, I made another hard tempo effort and soon had a gap as I passed the final water point. Only 12km and a lot of wind remained between me and defending my title from the previous year. The final 12km was obviously tough, the rough route combined with strong winds from the side and front, as well as an extra 2km at the end took its toll on everyone, including myself. I was going as hard as I could but was never sure if it would be enough, constantly checking over my shoulder for other riders. Only once I reached the bridge over the road, did I finally ease up and enjoy the victory! Jacques came in a few minutes down in 2nd place, Brandon Stewart in 3rd, both DCM, and Ben-Melt 4th. Pieter Seyffert took 5th, placing another DCM rider in the top 5 for the day.

Next race will be the Ladismith Seweweekspoort classic, followed by 6 really hard days in the DCM Cape Pioneer Trek. Not sure what I’ve got left in the body, but lets see.
Till then, cheers.
Kevin Evans



Provisional results:

1st Kevin Evans (MTN/Energade) 3hrs38
2nd Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (DCM)
3rd Brandon Stewart (DCM)
4th Ben-Melt Swanepoel (Specialized/Mr Price)
5th Pieter Seyffert (DCM)

The Herald Pennypinchers Karoo to Coast

The Karoo to Coast is another home town race for me, and another one of my favorite races on the calendar for the year. The race is a real classic, starting in the Karoo town of Uniondale, finishing in the beautiful town of Knysna. I’ve watched this race grow over the years, and this year, it had a record number of entries, just over three thousand riders! What makes this even more impressive, is the fact that the event doesn’t feature a shorter distance, so all riders have to do the full 100km! And with around 1800m of climbing in the “downhill” ride, this proves to be a tough day for the average rider, and everyone finishing within the cut off time can be really proud of themselves.
The start is always fast and hectic as the race heads into the “Ou Wapad”, a narrow rough jeep track section and riders need to be in a good position here to stay in contention. I hit the trail and quickly took the lead, riding a hard but steady tempo. Over the top I looked back and had a good gap of around 30seconds to the next rider, and nearly a minute to third. I continued to ride my own tempo, comfortable but steady, and only half way down the Prince Alfred’s Pass had Mathys Beukes (Scott) managed to join me at the front. It was great to have some company and someone willing to help with the pace as we continued to put more time into the riders chasing us from behind. Not long after the King of the mountain Mathys had a slow puncture on the front wheel, and unfortunately for him was forced to stop and fix it. So with around 55km left to ride I was again on my own.
I kept the pace fairly high as my Volcan 29er was tearing up the course. I kept thinking to try push hard to get close to the route record, but with the new start and finish loops, I wasn’t sure whether it would be possible. With only the lead bikes for company, I continued to push myself and make the most of the day, giving myself a good workout for the rest of the races still coming up.
At the end I managed to solo into the finish at around 3hrs 5min, pretty close to the fastest time set for this route previously. Mathys had to ride in a few minutes down, with another puncture, and Erik Kleinhans taking a well earned third place.
It was great to manage winning this “home town” event back to back, as it has never been done before, and of course, its always great to give all the locals who support me something to cheer about!


Next race will start already on Thursday, The Clover Lowveld Tour in Graskop, Mapumalanga. This looks to be a really hard tour with good competition, and I’ll just have to see how the body handles a four day tour with loads of climbing and long stages.
Till then, cheers.
Kevin Evans



Provisional results:

1st Kevin Evans (MTN/Energade) 3hrs05
2nd Mathys Beukes (Scott)
3rd Erik Kleinhans (Mr Price/GT)

Eight Bells Enduro

It has been awhile since I was able to take part in one of the local mountain bike marathon races, and I have to say, the hospitality my family and I experience at these events is overwhelming. Eight Bells is a small mountain resort guest house situated near the top of the Robinsons Pass, about 30minutes drive from Mossel Bay. The organizers had put us up in the lodge for the night, and with the venue of the race being hosted at Eight Bells, it was ideal for us.

After a great nights rest, we woke up to perfect conditions and I was really excited to take the new Volcan XC29 bike for its first race. The start was literally about 50meters away from our room, and it was great to be able to roll out of bed straight onto the start line. Although the 65km route had some rude awakenings in store for me! I new that regardless of which direction we went from the lodge, we would have some climbing to do, though I never expected to climb 1500m in the relatively short distance.
The race winds its way around the same roads as the last 25km of the Attakwas race, and then heads up towards the top of the Outeniqua mountains. Soon as we hit the steep long climbs, I used the “big” wheels to good use and accelerated away from ex-teammate Mathys Beukes (Scott) to build a substantial lead. I never let up on the pace, giving myself a good workout and some great preparation for next weekend.
The bike handled really well, especially on the fast gravel roads, and was surprisingly nimble on the rougher jeep track sections. At the highest point we had the most amazing views of the bay, including Mossel Bay and Glentana. In fact the whole area we were riding around in was pristine and an absolute pleasure to be able to ride around in and enjoy such great mountain biking. The route was well marshaled with enough water points for all levels of riders.

The finish line was a welcome sight after the surprise of a climb to the end! And the cherry on the top was the incredible little lazer etched mountain bikes each rider received replacing the ever boring medals, and a much bigger version of the same bike for the floating trophy!
As always it was great to be part of the event and we look forward to coming back again in the future!


Next race for me will be one of my favorite events on the calendar, Karoo to Coast on the 19th September. I will again use the XC29 on this course, and from there will head up to the Lowveld to race the Clover Tour with the MTN/Energade road boys, which looks to be a tough tour.
Till then, cheers.
Kevin Evans



Provisional results:

1st Kevin Evans (MTN/Energade) 2hrs30
2nd Mathys Beukes (Scott)
3rd Marcel Deacon (Deacon Properties)

MTN Ultra Marathon #5, Cullinan

Kevin Evans, pic Zoon Cronje

The fifth race in the MTN Ultra marathon series took place in the small mining town of Cullinan, just North of Pretoria. Extremely hot and dry conditions would make for a tough race on a fairly rocky and technical course. As it was the first time I was racing in this area, I had no idea what to expect, and maybe sometimes this is a blessing in disguise.
I wanted a good result in the fifth race, as this would cement my chances of the overall series win, so decided to race smart and play a bit of a waiting game to see how the body was, and also how the competition was looking. In the first part of the race I was feeling really comfortable, and the decision to ride my Volcan full suspension was paying off, as the course was proving to be very rough and technical. The group had split after about 20km and soon it was down to about six riders, team mate Adrien Niyonshuti, Dave George(SA Findit), Max Knox and Brandon Stewart(DCM) and Marc Bass(Garmin/Adidas). However no one was really keen to make the racing and I knew I would have to take control sooner or later. I waited until about 75km, just past the feed zone to put my effort in. On one of the long rocky drags I rode a hard tempo and saw only Dave George responding, Max was battling to keep in contact after an early crash had left him slightly rattled. As I increased the tempo, our gap went up over the rest of the riders. Dave and I worked well to further our gap and I could relax now, knowing that even if Dave were to beat me, I should have done enough to secure the series. We still had to be careful though, all the way to the finish to avoid a mechanical or puncture.
The final 500m was singletrack, and fortunately I entered it ahead of Dave, giving me the advantage into the finish straight. I managed to just finish ahead of him, making absolutely sure to wrap up the series. This would be my sixth consecutive national series win, and with two races remaining in the series, it’s great to have no pressure at all to have to do well.
Max held on for third spot, and Adrien had a sprint finish with Jacques Janse Van Rensburg for forth and fifth, Jacques however just getting the better of him, although the fifth place should be good enough to keep Adrien in the top three spots overall.

Thanks to MTN/Energade and our team for all the support to win the series. It’s great to pay them back with another win in their own series.


Next race for me will be one of my favorite events on the calendar, Karoo to Coast on the 19th September. I will take an easy week now or a short break and then build up for the last few events of season.
Till then, cheers.
Kevin Evans



Provisional results:

1st Kevin Evans (MTN/Energade) 4:04:00
2nd Dave George (SAFindit) same time
3rd Max Knox (DCM)
4th Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (DCM)
5th Adrien Nyionshuti (MTN/Energade)

Worlds pics