Who Will Be The Western Cape League Champions?

MyPR: Who Will Be The Western Cape League Champions?:

Junior men get off to a fast start. Photo: Peridot Communications

Riders will pull out all the stops on Saturday, 17 September when they take to the track at Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch for the 2016 Western Cape finals of the Spur Schools Mountain Bike League. The top schools in the Western Cape will get to compete against the top schools from around South Africa at the Spur Schools Mountain Bike League National Final in October.

Defending Western Cape champions, Parel Vallei High School holds the top spot on the mixed and women’s logs. Their men’s team is currently lying in second position after Paul Roos, who has been dominating this category since the inception of the league.

Parel Vallei secured a number of podium positions in the third race of the season recently hosted at Montana High School in Worcester. Mikayla Forrester finished third in the sub-junior girls, while Carla Steyn and Jana Barry won the youth women and junior women’s races respectively. Team mates Joshua De Freitas and Matthew Keyser secured second and third place in the junior men’s race, which was won by Johann Trotzky of Montana High School in what proved to be the tightest race of the day.

Paul Roos showed their class winning podium spots three of the four men’s races. Matthew Lochner finished second in the sub junior boys, while team mates Jamie Penfold, Joshua Laughton and George Ducharme finished first, second and third in the youth men 15 years. Kevin Long secured second place in the youth men 16 with Ilan Meintjes in fourth. The race was won by Mulder Oosthuizen of DF Malan High.

Southern suburbs riders Courteney Webb of Westerford High School, Saskia Van der Merwe of Rustenburg Girls High School and Jessi Nixon of Fishhoek High School finished second, third and fourth in the junior women’s race, while Byron Munton of Wynberg Boys delivered a stellar performance to finish fifth in the junior men’s race.

Siblings Jamie Penfold of Paul Roos Gimnasium, Aidan Penfold and Olivia Penfold of Durbanville Primary School all won their respective races and are hoping to clinch the overall first position in the 2016 Western Cape leg of the Spur Schools Mountain Bike League.

Montana High School in Worcester took home five medals on the day with WG Van Der Walt and Samuel Swart finishing first and third in the sub junior boys’ race, Jean Estherhuyse and Juarnett West clinching third position in the youth men (15 years) and youth women (16 years) and Johan Trotzky delivering a stunning performance to win the junior men’s race.

Two other Worcester riders, Nienke Mostert of Worcester East Primary School and Surine van Tonder of HTS Drostdy clinched second place in the sub junior girls’ and youth women’s races. Line honours also went to Stefke Tolmay of DF Malan High schools in the sub junior girls and Michaela Beaton of Rhenish Girls High School in the youth women’s races.

Registration can be done between 08h00 and 13h30. The course will be open for practice between 08h10 and 08h50 and again from 11h10 to 11h50.

The sub nippers will set of the primary school racing at 09h00, followed by the nipper boys and girls at 09h30 and 09h35, sprog boys and girls at 10h00 and 10h05 and the sub junior boys and girls wrapping up the primary schools’ competition at 10h30 and 10h35.

High school racing starts at 12h00 with the sub junior boys. The youth men 15 and 16 years will start at 12h40 and 13h30 respectively, followed by the girls’ race at 14h15 and the junior men setting off at 15h00.

Spur vouchers to the value of R1000 are up for grabs for the best dressed school team, best dressed team supporters and best school team war cry.

Riders will also have the opportunity to meet Team Spur riders – Swiss XCM National Champion and multiple Absa Cape Epic winner Ariane Kleinhans and South African XCO National Champion and Olympian, James Reid.

For more information visit www.spurmtbleague.co.za or contact Amarider’s Michelle du Preez at 021 8844547 or michelle@amarider.co.za

Follow the league on face book at SpurSchoolsLeague, twitter #spurMTBleague and @spurMTBleague.