One of South Africa’s top mountain bike stage races, the TransCape, has received a major boost with the news that Liberty will be the title sponsor from 2018.<\/p>\n
This is another breakthrough for the seven-stage race, which recently received UCI status and takes cyclists on a 614km challenge from Knysna to La Couronne Wine Farm in Franschhoek this February.<\/p>\n
Liberty’s chief marketing officer, Sydney Mbhele, said they were delighted to be associated with the race.<\/p>\n
“It takes preparation, endurance, dedication and team work to remain competitive in this sport,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Our purpose of enabling financial freedom is enshrined on the same principles.<\/p>\n
“The journey to financial freedom is a long-term one. We have been operating for 60 years and our partnerships with our clients remain at the heart of what we do.”<\/p>\n
As a result of the title sponsorship, the TransCape will become the third leg of the Liberty Encounter Series.<\/p>\n
Under the ASG Events banner, the three-day Winelands and Waterberg Encounters have become firm favourites on the South African racing calendar.<\/p>\n
The Transcape, with its picturesque route across the Western Cape, will now be known as the Liberty TransCape MTB Encounter, with STANLIB and Volvo as the presenting sponsors.<\/p>\n
ASG Events chief Wynand de Villiers said they felt the TransCape was a perfect fit for the Encounter series and that it added an exciting dimension.<\/p>\n
“We have an amazing relationship with Liberty on the Winelands and Waterberg Encounters and we have been chatting about adding a third event for some time.<\/p>\n
“With the emergence of TransCape and the way it has fast-tracked since 2015, we felt this was the way to go instead of trying to create a brand-new event.<\/p>\n
“Our relationship with Liberty is a big factor as any event is greatly dependent on the way the organisers and sponsors work together.”<\/p>\n
De Villiers stressed that the partnership elevated the Encounter Series to what they had set out to do a few years ago – to create SA’s signature multi-stage mountain biking series.<\/p>\n
Besides providing a challenge across some of the finest trails in the country, the TransCape has a reputation for five-star off-the-bike hospitality.<\/p>\n
De Villiers said they would continue to make this a priority across all three Encounter races.<\/p>\n
“The service levels, route, hospitality and all-round experience at the TransCape align perfectly with the Waterberg and Winelands events.<\/p>\n
“The most important aspect for us is that riders know what to expect when they enter an Encounter.<\/p>\n
“It’s like knowing you can eat at any restaurant of your favourite franchise group anywhere in South Africa. You know you can trust the offering no matter where you are.”<\/p>\n
He believed the fact that the TransCape took place over seven days added to the attraction.<\/p>\n
“It’s obviously a different challenge to the shorter races, but we feel this adds a delightful new dynamic and variety to the series.”<\/p>\n
The fourth Liberty TransCape MTB Encounter gets under way on February 4 next year.<\/p>\n
Visit www.transcapemtb.co.za for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of South Africa’s top mountain bike stage races, the TransCape, has received a major boost with the news that Liberty will be the title sponsor from 2018. This is another breakthrough for the seven-stage race, which recently received UCI status and takes cyclists on a 614km challenge from Knysna to La Couronne Wine Farm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":58746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2632,1947,1944,2115,1945,1757,1747,1815,2373,3097,1949,2031,3095,2597,2417],"class_list":["post-14168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-more-sport","tag-liberty","tag-liberty-encounter-series","tag-mountain-bike","tag-mountain-bike-news","tag-mountain-bike-race","tag-mountain-biking","tag-mtb","tag-mtb-news","tag-mtb-race","tag-sydney-mbhele","tag-transcape","tag-transcape-mtb","tag-transcape-mtb-encounter","tag-waterberg-encounter","tag-winelands-encounter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}