Pretoria mountain-bikers Philip Fourie and Francois Ebersohn led from start to finish to take the honours in their debut appearance at the Liberty Waterberg Encounter today.<\/p>\n
The three-day race finished at Sondela Nature Reserve near Bela-Bela in Limpopo after covering trails which also traversed sections of the Elements Private Golf Reserve over the weekend.<\/p>\n
Fourie, who lives in Faerie Glen, and Ebersohn, from Brooklyn, finished today’s stage in 2:05:20 for an overall time of 6:59:30.<\/p>\n
They came home in the final stage ahead of Andre Gibhard and Lionel Scholtz (2:09:54) and Mark Prince and Michael Minnaar (2:10:05). The latter team were second overall, with Gibhard and Scholtz completing the podium.<\/p>\n
Ebersohn said they were able to build a gap on the first day which they maintained throughout the event.<\/p>\n
“Although we compete regularly in races we came into the event not knowing quite what to expect,” he said.<\/p>\n
“In the first stage on Friday [over 57km] we were able to get away about halfway through and spent the rest of the race riding by ourselves.<\/p>\n
“There were some testing sections because there was some \u2018horizontal climbing’ through sections of sand as well as some rocky areas.<\/p>\n
“But it was a good start and also included some memorable single-track sections.”<\/p>\n
He felt the second stage of 46km stood out the most for them during the weekend, combining as it did great trails with excellent views of wildlife in the bushveld.<\/p>\n
“Day two was absolutely fantastic. It was completely different to day one, with specially built single-track through some very nice kloofs and water features. Add to that the game we saw and it was spectacular.”<\/p>\n
Although the 56km third stage had been billed as largely downhill, Ebersohn said a headwind coming back into Sondela had made it “hard, hard, hard”.<\/p>\n
“But we did finish with a 15km stretch of wonderful single-track, so that made it a great experience.”<\/p>\n
Having had a taste of the Waterberg, Fourie said they would definitely be back for more.<\/p>\n
“It was very well organised, with excellent food and entertainment and a really nice vibe during the two nights at Elements,” he said. “It’s definitely a ride which you’ll want to do again.”<\/p>\n
A special feature of the race, he added, was that it was manageable for riders at all levels.<\/p>\n
“For example, it’s something you could do with your wife or a mate who might not be at the same level because although the stages can test you, they are short enough that you don’t spend your whole day on the bike.<\/p>\n
“So there is the opportunity for a good ride and then a chance to enjoy the facilities on offer at Elements.<\/p>\n
“It’s something we would definitely recommend to our mates.”<\/p>\n
Timo Cooper and Michaele Cooper won the mixed overall title in 7:51:14, ahead of Justin and Lizette Cave (8:34:45).<\/p>\n
Yolandi Kotze and Alta Gosling were the women’s winners in 11:03:13, while Jacques Wentzel (7:43:27) won the solo men’s category, 10 minutes ahead of Francois Smith.<\/p>\n
Killy Bacela, divisional executive of Group Brand & Integrated Marketing at Liberty, congratulated all the competitors on their efforts.<\/p>\n
“It is inspiring to see the physical and mental preparation cyclists go through in order to participate in a gruelling event like the Liberty Waterberg Encounter Series,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It takes commitment, training and the willingness to accept advice and support from team members, coaches and even medical professionals.<\/p>\n
“That’s why we are honoured to sponsor this event, because at Liberty we understand the importance of preparation and advice in helping you live life to the fullest.”<\/p>\n
Results<\/p>\n
Stage three, 56km<\/p>\n
Men’s teams<\/p>\n
1 Philip Fourie & Francois Ebersohn (Clover Linde Viljoen) 2:05:20
\n2 Andre Gibhard & Lionel Scholtz (Team Benchmark PPC) 2:09:54
\n3 Mark Prince & Michael Minnaar (Psychotic & Neurotic) 2:10:05
\n4 Lyle Poulter & Robert Briggs (Hoorah Hooligans) 2:10:18
\n5 Marcel Ingram & Dawid Eybers (MDs) 2:12:56<\/p>\n
Mixed teams<\/p>\n
1 Timo Cooper & Michaele Cooper (Devils Peak) 2:18:39
\n2 Lesleigh Beukes & Heimar Beukes (SEAL Team) 2:25:36
\n3 Justin Cave & Lizette Cave (cavemanandwife) 2:29:52
\n4 Hendrik de Kock & Elizabeth de Kock (Black Mamba’s) 2:36:14
\n5 Mags Myburgh & Graham Wilson (Rock Rascals) 2:51:26<\/p>\n
Women’s teams<\/p>\n
1 Yolandi Kotze & Alta Gosling (Mufasa) 3:09:45<\/p>\n
Solo men<\/p>\n
1 Jacques Wentzel 2:12:08
\n2 Francois Smith 2:18:07
\n3 Chris van der Merwe 2:18:42
\n4 Kyle Schutte 2:18:46
\n5 Wiehahn Strauss 2:23:40<\/p>\n
General classification<\/p>\n
Men’s teams<\/p>\n
1 Philip Fourie & Francois Ebersohn (Clover Linde Viljoen) 6:59:30
\n2 Mark Prince & Michael Minnaar (Psychotic & Neurotic) 7:16:44
\n3 Andre Gibhard & Lionel Scholtz (Team Benchmark PPC) 7:19:26
\n4 Lyle Poulter & Robert Briggs (Hoorah Hooligans) 7:34:46
\n5 Marcel Ingram & Dawid Eybers (MDs) 7:37:40<\/p>\n
Mixed teams<\/p>\n
1 Timo Cooper & Michaele Cooper (Devils Peak) 7:51:14
\n2 Justin Cave & Lizette Cave (cavemanandwife) 8:34:45
\n3 Lesleigh Beukes & Heimar Beukes (SEAL Team) 8:48:17
\n4 Hendrik de Kock & Elizabeth de Kock (Black Mamba’s) 9:17:00
\n5 Chantelle Eybers & Martin Ferreira (Die Ferraris) 10:41:42<\/p>\n
Women’s teams<\/p>\n
1 Yolandi Kotze & Alta Gosling (Mufasa) 11:03:13<\/p>\n
Solo men<\/p>\n
1 Jacques Wentzel 7:43:27
\n2 Francois Smith 7:53:57
\n3 Chris van der Merwe 8:16:56
\n4 Kyle Schutte 8:17:10
\n5 Johan Rossouw 8:26:24<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pretoria mountain-bikers Philip Fourie and Francois Ebersohn led from start to finish to take the honours in their debut appearance at the Liberty Waterberg Encounter today. The three-day race finished at Sondela Nature Reserve near Bela-Bela in Limpopo after covering trails which also traversed sections of the Elements Private Golf Reserve over the weekend. Fourie, […]<\/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":[3260],"tags":[1743,4052,1947,2594,1757,4051,2655,2597],"class_list":["post-29680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-asg-events","tag-francois-ebersohn","tag-liberty-encounter-series","tag-liberty-waterberg-encounter","tag-mountain-biking","tag-philip-fourie","tag-sondela-nature-reserve","tag-waterberg-encounter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29680","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=29680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}