{"id":3458,"date":"2016-09-10T18:18:25","date_gmt":"2016-09-10T16:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/?p=3458"},"modified":"2016-09-10T18:18:25","modified_gmt":"2016-09-10T16:18:25","slug":"withaar-wins-silverstar-mtb-challenge-on-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/more-sport\/withaar-wins-silverstar-mtb-challenge-on-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"Withaar wins Silverstar MTB Challenge on debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan Withaar used his cross country background to power to victory in his first attempt at the Land Rover West Rand Silverstar MTB Challenge in Krugersdorp today.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old from Bryanston in Johannesburg took advantage of the technical sections on the twisty 40km course to establish an early lead and cruise to a comfortable victory in 1:36:44.<\/p>\n

He was followed home by Wessel Redelinghuys, who crossed the line in 1:38:05, and Josef Bester in 1:40:02.<\/p>\n

The Redhub rider said he was somewhat surprised at his clear-cut victory.<\/p>\n

“In fact, before the start of the race, I went to have a look at the finish because I was expecting there would be a few guys together at the end.<\/p>\n

“That didn’t happen, which surprised me.”<\/p>\n

Withaar said he had expected a stern challenge from defending champion Henry Uys, but the battle never materialised.<\/p>\n

“Henry initially sat back on the first climb to see what the other guys would do. Towards the top he upped the tempo and a group of five of us got away.”<\/p>\n

\"Cross<\/a>
Cross country specialist Jan Withaar, who races in the colours of Redhub, won the Land Rover West Rand Silverstar MTB Challenge in Krugersdorp at his first attempt. Photo: Jetline<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Withaar said he then positioned himself towards the front as they approached a stretch of gravel and managed to open up a gap on the technical sections that followed.<\/p>\n

“I was surprised at how quickly the guys dropped off when things got a bit more technical.<\/p>\n

“Obviously, with my cross country background, that’s the type of riding we do. With quite a few twisty trails, I was very comfortable on the route.<\/p>\n

“I was on my own after about 15 minutes and from there I just focused on keeping my pace as high as I could for as long as possible. You can enjoy it so much more when you don’t have people on your back.”<\/p>\n

Withaar said he was “pleasantly surprised” with the nature of the route.<\/p>\n

“I was a bit negative coming into the race because the last four or five mountain bike races I have done consisted mainly of gravel roads with the odd jeep track.<\/p>\n

“That wasn’t the case here at all. I think the route was good, the tricky sections well marked and there was a good mix of everything.”<\/p>\n

Withaar, who focuses on the national cross country events, said he used races such as the Land Rover West Rand Silverstar MTB Challenge to help him prepare during the off season.<\/p>\n

“Basically we are in a building phase at the moment, training during the week and then using races such as Silverstar for that added intensity.”<\/p>\n

\"Nadine<\/a>
Nadine Visagie of Cyclezone (second from left) won the 40km women’s event at the Land Rover West Rand Silverstar MTB Challenge in Krugersdorp. Photo: Jetline<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The women’s feature event ended in a relatively comfortable win for Nadine Visagie of Cyclezone, who completed the 40km in 1:59:27.<\/p>\n

Petruschika Constancon was runner-up in 2:07:51 with Tanya Hartley completing the podium in 2:10:50.<\/p>\n

“The course was fantastic, not too technical, but just the right mix for a mountain bike race,” said Visagie, who made her third appearance at the race.<\/p>\n

“I managed to move into the lead at the start and did not see too many other girls, but I wouldn’t say it was easy.”<\/p>\n

Johan Gouws won the 20km race in 1:08:57 with Chloe Gardner of Portable Shade taking the women’s title in 1:13:31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jan Withaar used his cross country background to power to victory in his first attempt at the Land Rover West Rand Silverstar MTB Challenge in Krugersdorp today. The 34-year-old from Bryanston in Johannesburg took advantage of the technical sections on the twisty 40km course to establish an early lead and cruise to a comfortable victory […]<\/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":[1743,1971,1740,1884,1754,1881,1752,1944,1814,1747,1815,1972,1753,1973],"class_list":["post-3458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-more-sport","tag-asg-events","tag-jan-withaar","tag-johannesburg-news","tag-krugersdorp","tag-krugersdorp-news","tag-land-rover","tag-land-rover-west-rand","tag-mountain-bike","tag-mountain-biking-news","tag-mtb","tag-mtb-news","tag-nadine-visagie","tag-silverstar-mtb-challenge","tag-wessel-redelinghuys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3458","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=3458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}