{"id":43056,"date":"2021-12-19T17:26:49","date_gmt":"2021-12-19T15:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/?p=43056"},"modified":"2021-12-19T17:26:49","modified_gmt":"2021-12-19T15:26:49","slug":"berge-dale-returns-to-the-road-for-iconic-22nd-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/cycling\/berge-dale-returns-to-the-road-for-iconic-22nd-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Berge &#038; Dale returns to the road for iconic 22nd edition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The popular Krugersdorp-based cycling event Berge &amp; Dale will return to the road when the 22nd edition takes place on February 26 and 27, 2022, at Protearif Primary.<\/p>\n<p>After having had to cancel this year&#8217;s edition due to Covid-19 uncertainties, organisers Slipstream Events look forward to welcoming riders back to this event, which is renowned for its challenging and hilly route &#8211; and in particular the sting in the tail climb to the finish.<\/p>\n<p>Following the 109km &#8211; which is an official seeding event for Ride Joburg &#8211; and 60km road races on Saturday, the event will also introduce a mountain bike event with distances of 45km and 20km at Kings Kloof.<\/p>\n<p>The 45km MTB race, with 1 000m of ascent, is challenging and technical, and should only be attempted by fit and experienced mountain bikers.<\/p>\n<p>There will be new sections cut for the 20km race.<\/p>\n<p>Race director Erick Oosthuizen said the Berge &amp; Dale is such an iconic event in the West Rand and has been since it started 22 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As a cyclist, you always know that when you ride here, you&#8217;re not necessarily in for a flat and easy outing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This year is no different with the long-distance finishing with two of the West Rand&#8217;s best-known climbs, Hekpoort and Sterkfontein.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He added that to keep with the &#8220;hilly theme&#8221;, there will be a not-so-flat mountain bike race on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s an easy 20km option for all and sundry, with the 45km distance for the hardened riders.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The last time Berge &amp; Dale winners were crowned, was in 2020 with Travis Barrett and Joanna van de Winkel taking the respective titles.<\/p>\n<p>After competing in the event three times, this marked Cape Town Cycle Tour champion Barrett&#8217;s first Classic victory.<\/p>\n<p>For Van de Winkel, it was special to have her children cheer her on at the finish, coming up solo to win.<\/p>\n<p>Adding to the excitement and anticipation, Everything.Insure has officially come on board as the event&#8217;s title sponsor.<\/p>\n<p>Their products extend to every facet of life, from personal home and car to business assets, professional indemnity, to death and disability cover.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re pleased to see cycling back after a period of uncertainty and limited events, so it was an easy decision for us to partner with Berge &amp; Dale to bring the community the event that will kick start our 2022 cycling calendar,&#8221; said Werner Slabbert, Executive Head: First Equity PSG Division.<\/p>\n<p>He added that with most of us having to live socially distanced and largely sedentary lives, he feels cycling is the one sport that can enable a healthy and active lifestyle.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With the partnership between Everything.Insure and Berge &amp; Dale, we hope to bring back a degree of normal life to the cycling community.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Slabbert said Everything.Insure is a digital insurance marketplace for everyone wanting to insure anything.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Berge &amp; Dale is a race for the experienced riders and novices, and we have added an MTB event; so, the 2022 E.I Berge &amp; Dale will be for everyone too.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Oosthuizen said he is extremely happy to have Everything.Insure on board and trust that this is only the beginning of a long partnership.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Cycling had gone through such a trying time in the last 24 months, and with a little bit of help from people like them (E.I) we can try and steady the ship, and move on from there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Entry fees:<\/p>\n<p>Road \u2013 109km: R380; 60km: R260<br \/>\nMTB \u2013 45km: R230; 20km: R180<\/p>\n<p>Categories:<\/p>\n<p>109km<br \/>\nElite &amp; U\/23 Men<br \/>\nLicensed Ladies (Elite &amp; Junior)<br \/>\nVets Men 30+<br \/>\nVets Men 40+<br \/>\nVets Men 50+<br \/>\nJunior Men<br \/>\nU\/17 Boys<br \/>\nTandem<br \/>\nOpen<br \/>\nE-Bikes<\/p>\n<p>60km<br \/>\nU\/17 Girls<br \/>\nU\/15 Boys<br \/>\nTandem<br \/>\nOpen<br \/>\nE-Bikes<\/p>\n<p>Entries:<\/p>\n<p>Entries close February 18, or as soon as the entry limits have been reached: Road \u2013 2 000 entrants; MTB \u2013 500 entrants.<\/p>\n<p>Enter on www.bergeendale.co.za.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ap-custom-wrapper\"><\/div><!--ap-custom-wrapper-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The popular Krugersdorp-based cycling event Berge &amp; Dale will return to the road when the 22nd edition takes place on February 26 and 27, 2022, at Protearif Primary. After having had to cancel this year&#8217;s edition due to Covid-19 uncertainties, organisers Slipstream Events look forward to welcoming riders back to this event, which is renowned [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3260],"tags":[3791,1757,1747,80],"class_list":["post-43056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-berge-dale","tag-mountain-biking","tag-mtb","tag-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43056","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}