With the event organisers passionate about providing as memorable an experience as possible, seasoned mountain biker Gertjie Harmse firmly believes the Liberty Waterberg Encounter is a race up there with the best.<\/p>\n
The three-day race near Bela-Bela in Limpopo starts on June 9 and Harmse, who won alongside teammate Devan Kruger last year, said he was ready and looking forward to defending his title.<\/p>\n
The boutique event forms the Encounter Series alongside the Liberty Winelands Encounter, which took place in the Western Cape in April.<\/p>\n
While acknowledging that it was difficult to compare races, Harmse, from Vanderbijlpark, said he did not think there were many events where you were treated as well as at Waterberg.<\/p>\n
“I believe the crew involved with the Waterberg Encounter have a passion for what they do and for the event,” he said.<\/p>\n
“From registration to prize-giving, you have the feeling that everyone wants to help wherever they can to make your experience great.”<\/p>\n
Off the bike, Harmse said the food and accommodation were “five-star all the way”, while the race provided a good range of single and jeep tracks to test the riders.<\/p>\n
“Then there are also a few open roads to help you recover,” he said. “Add that to the spectacular scenery and wildlife and it doesn’t get much better.”<\/p>\n
This year organisers ASG Events have introduced a number of changes, which Harmse believed would elevate the race a further notch.<\/p>\n
One of the most significant introductions, he said, was a slight shortening of the stages, which will now see participants cover at total of 172km.<\/p>\n
“I believe the changes will have a positive effect on the event,” he said.<\/p>\n
“More single-track has been added, but even more important is that the distances will be shorter.<\/p>\n
“Last year we underestimated the route, especially on day one. Keeping this in mind, I think the organisers have made a good call to shorten the days a bit.”<\/p>\n
The Liberty Waterberg Encounter, in partnership with STANLIB, gets under way at Sondela Nature Reserve and will now incorporate two nights at the up-market Elements Estate in Bela-Bela.<\/p>\n
A clover-leaf route has been designed for the second stage before the riders complete the race by riding back to Sondela on the final day.<\/p>\n
“I believe the new overnight venue at Elements is great and I’m really looking forward to it. When you cross the line they make you feel like you’re in a five-star holiday resort.”<\/p>\n
Harmse said the race, which catered for many “mid-range” riders, occupied an important slot on the South African cycling calendar.<\/p>\n
“In my opinion the mid-range riders are all of us not racing professionally and the shorter distances and relaxed vibe are ideal for this market.<\/p>\n
“Most riders can still finish early enough and enjoy everything on offer at these venues.<\/p>\n
“It’s a great winter getaway weekend to the African bushveld with excellent treatment at a really good price. And you get to ride your bike on some really nice mountain bike tracks.”<\/p>\n
Harmse, himself, will be looking to do well again, this time in partnership with his brother, Louis.<\/p>\n
“Louis can be really strong so we will be racing competitively, as hard as we possibly can,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With the event organisers passionate about providing as memorable an experience as possible, seasoned mountain biker Gertjie Harmse firmly believes the Liberty Waterberg Encounter is a race up there with the best. The three-day race near Bela-Bela in Limpopo starts on June 9 and Harmse, who won alongside teammate Devan Kruger last year, said he […]<\/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":[1743,2399,2595,2594,1944,2115,1945,2241,1747,2298,1815,2597],"class_list":["post-5216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-more-sport","tag-asg-events","tag-encounter-series","tag-gertjie-harmse","tag-liberty-waterberg-encounter","tag-mountain-bike","tag-mountain-bike-news","tag-mountain-bike-race","tag-mountain-biker","tag-mtb","tag-mtb-adventures","tag-mtb-news","tag-waterberg-encounter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5216","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=5216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}