Trek’s Brendon Davids returned to winning ways in the 60km Karkloof Classic when he won the marathon race in Greytown, KwaZulu-Natal, on Sunday.
He overcame the early challenge of Kargo Pro’s Alan Hatherly and Ballito Concept Cyclery’s Julian Jessop before using his climbing strength to maintain his lead all the way to the end.
“Going up the first major climb of the day I sat on the front of the group and made sure no one could come around me.
“As the field slowly whittled down it was just Alan, Julian and myself left before Alan then fell back.”
Jessop rode a strong second half to surge to second place while Hatherly was reeled in and passed by Bestmed’s Matthew Wilkinson in the battle for third.
“I’m really happy to take my second victory,” said Davids.
“The fact that I’m not with a team at the moment also makes it a huge deal for me and it was great to get a win for Trek.”
The women’s crown went the way of Kargo’s rising young talent Frankie du Toit.
Merchant’s 2014 and 2015 winner Jeannie Dreyer had to settle for second with Du Toit’s teammate, Hayley Smith, finishing third.
“I felt really good, I loved the trails and everything just worked today which was great and I’m so chuffed,” said Du Toit.
She said she knew that Dreyer was really strong but that she probably had the edge on the single-track because of her cross country background. Her plan was to stay with her until the technical section and then go for it.
In the 40km, Bradley Rowlett and Nadine Nunes took the men’s and women’s titles respectively.
Travis Stedman and Sabine Thies won the respective titles in the 20km family ride.
View the overall results here.
