Mountain biking professional Pieter Seyffert will start a new era in his career when he teams up with Travis Walker for the seven-day TransCape mountain bike race from Sunday.
Making his debut at the TransCape, the 30-year-old said he was looking forward to the partnership with Walker under the Ellsworth-ASG banner for the 690km journey between Knysna and Franschhoek in the Western Cape.
Seyffert said he had been looking for a new team-mate after his long-time partner Hanco Kachelhoffer retired following their victory in the Sanlam MTB Invitational in November last year.
Mountain biking pro Pieter Seyffert (front) will join forces with Travis Walker to ride for Ellsworth-ASG in the seven-day TransCape mountain bike race from Sunday. Photo: Warren Elsom
The 25-year-old Walker, from Hilton in KwaZulu-Natal, is back in South Africa after three years in Italy and was also looking for a partner.
“We have never raced together and the TransCape will provide a good guideline for us,” said Seyffert, who hails from Helderkruin on the West Rand.
“Travis is from a cross country background and I started out in road cycling, so it will be interesting to see how we pair up.”
Listen to Audio: Pieter Seyffert chats about upcoming TransCape MTB.
Although new to the TransCape, which is presented by ASG Events, Seyffert said he had ridden in many of the areas the route will cover.
He said their goal was to “definitely go for the overall win”, but that they would take things one day at a time.
“We will try to play it fairly safe early on and assess the opposition in the first couple of stages to see if we can find any weaknesses,” he said.
“Then you can try to put them under some sort of pressure, for example on climbs or descents.”
Seyffert said he and Walker had done a lot of base training and were in good condition.
Seyffert underlined his ability by taking the title in the Magalies Monster in Rustenburg in May and he also fondly recalled his last few rides with Kachelhoffer.
“It was great to finish off in a few races with Hanco, who is a good friend of mine. Our very last race was the Sanlam MTB Invitational near Paarl, which we won, so that was very special.”
Stage by stage:
Stage 1 – Knysna to Wilderness (80km)
Stage 2 – George to Van Wyksdorp (135km)
Stage 3 – Van Wyksdorp to Riversdal (81km)
Stage 4 – Riversdal to Swellendam (103km)
Stage 5 – Swellendam to Greyton (112km)
Stage 6 – Greyton to Villiersdorp (68km)
Stage 7 – Villiersdorp to Franschhoek (78km)
Listen to Audio: Pieter Seyffert chats about upcoming TransCape MTB.
