Defending champion Brendon Davids won today’s 100km Hill2Hill mountain bike race between Pietermaritzburg and Hillcrest, making it his third consecutive title.
Despite a route change, the RoadCover rider was able to keep ahead of the bunch even though he felt he was a “marked rider”.
“I knew the guys would target me from the beginning so I started the race quite aggressively.
“I started attacking from the very first kilometre and kept chipping away in order to try and wear down my competition,” he said.
Defending champion Brendon Davids won today’s Hill2Hill mountain bike race . Photo: Liam Whitfield
Davids made his final move roughly 45km from the finish as the riders passed through the Cato Ridge water point.
“I shook most of the riders there, but Travis (Walker) was able to keep up and he stuck with me
“From there I kept increasing the pace and eventually Travis just didn’t have anything left.
“It wasn’t an attack as such, I just maintained my pace and he couldn’t keep up and eventually fell off my wheel.”
With two Hill2Hill wins to his name, Davids said he had not planned to take part in this year’s event but felt the race provided a number of good training opportunities.
“For joBurg2C Willie (Smit) and I will be riding with Cube mountain bikes and this was a good opportunity to spend a bit more time on the bike and get a feel for it.”
Last year’s 947 Cycle Challenge winner, Davids is more at home on the road than on the trails and said the new bike had taken some getting used to.
“It felt quite different compared to what I’m used to, but overall I had no issues and today was a good confidence booster.
Having completed the first day of the Hill2Hill event, Davids said he would not be competing in the half-marathon on Monday and would instead be returning to Johannesburg ahead of his next race.
