Jason Meaton was grateful to have won the 115km Bamboesberg MTB Challenge on his first attempt when the race took place near Hofmeyr, Eastern Cape, on Saturday.
The race, now just in its second year, was surprisingly tough, Meaton said. “I didn’t expect it to be as tough as it was. It was a nice surprise, because it kind of gave me that mental edge I need.
“I was originally drawn to the event because I saw it was over 100km. That intrigued me. There are not many mountain bike races in the country, let alone the Eastern Cape, with distances like that.”
Jason Meaton, pictured here, was grateful to have won the 115km Bamboesberg MTB Challenge on his first attempt on Saturday. Photo: Supplied
The course was technical, Meaton said. “It had a bit of a mix between the Attakwas Extreme MTB Challenge and a National MTB Series event.
“There were a lot of single and jeep tracks with a lot of rocks. I had to make sure I stayed alerted at all times.”
Arno Jordaan and Charlie Louw, who finished second and third respectively, took part in the race to practise for the Cape Epic on March 18, Meaton said.
“It would have given them awesome practice. It was an eye-opener of what it would be like to race in a hard event where you have a bit of everything thrown into the mix.
“It contained some headwinds, flat terrain, open roads as well as some bush-style riding and, for 115km, I thought it was a top-class course.”
Meaton said he, Jordaan and Louw broke away early on at about the 10km mark before he made the next decisive split at the 50km mark. He ended up winning the race by a comfortable 15-minute margin.
“I took a bit of a gamble making that break-away for the King of the Mountain [at the 50km mark], knowing that there was still such a long way to go.
“I was quite surprised at the end when I discovered the big gap I had created, but it was good to see the high level of competition that Eastern Cape had to offer.
“Coming out with the overall victory was absolutely wonderful,” he added.
