NAD Pro’s Gawie Combrinck, pairing up with Nico Bell, is targeting a top step on the podium at the 60km Hippo Hollow MTB Challenge in Hazyview, Mpumalanga, tomorrow.
However the pair, who won the joBerg2c title at the end of April, said they would primarily use the race as training ahead of the second half of the season.
Gawie Combrinck, pairing up with Nico Bell, is targeting a top step on the podium at the 60km Hippo Hollow MTB Challenge. Photo: Anthony Grote Photography
“Every race we do we try to win,” Combrinck said. “But we are more doing it for training.
“It is a very local race, so we are expecting mainly only local riders to take part.
“A lot of guys may be competing in the Magalies Monster [also tomorrow], so that may also split the competition up a bit.”
Combrinck, who lives in Nelspruit, has not competed in the race before, but he expects climbing aplenty.
“I have ridden in that area before and I know there is a lot of climbing, so I think we will be doing plenty of that on quad-bike trails and single track.
“It should be quite challenging,” he added.
Combrinck admitted his form was not “that great at the moment” since the team had taken a break after the sani2c Race.
“We only just started training again now. We will use this race as a part of training and I will hopefully get better form out of it.”
The team is setting their next major focus on the SA MTB champs in July, followed by a stage race in Colombia.
“We will be doing Trailseekers in between as well as some road-racing [before the SA champs],” Combrinck said.
“We had the break now just to reset the engine to get going again. We have a lot of racing towards the end of the year and we won’t get the opportunity to rest then.
“Our goal is to win more stage races which is why we have more riders – to be able swop out when some riders feel better than others.”
