Road specialist Bradley Potgieter savoured a weekend double when he won the 60km Sondela MTB Classic in Bela-Bela today.
The Vander Group rider and Cycle Lab ambassador also won the 40km race yesterday.
Potgieter, who represented South Africa at the Sharjah Tour in January and at the Commonwealth Games road race in April this year, won today’s mountain-bike race in 2:02:33, beating Sean Wagner by eight-and-a-half minutes.
Road specialist Bradley Potgieter (pictured) savoured a weekend double when he won the 60km Sondela MTB Classic in Bela-Bela today. Photo: Supplied/Trailseeker Series
In yesterday’s 40km event, he finished 19 seconds ahead of John-William Lang.
Potgieter said he was enjoying the off-road races. “I saw this race pop up on the calendar and decided to give it a go,” he told In the Bunch today.
“I enjoy mountain-biking, so I like to mix it up a bit. My mountain-bike riding has come a long way since I began at the start of last year.
“I’m even starting to enjoy it more than road racing,” he quipped.
In today’s race he got away right at the start. “I was alone almost from the first kilometre,” he said, “and I just kept extending the gap throughout the race.
“The route was much better today than yesterday, when it was very windy and flat, making it hard to make headway.
“Today we went to another farm where it was a little rockier. There was a climb where I was able to go hard. The downhill was also a bit technical; more of a mountain-bike marathon style.”
Potgieter had been taking his training easier during the past couple of months, but said he would “start picking it up when the racing gets busier”.
His team, Vander Group, will give the Jock Classic a miss next weekend but will compete in the Lowveld Tour on August 9.
