Stellenbosch riders Waylon Woolcock and Hennie Roux joined forces to win the Liberty Winelands Encounter when the three-stage mountain-bike race ended in the Western Cape today.
It was a memorable weekend for Roux, who turned 20 yesterday and then claimed his first major stage race success today.
With Woolcock’s experience playing an important role, the pair won their third straight stage when they finished today’s 50km route in 1:52:49 for an overall time of 5:52:44.
The final-stage runners-up were Renz Rezelman and Thor Hansen, followed by Cobus Swanepoel and Neville Cragg.
Waylon Woolcock (front) and Hennie Roux lead the bunch on their way winning the third and final stage of stage of the Liberty Winelands Encounter mountain-bike race, which ended at the Nederburg Wine Estate in Paarl today. They also won the overall title. Photo: Henk Neuhoff
The latter team were second in the general classification, with Dawid du Bruin and Michael Dundulakis filling third spot overall.
Woolcock also won the title, with HB Kruger, in 2017, but he has since retired from professional cycling and used this weekend to help his colleague further his mountain-biking education.
Roux said it had been a memorable experience in a career which only started in earnest in November.
“I was able to learn so much from Waylon, especially when to go harder and when to conserve energy. It was a really good lesson for me.”
Having started cycling only four years ago, Roux switched to road racing in 2017.
“But last year I went riding in Europe for a bit and that’s when I realised that I was more suited to mountain-biking.
“My strength is that I can ride at my own effort for a long time and since I started concentrating on this discipline I have fallen in love with it.”
In today’s stage, which took place in wet conditions, Roux said it was fairly flat in the first part and the group stayed together until about the 35km mark.
“We just sat on the front until there was a little kicker with a section of deep sand and we just went for it.
“We looked around and could see we had a bit of gap, so Waylon told me just to keep pushing and we were able to maintain that gap until the finish.”
The women’s team title went to Sunette Beyers and Alta Kriegler, while Andrew Marsh and Anneke Viljoen were crowned the mixed champions.
By coming third in today’s solo men’s category, De Villiers Odendaal was able to take the overall title, while Amy McDougall won her third stage to claim the women’s title.
