After a two-year absence, Stuart Marais continued his run of good form to notch up his second victory in the Wartburg MTB Classic in KwaZulu-Natal today.
Fresh from a victory in the team category at the PE Plett last week, Marais managed to get the better of his PE Plett team-mate Andrew Hill and defending champion Tyronne White in the 65km event.
“I came into this race after having a good PE Plett with Andrew. I kind of knew he was quite strong, having ridden with him for the week.
“I wasn’t sure where I would be on an individual basis but was pretty stoked to have a goal of winning the race and being able to take it,” the 31-year-old from Howick told In the Bunch.
His challenge momentarily took a turn for the worse when both he and Hill ended up taking the slower line at a section of dual track.
“We happened to take the slower line and came out of the single-track in the [lower half of the] top 10. We had to chase down Tyronne who managed to get into the lead with the faster single-track.
“After catching up to him we all kind of worked together up until one steep climb where I put a bit of pressure on the guys. Andrew managed to stay with me but Tyronne had dropped off at that stage,” said Marais, who rides for WilleHonne.
“There was a final climb about 45km in where I managed to get away from Andrew and then it was just a time-trial to the finish.”
The women’s race was won by Christie-Leigh Hearder, followed by Nadine Nunes and Jean Hackland.
