Pieter du Toit won the the fourth round of the Trailseeker Series at the Sondela Nature Reserve today. Photo: Discovery_SA/Twitter
Pieter du Toit of Pyga-Euro Steel narrowly won the fourth round of the Trailseeker Series, which took place at Sondela Nature Reserve in Bela-Bela this morning.
Du Toit got the better of Wessel Botha (NanoTime) in a two-up charge to the line to take the 68km race in 2:17:34. Brendan van Eeden (Absolute Motion) led a six-man splinter group home four seconds later to grab the final podium position.
“The race really worked out great for me,” said Du Toit. “I planned to win today and that’s exactly what happened. Every race we enter we try to win.
“It was a really flat race with two climbs but it was a big bunch the whole race. It ended up with me and Wessel (Botha) having a breakaway three kilometres from the finish and fortunately I managed to take the sprint.”
Du Toit’s teammate and former Olympian, Philip Buys, had to settle for fourth place ahead of Matt Beers (NanoTime), who won the 162km Race to the Sun at Sun City last weekend.
Jan Withaar took fifth ahead of Nico Bell (NanoTime) with Keagan Bontekoning (Insect Science) trailing in at the back of the group.
HJ Cronje and Shaun-Nick Bester (Darkhorse Wheels) completed the top 10.
Veteran campaigner Theresa Ralph (Galileo Risk-Infiniti), runner-up in the Race to the Sun, took a fine solo win in the women’s race, stopping the clock on 2:37:09.
Road specialist Kim le Court (Demacon), who won the Ride for Sight in late February, was second in 2:38:33 with Amy McDougall (Dormakaba) completing the podium in 2:42:56.
The race traditionally takes place in Wellington in the Western Cape, but was moved to Sondela to comply with the Covid-19 regulations at the time.
Results:
68km
Men
| 1 | Pieter du Toit | 2:17:34 |
| 2 | Wessel Botha | 2:17:35 |
| 3 | Brendan van Eeden | 2:17:39 |
| 4 | Philip Buys | 2:17:39 |
| 5 | Matt Beers | 2:17:40 |
| 6 | Jan Withaar | 2:17:41 |
| 7 | Nico Bell | 2:17:43 |
| 8 | Keagan Bontekoning | 2:17:45 |
| 9 | HJ Cronje | 2:18:10 |
| 10 | Shaun-Nick Bester | 2:18:12 |
Women
| 1 | Theresa Ralph | 2:37:09 |
| 2 | Kim Le Court | 2:38:33 |
| 3 | Amy McDougall | 2:42:56 |
| 4 | Monique du Toit | 2:48:48 |
| 5 | Zandri Strydom | 2:49:19 |
| 6 | Adrienne Moolman | 2:53:09 |
| 7 | Karla Stumpf | 2:56:58 |
| 8 | Ronel van Wyk Nel | 2:59:48 |
| 9 | Rimari Sutton | 3:01:05 |
| 10 | Carin Steenkamp | 3:11:25 |
