Philip Buys won the Trailseeker Series Legends MX marathon race in muddy conditions in Pretoria on Saturday. Photo: Milan de Beer Photography
Philip Buys says the muddy conditions he faced in winning the Trailseeker Series Legends MX marathon mountain bike race in Pretoria on Saturday was a perfect dress rehearsal for sani2c.
The Pyga-Euro Steel rider will join forces with Matthys Beukes for the three-stage KwaZulu-Natal event, which gets under way on Thursday.
Buys soloed to victory on a difficult course, finishing the 70km in 2:42:17. Jan Withaar followed him home, around two minutes off the pace. Buys’ teammate, Pieter du Toit, who won at Sondela, placed third.
Buys said he was looking forward to sani2c with Beukes as the team were keen to excel in such a high-profile event.
“It’s an important race for us and the organisers have gone to a lot of effort to make sure it goes ahead. So we would like to support them and I am sure there will be some exciting racing.”
With the race taking place at this time of the year, he felt there was a strong possibility of muddy conditions.
“That could be the biggest challenge.”
He said he was however not too concerned about it as the Trailseeker event was a good dress rehearsal.
“Whatever the conditions, it’s a situation of controlling what we can do and working with our experience.
“We have done the race before and we know what it takes to do well in those conditions and the terrain, so I think we are well prepared.
“We definitely want to end the year on a high note before taking a break and getting going in January again.”
The Legends MX course made life difficult for the riders on Saturday and Buys said the front bunch of eight riders split up completely as they hit Rosemary Hill.
“By the time we got there, the trails were really muddy and it was a clay-type of mud that stuck to your wheels.
“The guys were really struggling because the wheels were not turning as the mud had clogged up so badly.
“I believe my bike gave me an advantage as it has a bit more clearance and didn’t clog up as badly, so I didn’t have to stop because of the mud.”
He said he and Withaar managed to create a big gap going out of Rosemary Hill, which they extended to almost four minutes.
“As we got onto the district roads there was less mud and I said to Jan let’s stop for a few seconds to clear out the worst of the mud to keep the wheels turning better.
“We were able to increase our lead and about three-quarters of the way into the race there was a little incline, where I put in a short, sharp attack to test Jan.
“He dropped off and I was able to keep that solid pace for 10 minutes before I backed off slightly. I was able to maintain the gap and ultimately took the win.”
Amy McDougall (Dormakaba) won the women’s race.
