Shaun-Nick Bester soloed to a comfortable win at the Ride Joburg MTB Race in Johannesburg today. Photo: Jessica Erasmus
Shaun-Nick Bester and Robyn de Groot soloed to comfortable victories in the elite men’s and women’s feature races at the Ride Joburg MTB Race in Johannesburg today.
Bester, who has been in good form of late after finishing on the podium in last weekend’s Trailseeker Series event at Cullinan, crossed the line in 1:44:00 to finish more than a minute ahead of his closest rivals.
Calvin Beneke (ProTouch) and JC Nel were second and third respectively after duking it out in a sprint finish, followed by Ben Melt Swanepoel (Garmin) a few seconds later.
Describing the course as “punchy with 750 metres of climbing”, Bester said he wanted to make it hard from the start.
“I didn’t want the same situation as the Trailseeker Series in Cullinan where I lost the sprint to Nico Bell,” said the 29-year-old Darkhorse Wheels rider.
“I knew I had good legs today and on every climb I went flat out and tried to drop the guys as soon as possible.
“Around the 28km mark it was only me and JC Nel in the leading group and, when we hit another rocky climb, I decided to try to get rid of him and gave it everything I had.”
Having achieved just that left Bester out in front with most of the second half of the race to go.
“My plan then was just to keep the pressure on all the climbs and I checked my power meter a lot. I knew if I could do 420 watts, which is about six watts per kilo, I could maintain the gap quite easily, because the chasing guys would have to do much more than that to catch me.
“By that time they were about a minute behind me, so on each climb I maintained the pressure and kept the power meter at 420. I was able to enjoy the descents at a nice solid pace without having to put myself in danger of crashing.
“I was really happy with my ride today. My form has been good since lockdown finished and I felt it was time for me to win another race.”
De Groot (Dormakaba), fresh from a fourth-place finish at the world marathon championships, clocked 1:58:34 to successfully defend her title.
She finished more than four minutes ahead of Sarah Hill (Galileo Risk), who placed fifth in yesterday’s SA MTB National XCO Championships in Stellenbosch.
The evergreen Yolandi du Toit (Garmin) completed the podium in 2:06:21.
