Cape Town - South Africans Mariske Strauss and Yolande de Villiers won the final stage of the Momentum Health Tankwa Trek, presented by Biogen, on Sunday.
But the Swiss/Swedish duo of Esther Süss and Jennie Stenerhag claimed the overall victory after three days of fierce racing in the rugged Kouebokkeveld region of South Africa’s Western Cape province.
After winning Stages 1 and 2 convincingly, fate struck Süss and Stenerhag
(Meerendal/CBC) after 18km of the 89km stage when they had to stop to repair a
puncture sustained by Süss. This opened up the racing for the final-stage
podium and Strauss and De Villiers (OMX Pro) and Candice Lill and Vera Adrian
(dormakaba) were ready to oblige, tackling the stage’s signature singletrack
sections with renewed intent.
For De Villiers and Strauss, the General Classification was also a
consideration. Even though they started the day with a 13-minute deficit to the
Meerendal/CBC pair, they’re experienced enough to know that mountain bike mechanicals
can rob riders of huge chunks of time. With generous prize money and
International Cycling Union rankings points up for grabs, there was a lot at
stake.
Süss and Stenerhag repaired the tyre with a plug and then found themselves in
pursuit mode for the rest of the stage.
Strauss is the current national XCO
champion and she led De Villiers smoothly and swiftly through the long sections
of singletrack that wove its way through the rocky landscape.
Although Süss and Stenerhag managed to catch and pass the dormakaba duo, they
fell short of closing down the OMX Pro pair, who crossed the finish line in a
time of 3 hours 30 minutes and 23 seconds. Süss and Stenerhag were second, almost
two minutes later with Lill and Adrian rounding out the podium places another
four minutes later.
“It all came together for us on the final day. I dropped my chain about 15km
in. We paced back hard to the leading women and just as we reached them, Esther
got a flat. Along with Candice and Vera we then pushed the pace and at some
point we rode clear of them. Then it was a matter of just hanging on to our
lead because we heard time gaps and knew that Esther and Jennie were catching.
But we held on and we are really happy with the win,” smiled Strauss.
“It was very tough!” exclaimed De Villiers.
“Mariske is like an Energizer
Bunny! So much energy and she knows how to ride a bike. The fast pace and the
pressure of trying to get into the singletrack first really made it a hard
stage. But the trails today were awesome. This is a proper mountain bike race
route. It was hard but we enjoyed it so much,” said De Villiers.
“Esther’s puncture came on the open road, where we were in bunches with the
men. The pace there was fast and a lot of bunches passed us while we were
repairing the tyre, which took longer that it probably should have,” said
Stenerhag.
“But it was a good test for us as a team to see how we cope with this kind of
thing and it prepares us well for the Cape Epic. Staying calm and chasing back
became our priorities. This is the fifth time I’m doing this race and I know
this final day route quite well. As we got near the first section of
singletrack we caught a huge bunch. I said to Esther we HAVE to get past them
or else we’ll get held up. We rode super hard and managed to get around them
just before the singletrack started, giving us a mostly clear run,” explained
Stenerhag.
“The next really long section of singletrack wasn’t as open for us, but most
riders had seen we’d flatted earlier and we very kind in letting us past. After
that section we could see the other women and by the final water point our gap
was down to 1:30. We decided to change Esther’s wheel there because she was
losing pressure in the tyre. I thought we’d be able to still catch OMX Pro but
they rode really well. We are still very happy to get the overall win though,”
added Stenerhag.
“We plugged and pumped my tyre and really had to work hard to fight back. We
were on our own and I think we did really well. As we were approaching the last
water point, where I changed my wheel, I noticed my dropper seatpost was broken
and wasn’t returning to the normal height. I had it fixed it at the tech zone
and from there on I was worried it would break again, so had to be careful for
the rest of the stage. Luckily it held and we were able to finish okay,” said a
relieved Süss.
Süss and Stenerhag collected R80 000 for their overall victory, the
same amount as the men’s overall winners, courtesy of Anderson Transport, which
boosted the women’s prize purse to match that of the men. Strauss and De
Villiers finished second overall with Lill and Adrian completing the final
overall podium.
The win was the third successive Tankwa Trek for Stenerhag, who won the
previous two editions with South African Robyn de Groot, who won the 2017 Mixed
category with her Ascendis Health team-mate, Gert Heyns. Runners-up in the Mixed
division were Team Valencia’s Grant Usher and Amy Beth McDougall with Charles
Mcfall and Carmen Buchacher (Velocity Sports Lab) rounding out the podium
places.
In the Solo women’s division, Jeannie Dreyer was dominant, winning all three
stages and the overall title ahead of Dalene van der Leek and Reinette
Geldenhuis, respectively.
For photo galleries and daily video summaries of the world’s most
prestigious three-day mountain bike race, visit the Tankwa Trek Facebook page.
For more information on the event or to enter the 2018 Momentum Health Tankwa Trek, presented by Biogen, visit www.tankwatrek.co.za
For the stage 3 highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJm5pf772eE
Momentum Health
Tankwa Trek, presented by Biogen Roll of Honour:
Women:
2013: Ischen Stopforth (RSA) and Hanlie Booyens (RSA)
2014: Cherise Stander (RSA) and Ariane Lüthi (SUI)
2015: Jennie Stenerhag (SWE) and Robyn de Groot (RSA)
2016: Jennie Stenerhag (SWE) and Robyn de Groot (RSA)
2017: Jennie Stenerhag (SWE) and Esther Süss (SUI)
Momentum Health
Tankwa Trek, presented by Biogen 2017
Stage 3, 89km –
leading results:
Open Women
1. Yolande de Villiers (RSA) / Mariske Strauss (RSA) OMX Pro 03:30:23
2. Esther Süss (SUI) / Jennie Stenerhag (SWE) Team Meerendal / CBC 03:32:17
3. Candice Lill (RSA) / Vera Adrian (NAM) dormakaba 03:36:10
4. Cornelia Hug (SUI) / Hielke Elferink (NED) Meerendal / CBC-1 03:43:00
5. Yolandi du Toit (RSA) / Theresa Ralph (RSA) Garmin Galileo Risk 03:55:17
Mixed Teams
1. Robyn de Groot (RSA) / Gert Heyns (RSA) Team Ascendis Health 03:23:19
2. Grant Usher (RSA) / Amy Beth McDougall (RSA) Valencia 03:29:39
3. Charles Mcfall (RSA) / Carmen Buchacher (RSA) Velocity Sports Lab 03:30:10
4. Katie Lennard (RSA) / Oliver Lennard (RSA) The Gear Change 03:42:46
5. Henning Blauw (RSA) / Louise Ferreira (RSA) Globeflight 03:48:44
Solo Women
1. Jeannie Dreyer (RSA) 03:41:44
2. Dalene van der Leek (RSA) 03:50:43
3. Reinette Geldenhuis (RSA) 04:03:16
4 Collette Bastard (RSA) 04:06:16
5. Marietjie Lutz (RSA) 04:34:08
Final General
Classification
Open Women
1. Esther Süss (SUI) / Jennie Stenerhag (SWE) Team Meerendal / CBC 12:28:40
2. Yolande de Villiers (RSA) / Mariske Strauss (RSA) OMX Pro 12:40:19
3. Candice Lill (RSA) / Vera Adrian (NAM) dormakaba 12:58:37
4. Cornelia Hug (SUI) / Hielke Elferink (NED) Meerendal / CBC-1 13:20:39
5. Yolandi du Toit (RSA) / Theresa Ralph (RSA) Garmin Galileo Risk 13:42:24
6. Ann Harrison (RSA) / Marleen Lourens (RSA) Speed Structures 15:24:21
7. Jeanie de Villiers (RSA) / Kylie Hanekom (RSA) CITRICOM 16:19:13
8. Cherise Stander (RSA) / Mikayla Webb (RSA) CansaActive 16:53:38
9. Anneke Viljoen (RSA) / Louise Bezuidenhout (RSA) Anderson Transport 17:21:25
10. Hildegarde Cronje (RSA) / Auralia Edwards (RSA) Cycloworx 19:22:04
Mixed Teams
1. Robyn de Groot (RSA) / Gert Heyns (RSA) Team Ascendis Health 11:52:57
2. Grant Usher (RSA) / Amy Beth McDougall (RSA) Valencia 12:23:01
3. Charles Mcfall (RSA) / Carmen Buchacher (RSA) Velocity Sports Lab 12:53:44
4. Katie Lennard (RSA) / Oliver Lennard (RSA) The Gear Change 13:22:11
5. Henning Blaauw (RSA)/Louise Ferreira (RSA) Globeflight 14:02:28
Solo Women
1. Jeannie Dreyer (RSA) 13:06:05
2. Dalene van der Leek (RSA) 14:10:45
3. Reinette Geldenhuis (RSA) 15:03:43
4. Collette Bastard (RSA) 16:00:00
5. Rentia Denissen (RSA) 17:02:34
For full results of all categories, visit www.tankwatrek.co.za