Weather forces sani2c's hand on Stage 2

Mackenzie Club - Higher than predicted rainfall overnight has forced race organisers to make the iconic second stage of the sani2c from Mackenzie Club to Jolivet a neutral stage, meaning that no riders will be racing due to safety concerns.

The predicted heavy rain was supposed to hit the Umkomaas valley later in the day and when it unexpectedly arrived overnight 'Farmer' Glen Haw's hand was forced as there could be a number of safety concerns on what is inherently a tough stage.

"With such tight tracks down into the valley there isn't a lot of space off the track before the drop off," Haw explained.

"Riders will be using the grass to ride on which will make the track even closer to the edge so we had to make the decision to make the stage a non-racing one.

"Another issue would be the extraction of riders from the valley should something have happened."

The stage will take riders along the R612 to Highflats, where they will go under the main road at the Highflats Church. Then riders will cover 15km of the original route to the finish at Jolivet.

"We have been in meetings with the Municipality and the RTI since about 03:00 trying to make an alternative arrangement.

"There will be no road closures but riders will need to ride to Jolivet should they want to remain in the race.

"Riders are more than welcome to skip Friday's stage and ride tomorrow, however they will not be in the final results.

"It wasn't a decision we took lightly but ultimately we needed to take all possibilities into consideration and we will look forward to another exciting stage tomorrow," Haw added.

Overall

1. PYGA Euro Steel (Philip Buys/Matthys Beukes) 02:47.56
2. NAD Pro MTB (Gawie Combrinck/Nico Bell) 02:48.40
3. Team BCX (Waylon Woolcock/HB Kruger) 02:48.49
4. Ryder RED E Spot Africa (Matthew Beers/Tim Hammond) 02:49.55
5. Team TIB (Andrew Hill/Julian Jessop) 02:51.43
6. Ballito Bicycling Company (Pieter Seyffert/Andrew Johnson) 02:57.04
7. Home Ice Cream (Matthew Stamatis/Thomas Jessop) 02:58.58
8. William Simpson (Derrin Smith/Michael Posthumus) 02:59.25
9. Urban Fitness Outdoor (Jonathan Cloete/Nicholas Porteous) 02:59.48
10. think 360 (Leeroy Emslie/Jason Davies) 03:00.26
11. KAPRestonic 13 (Craig Uria/Andrew Duvenhage) 03:00.31
12. Bells Cycling (Declan Sidey/JP Jung) 03:02.38
13. Business Print (Andrew Cairns/Fanie Venter) 03:05.28
14. Revolution Cycles (Brenan Anderson/David Cooke) 03:07.00
15. Lge Midas/Slender Wonder (Igna de Villiers/Paul Theron) 03:07.10

Women

1. Valencia Ladies (Samantha Sanders/Amy Mcdougall) 03:07.38
2. dormakaba (Candice Lill/Vera Adrian) 03:08.46
3. Team Ascendis Health (Robyn de Groot/Mariska Strauss) 03:18.10
4. Galileo Risk Velocity (Carmen Buchacher/Theresa Ralph) 03:20.20
5. KAP Safipol 1 (Anli Smith/Tamaryn Kietzmann) 03:55.32

Mixed Team

1. Private Client Holdings (James Reid/Mari Rabie) 03:14.06
2. Bluff Meat Supplies (Trevor Rowe/Robyn Price) 03:15.13
3. Omnico Team (Sanet Coetzee/Dana Coetzee) 03:20.53
4. Cycle Nation-Bring it On (Tijl van de Winkel/Joanna van de Winkel) 03:26.39
5. Bell Equipment (Darryn Purtell/Hayley Smith) 03:31.10