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In the UCI women’s race, Sam Sanders and Danielle Strydom (Efficient Infiniti Insure) put in a dominant performance to make it a clean sweep of the stages and to take the overall win (02:54:45/11:55:39). KAP sani2c is now a Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Category 2 marathon stage race, and this report covers the results from the UCI registered riders in the men’s and women’s elite race. A Prologue took place on Wednesday 24th April ahead of the three stages.
While there was little threat of the Efficient Infiniti Insure team losing their top spot, Strydom says there was definitely some racing: “The other ladies teams kept the heat up, I enjoyed the intense start today. The mud added an element, Sam and I both had a puddle fall, but despite that the trails were immaculate and it was really fun riding. I am so grateful to be riding with Sam, she has done this race many times and has experience of racing it and winning it. That made it easy for me to sit on her wheel and follow her line.”
Sanders says: “It was super cool to win all three stages and the Prologue. We kept our heads cool and calm, stuck to our strategy, and kept it safe.”
Strydom says they will be competing at Gravel Champs and then SA Marathon Champs.
Bianca Haw, daughter of KAP sani2c founder ‘Farmer’ Glen Haw, was chuffed to be racing at sani2c after working on the event since she was old enough to do so. Riding competitively for the first time in seven years, she says: “It started super fast today and straight into mud. There was a group of riders we were hoping to stick with who got away at Clint’s Climb. Then Frances pulled us for a while and another group caught us, so we had fun racing amongst those guys, sprinting to the finish with them.”
Janse van Rensburg says that Haw got stronger and stronger over the three days: “I am very happy to be on the podium. Bianca was very strong today, she just got stronger and stronger over the three days and I hope she will continue racing now that she is back.”
Bell Equipment’s Hayley Smith and Janice Venter (03:33:21/13:18:21) were happy with their third place for the stage and overall, in the UCI women’s race. Smith says: “We had an amazing four days of riding, the single track was amazing. It was super muddy today, but we just loved it.”
Venter says: “Today was really fun, and the mud just made us stronger.”
Mention should be made of The Peanut Gallery team of Steve Mee and his 19-year-old daughter Caitlin Mee. Winning the Mixed Category in 12:05:20 over the three days, young Caitlin took the Queen of the Mountain title yesterday on the nearly 3 km long Unitrans Iconic Climb.
Results:
WOMEN
Efficient Infiniti Insure (Sam Sanders/Danielle Strydom) 03:20:00
sani2c (Frances Janse van Rensburg/ Bianca Haw) 03:28:06
Bell Equipment (Hayley Smith/Janice Venter) 03:33:21
Tshenolo Adventure Racing (Refilwe Mogorosi/Tania Bugarin Ortiz) 04:13:33