Groustra back in top form
Eunice Visagie
GT Mr Price's Renay Groustra came desperately close to a podium finish at the past weekend Pick'nPay MTB Challenge in Knysna over 85km. He finished fourth behind David George, Kevin Evans and Matthys Beukes.
Groustra's teammates Erik Kleinhans and Dominic Calitz finished in the top 10 to round off a good race for GT Mr Price.
"I am super happy with my 4th place against a very tough field," said Groustra. "One step higher on the podium was a possibility, but a slow puncture foiled my chances."
Calitz also mentioned how tough a race it was due to the challenging course and the fact that the country's top riders were in action.
Kleinhans raced the following day in the Oyster Classic over 100km as well. He once again got a top 10 finish in a race that was won by Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg. He was followed by his MTN-teammate Jaco Venter, while Arran Brown (Medscheme) finished third.
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Groustra dominate the Greyton mountains
Eunice Visagie
Team GT Mr Price rider Renay Groustra made the pace hard on the first steep climb of the Greyton mountain bike event and was never seen again by his competitors.
The event takes place just on the outside of this lovely village which still had snow decorating all the close by mountains and enjoys a good combination of singletrack, jeeptrack and climbs.
"The route was rough and bumpy and even difficult to find at some stages, but once i got the gap i knew i could keep it with all the climbs in this race," said an happy Groustra during a Pedal Talk interview.
Groustra's GT Mr Price teammate, Erik Kleinhans, was chasing from behind with GT Maties rider, Christiaan Kriek, who managed to beat Kleinhans into third place in a close sprint.
Kleinhans had a busy week of racing in the Southern Cape with a festival of cycling were he managed to win four of the six races.
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Bentley the best junior in the country
Eunice Visagie
GT Mr Price DH star, Tim Bentley, managed to win both the junior and overall category of the final Nation DH event held at Mankele, Nelspruit on 13 June.
Bentley surely had everyones attention over the span of this racing season and hopefully it is a sign for some great things to come from this youngster.
Bentley managed to claim the overall junior national downhill series as his own with his fine display last weekend and will take this good form with him to France were he will try his best against some European competition.
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GT Mr Price's youngsters perform at Mankele
Eunice Visagie
GT Mr Price’s Dominic Calitz and Adriaan Louw had another awesome weekend when they finished second and third respectively at the u23 cross country race at Mankele, Nelspruit.
It was the fourth event in the MTN Cup series. Bryce Monroe won the race for the u23 riders.
Calitz didn't feel at his best when the race started, but he made sure he stayed with the front guys the whole time.
"The conditions at Mankele were perfect. Not too wet and not too dry. On lap one I was behind Adriaan, but on the long climb I was able to pass him. Then I passed some more riders and was able to keep my second place in the u23 race," said Calitz.
For Louw it was a hard day at the office, but the suffering - especially on the first two laps - was worthwhile when he worked his way up the field from 14th to 7th place overall and finishing as the 3rd u23 rider.
"The form is definitely not there yet, but I'm working hard and believe I will be in top form soon," said Louw.
GT Mr Price's Renay Groustra had a slow start to his race, but luckily the legs started to work during the last few laps and he was able to finish strong. He placed 5th overall in the elite race.
According to Groustra, who struggled the last few months, the form is coming on and that with each race he is feeling better and stronger.
The elite race was won by the u23 World Champion Burry Stander (Specialized/Mr Price).
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Southern Cape victories for Kleinhans
Eunice Visagie
GT Mr Price’s Erik Kleinhans dominated the Southern Cape racing this past weekend.
He firstly won the George Cheese Festival mountainbike race over 60km.
According to Kleinhans the route was really challenging. His winning time was 2 hours and 55 minutes. Kleinhans and Christiaan Kriek (GT Maties) were together till they had to sprint for the victory.
Kleinhans won this nailbiting sprint for the top step of the winnerspodium.
Kleinhans also represented Boland as part of Team GT Maties in an inter-provincial road race in Oudtshoorn on Sunday.
Kleinhans broke away from the bunch after only 25km. He had Evan Carstens for company and they managed to build a massive lead of 13 minutes over the rest of the field over the next 75km.
Kleinhans was the stronger rider in the break and in the final 2km left Carstens behind to take a solo victory.
