Words: Full Stop Communications
Roadie turned mountain biker Pieter Seyffert showed his all-round racing abilities when he soloed to victory at the Bestmed Lost City mountain bike race in the Pilanesberg region of the North-West Province on Sunday.
Photo credit: Full Stop Communications
Seyffert got away on the first climb of the 55km route and stayed away over the two-lap circuit to claim an uncontested win at the Sun City resort in 1:51:40.
Behind him, a ding-dong battle for second place ensued, with Kai Pritzen fighting off a strong challenge from Kobus Wagner to finish two seconds ahead of his rival in 1:53:59.
Seyffert, who rides in the colours of Altech-Autopage, said the revamped feature route had offered a more technically demanding course with a few additional climbing challenges early on.
“The race started splitting up in the first six or seven kilometres and I managed to pull a gap on the first climb and just kept it to the finish.”
The win is sweet consolation for the 28-year-old Helderkruin resident, who punctured out of the lead bunch with 30km to go in Saturday’s Lost City Cycle Classic.
In the women’s mountain bike race, Bestmed-ASG swept the podium, with Sanet Coetzee making a winning debut for the team in a time of 2:10:52.
Her teammates Mariette Hattingh (2:17:28) and Michelle Benson (2:19:00) completed the rout, taking second and third respectively.
Coetzee, who is the national road champion and marathon silver medallist in the 30 to 34 age group, also finished a respectable fifth in the Lost City road race.
“I didn’t know how today was going to turn out because my legs were feeling a bit tired from yesterday’s road race,” she admitted.
“We started quite hard – it was like a cross-country race.”
The 31-year-old said the pace remained flat out over both laps of what she described as a “proper mountain biking” course.
“In the end, it turned out well for me. I won today and I’m really happy about that.”
Both the road and mountain bike feature races formed part of the Lost City Cycle 4 Cansa weekend in aid of the North-West branch of the Cancer Association of South Africa.
They are also part of the Bestmed National Cycling Series.
For more information, visit www.cansalostcity.co.za, find Lost City Cycle Festival on Facebook or follow @lostcitycycle.
