Results
adjusted following David George's doping positive
Following
the disqualification of the Nedbank 360Life team of Kevin Evans and David
George as a result of George's positive doping test, Nico Bell and Gawie
Combrinck (Westvaal Columbia) have been officially instated as the winners of
the 2012 Bridge Cape Pioneer Trek mountain bike stage race.
During
the fourth edition of the seven-day race in South Africa's Western Cape
province between October 14 and 20, George and Evans successfully defended
their overall title and claimed four stage wins in the process. One of their
stage wins was the much talked about stage 2 which offered R100,000 to the
winning team, the biggest single stage purse in world mountain bike racing.
It
was announced on November 6 by Cycling South Africa that George had returned a
positive test for EPO, the banned blood booster, and that all his results
dating back to August 29, 2012 would be erased and all prize money would need
to be returned. George and Evans won a total of R125,000 (US$15,625) at the
2012 Cape Pioneer Trek.
With Evans and George
removed from the race results, Bell and Combrinck move up to become the 2012
winners. This leads to the promotion of Melt Swanepoel and Matthys Beukes
(CangoMTB.com) to second overall and Chris Wolhuter and Oliver Munnik (Asrin
Cycling) to third overall.
Stage results have all
been adjusted accordingly and initial runners-up, Beukes and Swanepoel, will
have a pre-Christmas bonus with the payment of the R100,000 prize for the first
team to the summit of the Swartberg Pass on the iconic stage 2.
"It's a great shame
that we have to undertake this retrospective adjustment process. But a rider
cheated and that's against the rules of the sport and our event. In the long
run, this kind of action will hopefully help minimise the temptation to
cheat," said Henco Rademeyer of Dryland Events, the organisers of the
Bridge Cape Pioneer Trek.
"It's sad that we
can't recreate the fanfare and energy and environment for the rightful winners
of the race and the stages, but we feel it's important to let the media know
and do the best we can from our side to ensure they are given the credit they
are due. We'd like to offer a big congratulations to Nico and Gawie for their
hard-fought overall win and also Melt and Matthys for their courageous effort
up the Swartberg Pass on stage 2," said Rademeyer.
"Obviously it's
nowhere near the same as winning at the actual event itself. Winning by default
is the hollowest type of victory there is. But we put in the effort each day
and raced as best we could, so some recognition is better than none. It's just
unfortunate that our sponsors won't get the exposure they could have got and
that the organisers had to manage an incident that has such a big impact on
their event." said Nico Bell of the Westvaal Columbia team.
"Obviously we are
happy to see that a rider that cheats gets caught and penalised and we are
grateful for the additional prize money that we'll get, but to me, the only
thing that really changes are our CVs," said Bell.
"Evans and George
have repaid their winnings, and we are awaiting an official statement from the
SA Institute for Drug-free Sport confirming that there are no outstanding
results on tests done on all our podium finishers before paying over their
prize money. It's unfortunate that it's come to this and in future we'll have
to look at adjusting our prize money payment procedure in conjunction with the
anti-doping process," said Rademeyer.
Revised results 2012
Bridge Cape Pioneer Trek:
Final
General Classification
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Result
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1
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Nico
Bell (RSA) & Gawie Combrinck (RSA) Westvaal Columbia
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21:21:41
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2
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Matthys
Beukes (RSA) & Melt Swanepoel (RSA) Cango MTB.com
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0:29:19
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3
|
Chris
Wolhuter (RSA) & Oliver Munnik (RSA) Asrin Cycling
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1:21:37
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4
|
Mattijs
Eversdijk (NED) & Liwald Doornbos (NED) Cube Nutswerk 2
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1:58:48
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5
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Wynand
Mulder (RSA) & Kobus Barnard (RSA) Klein Karoo Express
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2:14:57
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Stage
6
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Result
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1
|
Nico
Bell (RSA) & Gawie Combrinck (RSA) Westvaal Columbia
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3:08:53
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2
|
Chris
Wolhuter (RSA) & Oliver Munnik (RSA) Asrin Cycling
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0:10:36
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3
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Wynand
Mulder (RSA) & Kobus Barnard (RSA) Klein Karoo Express
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0:18:28
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Stage
5
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Result
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1
|
Nico
Bell (RSA) & Gawie Combrinck (RSA) Westvaal Columbia
|
2:13:22
|
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2
|
Matthys
Beukes (RSA) & Melt Swanepoel (RSA) Cango MTB.com
|
0:10:59
|
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3
|
Mattijs
Eversdijk (NED) & Liwald Doornbos (NED) Cube Nutswerk 2
|
0:12:54
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Stage
4
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Result
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1
|
Nico
Bell (RSA) & Gawie Combrinck (RSA) Westvaal Columbia
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3:07:07
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2
|
Matthys
Beukes (RSA) & Melt Swanepoel (RSA) Cango MTB.com
|
0:11:54
|
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3
|
Mattijs
Eversdijk (NED) & Liwald Doornbos (NED) Cube Nutswerk 2
|
0:24:36
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Stage
3
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Result
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1
|
Matthys
Beukes (RSA) & Melt Swanepoel (RSA) Cango MTB.com
|
4:06:07
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2
|
Nico
Bell (RSA) & Gawie Combrinck (RSA) Westvaal Columbia
|
0:00:34
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3
|
Mattijs
Eversdijk (NED) & Liwald Doornbos (NED) Cube Nutswerk 2
|
0:09:52
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Stage
2
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Result
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1
|
Matthys
Beukes (RSA) & Melt Swanepoel (RSA) Cango MTB.com
|
4:03:07
|
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2
|
Nico
Bell (RSA) & Gawie Combrinck (RSA) Westvaal Columbia
|
0:11:34
|
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3
|
Mattijs
Eversdijk (NED) & Liwald Doornbos (NED) Cube Nutswerk 2
|
0:21:18
|
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Stage
1
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Result
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1
|
Nico
Bell (RSA) & Gawie Combrinck (RSA) Westvaal Columbia
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3:53:33
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2
|
Matthys
Beukes (RSA) & Melt Swanepoel (RSA) Cango MTB.com
|
0:01:07
|
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3
|
Chris
Wolhuter (RSA) & Oliver Munnik (RSA) Asrin Cycling
|
0:10:52
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Prologue
time trial
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Result
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1
|
Matthys
Beukes (RSA) & Melt Swanepoel (RSA) Cango MTB.com
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0:37:32
|
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2
|
Louis
Knipe (RSA) & Craig Boyes (RSA) Contego 28E
|
0:01:11
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3
|
Nico
Bell (RSA) & Gawie Combrinck (RSA) Westvaal Columbia
|
0:01:22
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