Aug 31, 2015

Nissan Trailseeker Series Gauteng #3 Down and Dirty - Race Report by Gawie Combrinck.
Coached by Hunter Allen.


This weekend I headed to Pretoria for the 3rd leg of the Gauteng Nissan Trailseeker Series held at HazelDean. The route covered 76km and featured all the best single track the area had to offer with fast flat district road sections in between and one rocky technical climb with 15km to go.


The ever-popular event attracted around 3000 riders on the day to take on the dusty trails.  As we set of the Jeep duo of Piere Smith and Thinus Redelinghuys put the hammer down and strung out the bunch as we headed for Dunlop sprint prime that was only 12km into the race. Arno Du Toit (Scott LCB) proved to be the fastest, outsprinting Nico Bell (RECM) for the prime.


After that we headed to the awesome winding trails of Rosemary hill. I picked up the pace and also put in a few attacks breaking the pack down to 4 riders. Nico Bell (recm); Arno du Toit (Scott LCB); Thinus Redelinghuys (Jeep) and myself.


With 25km to go Nico and I broke away on a fast flat section. We worked together and opened up the gap on the chasing pair of Du Toit and Redelinghuys.

Heading up the last rocky climb, Nico proved to be stronger and rode away from me up the climb as I was bouncing over the rocks and couldn’t stay on his wheel. Nico went on to win and I crossed the line in second. Arno Outsprinted Thinus for 3rd place.


I still lead the series and it will all boil down to the last to events to see who will take overall honors.

Results
Men:
1. Nico Bell (Team RECM) – 02:43:28
2. Gawie Combrinck (Team EAI Cycling) – 02:46:59
3. Arno Du Toit (Scott Factory Racing) – 02:50:36

Women:
1. Robyn de Groot (Team Ascendis Health) – 03:04:08
2. Theresa Ralph (Valencia RBS) – 03:10:54
3. Vanessa Bell (Bellscycling/LGE Midas Team) – 03:15:24

Next stop is the Ashbrton Series race in Dullstroom. I have to win in to take the series win, so will be going all out for that.

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