Combrinck solos to victory at Nissan TrailSeeker Tyger Valley
You
snooze, you lose. The truth in this saying was illustrated on Saturday (2 June)
when Gawie Combrinck (Westvaal-Columbia) outrode everybody during the Nissan
TrailSeeker Tyger Valley 70km marathon in Pretoria to take the victory.
Combrinck attacked after just 10
kilometers. His surprise attack resulted
in all the main protagonists watching each other to see who will respond first
to try to chase Combrinck down. None of them were prepared to commit to doing
all the hard work to bring Combrinck back into the fold.
This game of cat and mouse suited
Combrinck to a tee it enabled him to increase his lead with every pedal stroke.
It was only when the time gap reached the three minute mark that the other
riders began to realize that they were in trouble.
The big chase started in all earnest
shortly after, but it was to no avail. Combrinck had no intention to slow down
or to be caught.
He won in 2 hours 9 minutes and 13
seconds.
Three minutes later he was followed by
a group of six riders who raced down the finishing straight at high speed.
Philip Buys (Contego) just managed to
finish second. Waylon Woolcock (RE:CM) was third, HB Kruger (Bonitas) fourth,
Nico Bell (Westvaal-Columbia) fifth and Lourens Luus (Valencia) sixth.
Buys finished in 2 hours 12 minutes and
18 seconds. A mere six seconds separated the six of them.
Combrinck had good reason to smile
afterwards. He started to compete seriously in mountain-bike races only in
December and this was his first victory as a mountain biker. "My technical
skills are certainly not yet what they should be, but thanks to the help of my
team-mate, Nico (Bell), I am becoming more confident with every race."
"Today (Saturday) I actually
enjoyed racing the single-track sections. I am surprised by the way the race
played out. I certainly did not expect to get away so early on and stay away.
It made the racing much easier because I was able to ride at my own pace."
Buys, who only arrived back on Thursday
after having competed in two World Cup cross-country events in Europe, admitted
that they made a mistake.
"We should never have allowed
Gawie to get away, but there’s no point in crying over spilt milk. I tried a
few attacks myself but it was to no avail." Buys was racing on his
girlfriend's mountain bike which is two kilograms heavier than his own.
Kruger is another rider who had to
borrow a bike for the race. Racing for Bonitas means that Kruger mostly
competes in road events exclusively. "I had to ask humbly to be allowed to
compete in the Nissan TrailSeeker race."
Woolcock, last year's overall winner of
the Nissan TrailSeeker Series, is confident that he might still be able to
defend his title. "Last year I did not win any of the five races but,
because of consistent riding, I was able to win overall. That is what the
Nissan TrailSeeker Series is all about.
Woolcock came second three times in the
2011 series. He was full of praise for the Tyger Valley course. "We raced through some real fun
single-track sections" he added.
Luus admitted to being buggered after
finishing. "At times it felt to me as if I was competing in a road event
because of the constant accelerations and slowing down. It made for some real
hard racing."
PCG Coach: Hunter Allen
