Hugely Successful Weekend at the Annual Uplands Festival

Last weekend the much anticipated annual Uplands Festival took place at Uplands College just outside White River. With Valencia and Caltex as the title sponsor, Naeem Omar and team in conjunction with Neil Clarke, Brad Shuttleworth and team from Uplands College put together an extraordinarily organised and festive weekend. On Saturday the School’s XCO took place along with all the other school sports including hockey and rugby. Sunday was open to all with a mountain bike race: The 50km Classic, 19km Challenge and 5km Fun Ride.

Spur Schools Series XCO at Uplands

The competition was fierce between local rival schools: Uplands, Penryn, Curro, Rob Ferreira, Bergvlam, Nelspruit HS, Lydenburg HS, Southern Cross, Ermelo Primary, Bergland and Laerskool Laeveld.

On Saturday The Schools’ XCO race showed a strong contingent of Valencia riders. In the Junior Men’s race there was a complete Valencia Podiam and 7 riders in the top 10. Franco Pelser (Rob Ferreira), Martin Oosthuizen (Bergvlam) and Ryan Clarke (Uplands) stood on the top 3 steps with Christopher La Granger (Uplands), Ryno Beukes (Nelspruit HS), Damon Halderman (Bergvlam) and Joshua Birch (Uplands) all in the top 10.

The Junior Ladies’ race out of 10 riders had Mandie Swart (Nelspruit HS) in 1^st and Tyneale Terry (Uplands) 2^nd.

The Sub Junior Men’s category was competitive with 26 starters. Ryan Terry (Uplands) blitzed his competition by just less than 2 minutes.
Top step in the Sub Junior Ladies’ race went to Monique Swart (Nelspruit HS)

Of the Youth Men; by far the biggest contested with 40 riders on the start line, Murray James achieved bronze and showed incredible consistency in lap times with a difference of just 36 seconds between his fastest and slowest lap. Sarah McQueen (Penryn) and Kirsty Shuttleworth (Uplands) took gold and silver respectively in the Youth Female category.

Uplands Festival MTB Classic

On Sunday, cyclist from all over the Lowveld came to participate in the beautiful and enjoyable mountain bike race. The trails were in the best condition they have been in for the past four years, commented race director and organiser, Neil Clarke. The Courses offered a bit of everything, a decent amount of tough climbing that was rewarded by kilometres of fantastically maintained single track with beautiful views that only the Lowveld can offer. Good care was taken in marking the course with many helpful marshals along the way. The water points were a haven in the heat to many with enthusiastic people offering cold coke, water and eats to keep them going.

Valencia riders made their sponsor proud as the majority of them came to support the event with a strong contingent making it onto the podium.

In the 50km Classic, Samantha Sanders and Amy McDougall fought hard in pursuit of Dalene Van Der Leek. McDougall finished 2 minutes behind Van Der Leek in 2^nd and Sanders coming in 3^rd. “I thoroughly enjoyed the trails set out by Uplands college, it was hard and hot but the single track was super fun!” says McDougall.

Murray James, only 16 years old showed incredible form, coming 8^th overall and 3^rd youth behind fellow locals Liam de Klerk and Andreas Kuhn. The 3 youth boys finished ahead of all the juniors and were only 7-9 minutes behind winner Lourens Luus.

The Valencia juniors occupied the podium with Ryan Clarke, Christopher La Grange and Franco Pelser in 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd respectively. 

Mandie Swart won the Junior ladies category.

Martin Oosthuizen, racing amongst the top riders for the first 30km snapped his frame and was unable to continue riding. Instead of throwing in the towel, he showed an incredible amount of determination and perseverance by running the last 20km in order to finish. The youngster’s fighting spirit will take him far in his cycling career, great things can be expected in the future from Oosthuizen.

In the 19km Challenge, Xolani Gininda finished 4^th overall and came 2^nd Junior, Monique Swart won the sub-junior ladies race. Up and coming talents Luk Mellart and Robert Ferreira were neck and neck in the Sprog’s race with Mellart beating Robert in a sprint.

The Uplands Festival had a fantastic festive vibe and was a great success.