Valencia Cleans up in Round 2 of the Spur Schools XCO Series

Last weekend, the 3rd round of the XCO Spur School Series took place at Curro College. With the first rains of the Lowveld pending, it was overcast and intermittently drizzly. This did not deter the 300 eager participants. All age categories were well represented and thanks to Derek Putter, the course at Curro was prepared for a stellar day of racing.

The Junior Men’s race was close and exciting; Franco Pelser from Rob Ferreira High pulled a gap on his fellow Valencia teammates: Ryan Clarke (Uplands), Damon Halderman (Hoërskool Bergvlam) and Martin Oosthuizen (Hoërskool Bergvlam) in the second lap. He increased the gap with each lap taking the overall win by 2 minutes. The chasing duo of Ryan Clarke and Damon Halderman finished in an exciting sprint finish, Clark took the win by a split second.

The talented, up and coming Valencia rider, Ryan Terry from Uplands, won the Sub Junior boys race by a notable 4 minutes!

Mandie Swart (Hoërskool Nelspruit) took the win in the Junior Ladies race with Valencia teammate Tyneale Terry of Uplands in 2^nd and Leigh Torre in 3^rd

The Sub Junior girls race was dominated by Valencia’s Monique Swart (Hoërskool Nelspruit) with Kyla Hamer and Stephanie Fritz in 2^nd and 3^rd respectively.

Liam de Klerk (Penryn) and Andreas Kuhn (Uplands) shared gold after a riveting photo sprint finish.

The standard of racing was very impressive in this tough Olympic discipline of mountain biking.

The final race of the series will be held on the 13^th of September at Mankele Bike Park.