The 11th edition of the popular local MTB race, Forest2Falls was held at an all new venue in Graskop. Max Knox bravely took on the challenge of organising his first event.
The route provided riders with spectacular views over God’s window and the mountains, valleys, waterfalls and lush forests of Graskop and Sabie. Riders however had to earn their view with 65 km of forest roads and 1300m of climbing. Our Team Valencia out performed the rest as they achieved podiums across age categories and race distances.
In the 65km, Heine Engelbrecht showed his consistently growing calibre as an elite racer when he came 2nd in a time of 02:29:24, 3 minutes behind winner Ben Melt Swannepoel. “The start was fast and flat. We were a bunch until about 20km in. Ben Melt made the pace hard up the first big climb and we managed to break away. I knew the route quite well and was saving a lot for the last 30km. Up the final climb, Ben made life hard again. I tried to hang on as long as I could but he managed to get a gap on me and maintained it until the finish.”
Amy McDougall won the ladies’ race and came 7th overall in a time of 02:48:11. “I was happy to take the win in Valencia’s colours! I was pleasantly surprised with my result my legs did not feel great after the Joberg2C legs and the course was not really suited to me. The views were mind-blowing and made me nostalgic about living in the Lowveld!” Yolandi Du Toit crossed the line in second and our Emily Clarke in 3rd.
The 35 km was a nail biter with only 12 seconds separating the top 4, amongst the sprint finishers was Armand Lomard who narrowly missed bronze as he crossed the line in 4th and 3rd in his age category, still a stellar performance for this youngster. “It was an extremely fun race, I enjoyed it so much that when I saw it was almost the end of the race it surprised me because I thought there was at least 10km left! The view from God’s window almost made me stop to take a picture, the race was nicely marked and I’ll definitely do it again!”
In the ladies’ race, 15 year old Zandri Strydom took the overall and youth category honours in a time of 1:29:51 “The last 15 km was the best because of the climbs and the views. I enjoyed it a lot and I was happy to win the overall ladies race!” Teammate Monique Swart 6th lady and 2nd in the youth category. “It was a fun race but my legs weren’t there so I just tried to push my hardest to the end.”
There was a strong contingent of up and coming youngsters in the 15km with podiums in almost all age categories.
It is great to see such a diverse range of riders achieving goals and performing to the best of their ability under the wing of Valencia Cycles.
Next up team members will be conquering the National XCO in PE and Sani2C begins tomorrow for Sam Sanders!
