Booyens and Speedy Win Gruelling Wines2Whales Race

Hanlie Booyens and Yolande Speedy of Team Momentum Specialised Insurance Ladies have won the Contego Wines2Whales MTB Race powered by Maserati with a combined finishing time of 10 hours, 25 minutes and 27 seconds. Team Bizhub Ladies placed second, while Contego Ladies finished third.

Spirits were high at Oak Valley (Elgin) on Sunday morning, November 11, where an impressive field of mountain bikers gathered for the third and final stage of the 2012 Contego Wines2Whales MTB Race powered by Maserati.

Team USN Inov-8’s Carla van Huyssteen and Philip Buys claimed their second stage win for the weekend and the title of 2012 champions in the mixed team category with a combined finishing time of 10 hours, 24 minutes and 39 seconds.

According to Van Huyssteen stage three was tough, but fun. “For most of the day Philip and I would make up time on the single track, only to be caught by Yolande de Villiers and Johan Labuschagne on the open flat sections.

“They are really strong on the road, that’s the one section that Philip really had to help me on. We managed to pull away at approximately the 55km mark and then maintain our lead.”

“The Wines2Whales was a lot of fun. It was great seeing the intense battle between the woman’s teams, the competition was really strong. This was my first three day MTB race and it was awesome, from the organization to the routes. You can see that a lot of effort went into staging this race,” says Van Huyssteen.

Team J&Y placed second after three days of racing, with Team Gogo and Gramps claiming the final spot on the podium.