Marissa van der Merwe won the Subaru Lost City Mountain-Bike Challenge over an extremely fast 50km course, to make it two out of two on the weekend for her team, following Anriette Schoeman’s victory in the road race the previous day.
Van der Merwe, who has won the SA Women’s Cyclist of the Year Award twice, found the conditions to her liking with an average rise of only 250 metres on each lap of the rider-friendly two lap course. Carla Freysen came in second.
The Lost City MTB Challenge replaced the old Sun City MTB Challenge with a new course for a new aim – to get the roadies onto mountain-bikes on the day after the annual road race, and initial results look good, with more than half of the MTB field doing both disciplines in the event’s first year since re-launch.
More than 1000 cyclists took part in the weekend’s event, and organisers received an abundance of compliments for the new route, a scenic spectacular with many exciting twists and turns, including a river crossing, a golf course section and a fast section through the Letsatsing Game Reserve.
Subaru has already signalled their intention to put in an even greater effort on all fronts for the event next year, which really bodes well for the race and the overall growth of the sport of mountain-biking.
Results of the Subaru Lost City Mountain Bike Challenge at Sun City on Sunday 26 August 2007:
50km Elite Women:
1. Marrisa van der Merwe (Cycle Lab) 1:39:37
2. Carla Freysen (Velo) 1:47:09
3. Mina Radoycheva (NT) 1:55:51
25km Elite Women:
1. Elrine Prinsloo (Cycle Lab) 60:06
2. Theresa Steenkamp (Potchefstroom) 60:07
3. Carlien Engelbrecht (NT) 66:49
4. Jeanine Jacobs (NT) 69:37
5. Madelein Barkhuizen (Centurion) 74:37
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