Yolande Speeds to 1st MTB Title

Yolande Speedy on her way to winning the first round of the South African Mountain Bike National Cross Country Championships, at Jonkershoek in Stellenbosch, on Saturday 19 January 2008. Picture: Gary Perkin

Yolande Speedy (IMC Racing) confirmed her status among the country’s leading female cross-country racers, after winning the Elite women’s race in the first round of the Mazda MTN SA Cup cross-country event in Jonkershoek, Stellenbosch at the weekend by more than three minutes. 

Speedy staked her claim to the single South African place allocated for qualification to Beijing, after South Africa was given one place each for a male and a female for the 2008 Olympics, according to the International Cycling Union (UCI), which released it’s Beijing Games nation allocation at the weekend.

peedy led from start to finish to clock a respectable time of 1 hour, 47 minutes and 43 seconds, beating current Dutch national cross-country champion, Laura Turpijn and reigning SA champion, Amy Jane Mundy (Jeep) into second and third respectively.

Round 2 of the Mazda MTN SA Cup will take place on 9 and 10 February in Gauteng.