Kleinhans and Kritzinger win overall

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The inaugural Cape Pioneer Trek mountain bike stage race ended in Oudtshoorn on Saturday. Eric Kleinhans and Johnny Kritzinger (Memory Foundation - New Heights) controlled the six-stage race from the start and established a comfortable enough lead in the early stages to secure, in the end, in the general classification.

On the final day Kleinhaus and Kritzinger finished third as Specialized / Songo's Christoph Sauser and Bobby Behan won the final stage on their own off the front. Tread Magazine's Roan Exelby and Donovan Jackson were second.

The Tread men including mountain biker Exelby and roadie Jackson finished second in the GC ahead of the dependable Squirt team, which had a horrendous, but heroic final stage. Lieb Loots' rear derailleur went walkabout and then the singlespeed option also failed after his freewheel mechanism followed suit. The 53-year-old phenomenon later described the towing, for much of the stage, by his much younger partner, Cornellius Muller, as something out of "Braveheart", and they still managed to secure third place in the general classification. Sauser and Behan were fourth overall.

On the last day's stage, as the climb began, Behan put himself in a small break while Sauser kept cruising with the others. Before the pass, Tread had attacked, trying to weaken Kritizinger who was seen to be a little under the weather after he and Kleinhans had taken the previous day's stage.

The top teams were then caught unawares as Sauser went across to his teammate near the top. Eventually, they were toasted and declared a truce, coming in 13 minutes after the Specialized boys.

The mixed category, which has seen several lead changes throughout, ended with the Schwinn Team of Petrus Malherbe and Janneke Leask taking the GC by eight seconds, after locals Peter and Ischen Stopforth (Marsillio Projects) put 10 minutes into them yesterday to take the stage.

The peerless Sludge Masters, Brian Strauss and Linus van Onselen, were consistently inspiring - age, it seems, is an illusion - and they were always ahead of veteran winners Gus Klohn and Marc Wiedekehr (Infradev Dunkeld Cycles).

As expected, the women's category was sewn up by the Landmark ladies, Fienie Barnard and Esther Lategan.

The final day's route, although shorter than the others, was tough and technical but ride-able, and to those who still "had legs", most enjoyable. One of the last finishers to come in was a riding with his broken arm in a sling - it was that important to get his medal.

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