Evans collects another national title for himself, MTN team

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Kevin Evans (MTN-Energade) seems to be making a hobby of collecting South African national cycling titles. For him, it is the more the better.

In Sabie, on Saturday, Evans won the MTN South African ultra marathon in impressive style. After dropping Burry Stander (Specialized/Mr Price) on the second big climb, he time trialed the last approximately 30 kilometers on his own to win the 115km race in four hours,32 minutes and 33 seconds. He has now won the South African ultra marathon title four times.

Eight days ago, in Klerksdorp, Evans caused one of the biggest upsets in South African cycling by winning the elite national time trial. It was the first time ever that a mountain biker managed to do that.

Stander finished second on Saturday, and David George (SAFindit) was third.

Yolandé Speedy (MTN/Energade) won the women's marathon. Karien van Jaarsveld (Natro) finished second and Carla Rowley (RBS Biogen) was third.

If the results of the ultra marathon and the road championships are taken into account, it has actually been eight good days for the MTN-Energade squad. The MTN-Energade riders won seven out of the eight titles in the men's and women's pro elite categories, as well as in the under 23 men's category.

According to Evans, things do not always work out in such a positive manner, but it is gratifying when a plan comes together. As far as Saturday's race is concerned, Evans said that he had decided to make the pace hard right from the start.

"I did not want the other riders to dictate the race, therefore I set the pace myself. Burry was happy to help. By the time we reached the top of the first serious climb, we had left all the top contenders behind," said Evans.

"Only Max Knox (DCM) managed to catch up with us again. We could see that he was not looking good, and that it would be only a matter of time before he would succumb. So Burry and I put the hammer down again and dropped Max.

"When we reached the next big climb, with about 40 kilometers to go, I decided to test Burry," said Evans. "I shifted into my stronger gears and opened a slight gap. As everyone knows, once you have managed to create a gap, it serves as extra motivation, so I just kept going."

Stander admits that, when Evans attacked on the last climb, he had nothing left in his legs to counter this move. "Hats off to Kevin. He rode like a true champion today," said Stander. "I already knew at the first climb that Kevin was the stronger rider and that it would be difficult to beat him."

George really had to work hard for his bronze medal. Things started going wrong for him right from the start.
Just after the race had started, somebody rode into him. In this incident, he twisted his foot and the cleat on his cycling shoe tore loose. George had to stop and sit down to take off his shoe in order to fix it.

"I think I lost about five to six minutes, but that was not the end of my troubles. Once I got back onto my bike, I was so intent on catching up with the leaders, that I did not look where I was going. I took the wrong turn and ended up riding on the shorter course. Luckily for me, a marshal noticed that I had made a mistake, and he told me to turn around. This cost me another two minutes, which meant that I was stone last in the ultra marathon race.

"I suppose that to have managed to come back and to finish third was not a bad result at all for an old man like me. But I really came to Sabie with the intention of winning the title. Who knows what would have happened if I were still racing with the leaders in the last 40 kilometers."

Max Knox (DCM), last year's winner of the Sabie race, had a day of hell in the saddle.

"I crashed and punctured, but that is no excuse. I just did not have the legs for a successful race," said Knox. "Nobody will convince me that cycling is an easy sport. This coming week it will be back to the drawing board for me to work out what I have to do to win races."

Ben-Melt Swanepoel (Specialized/MR Price) was fourth and Brandon Stewart (DCM) was fifth.

The MiWay Half-marathon Race was won by James Reid (Specialized/Mr Price) in one hour, 36 minutes and 36 seconds. Travis Walker (DCM) was second and Brendon Davids was third.

Candice Neethling (DCM) was the winner of the women's half marathon race with a winning time of 1:52.06. Emily Clark was second and Sandra-Leigh Prinsloo was third.

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