Hanco Kachelhoffer and Pieter Seyffert were crowned Sanlam MTB Invitational two-stage mountain bike race champions at Rhebokskloof near Paarl today.
Pieter Seyffert (ASG) leads the way during his win with team-mate Hanco Kachelhoffer in the Sanlam MTB Invitational near Paarl today. Photo: Warren Elsom/Capcha
In their final race as a regular team, the ASG pair set up their overall victory by taking a lead of just under six minutes from the 60km opening stage into today’s final leg.
Although finishing behind 40km second stage winners Bennie Viljoen and Jaco Davel (ASG), they were only five seconds off the pace to secure a comfortable victory.
Kachelhoffer and Seyffert had an overall time of 4:37:33, with Viljoen and Davel timed at 4:43:16 and Flandria’s Linus and Leonardo van Onselen third in 4:50:18.
Kachelhoffer is moving into a retail role and said their victory was a special way to end a three-year partnership with Seyffert.
“Pieter will have a new regular partner next year, although we will still be doing a few races together,” said the 31-year-old, who lived in Johannesburg and George before moving to Paarl last month.
Reflecting on today’s stage, he said their opening day cushion had taken some of the pressure off.
“We set the tempo on the first climb, but we knew not to push too hard to keep ourselves fresh for the downhill sections later in the stage,” said Kachelhoffer.
Although Davel and Viljoen went ahead in the decisive single-track section about 10km out, Kachelhoffer and Seyffert never let them get away and finished the stage just five seconds behind their rivals.
Kachelhoffer said going into the race, which is presented by ASG Events, their aim was to finish on the podium and to “possibly win”.
“Pieter is a fulltime professional so he was here to win. I had to try to hold on and just managed to do that.”
He said he had found the route of the Sanlam MTB Invitational quite challenging, with some testing climbs and new single-track along the edge of a cliff.
“I thought at the time that if I had a fear of heights this might be a little intimidating, but we never complain about too much single-track so overall it was a great challenge.”
The women’s race was won by Girls On Bikes’s Karla Groenewald and Sylma Jordaan in 6:44:38, with the mixed category going to Enduro Hub’s Tiaan Pretorius and Jenny Close in 5:26:05.