GAUTENG\u2019S Stuart Biesheuvel surprised even himself when he took the solo men\u2019s title in the Glacier Storms River Traverse and riding in only the second stage race of his short mountain biking career. And a veteran endurance athlete described his victory as exactly why this event is so important to local mountain biking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 26-year-old Biesheuvel, a Sandton resident who arrived at this race having only done one stage race before this, took full advantage of a race that prides itself on being a relaxed and fun introduction to stage racing and won the three-day event in a time of 5:51.06.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fantastic and I\u2019m quite surprised myself,\u201d said the 26-year-old Biesheuvel, who admits to still being \u201creally new to this whole scene\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was a great end to such a good race. I loved the atmosphere of this race. It\u2019s made me think I may have to step up my training a bit and take this a bit more serious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carel Bosman, a veteran of endurance racing at both a mountain bike and running le-vel, was thrilled to hear of Biesheuvel\u2019s experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s normally what happens at events like these. You don\u2019t have all your top professionals competing and it allows a rider like that to get a little bit of experience and build his confidence. I was looking at the times here and I noticed a lot of really talented youngsters in this field, and it\u2019s wonderful to see because that\u2019s the future of mountain biking in South Africa,\u201d said Bosman, who added that he was also pleasantly surprised by his experience at this race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis event has been such a surprise for me personally. You would never have thought you could find such an amazing race in this part of the world. There are so many riders here who are taking part in their first stage race, and you can see why they picked this one. The routes are fantastic. They\u2019re not flat, but it\u2019s exactly the stuff mountain bikers enjoy. You also don\u2019t want it to be overly technical. So although you need to keep your wits about you, it\u2019s still very family friendly. But even if you want to go hard, there\u2019s enough distance and enough climbing to test you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSouth Africa is by far the world leader when it comes to stage races, and that\u2019s the international market telling us this. There is no other country that puts together stage races the way we do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GAUTENG\u2019S Stuart Biesheuvel surprised even himself when he took the solo men\u2019s title in the Glacier Storms River Traverse and riding in only the second stage race of his short mountain biking career. And a veteran endurance athlete described his 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