Photo Epic: Hellsend Mates Race Summer Series, Rd 4, Coetzenburg | p/b Burgtec
Greatest Mates Race Ever!
The Hellsend Mates Race summer series began the latter half of it’s season with a dusty, wild and glorious spectacle of mountain bike racing in the foothills of Coetzenburg mountain, in Stellenbosch last month.
On a tight budget of time and resources as far as course design, the Hellsend Bike Shop crew headed to the hills on the Monday afternoon prior to Thursday’s race, seeking to piece something new together. Armed with eBikes, rakes, chainsaws and the help of some local legends, a semi-new path down the mountain slowly and unsuspectingly came to life. Just like that, a fresh, race ready and completely underestimated course, was ready.
A short punch of a climb in the middle sector gave the early suspicion of eBike dominance, however the steeper, loose sections at the top and bottom, left the question open to debate. With over a third of the field being hungry juniors, plus experienced analogue rippers, there was no lack of spanners in the electronic works of the eBikes.
As riders completed their runs, the bottom ampitheatre section of the track began to line with spectators, all keen to see how the next rider navigated the ever-changing, rutted, off camber, powder turns that kept everyone on their toes until the very end.
Although the ruts took many victims, they held no prisoners, and no bikes were harmed, despite the unusually high number of dismounts. (Must be the community stoke cushioning the ground?) Some riders held on, others thrived, and a few pulled off some unbelievable examples of bicycle handling, intentionally or not.
As the last racer passed through what is now officially dubbed ‘the ampitheatre’, they were greeted with possibly the best crowd since the UCI XCO World Series visited the hill in 2019, and cheers that could be heard from the top of the course. A beautiful sight on a casual Thursday evening, mission accomplished.
Once the dust had settled (quite literally), riders went for a short ‘party lap’ out of Coetzenburg and headed to Hellsend Bike Shop for prize giving. However, the competition wasn’t quite over yet, as riders’ tech skills were put to the challenge with a bunny-hop competition, on a BMX bike. Those who schemed a decent bunny hop lined up and took their turns hopping higher, and higher over stacked cases of Monster Energy drink cans. For the record, the winning number of cases cleared was five, by Alessio De Franchi, with Zak Jones a close P2.
Onto the results. In the Women’s field, Frankie opened up what seemed to be a closing gap to Annemi Pfister, taking a dominant win and finishing in the top 20 overall. Roxy Baynes took another podium ahead of Clara Babette, who got caught out by the ruts.
A universal, almost seismic shift in heaven and earth saw Pete Futter’s winning streak in the Master’s class come to an eventual end, at the hands of Pieter Henning. Mnr Henning put in a heater, ending up P1 in class and P15 overall. Pete maintained his points lead by taking P2, with first timer, Oudts Van Rheede in P3.
In the Men’s field, Alessio De Franchi cruised to a second podium for the season, a few thousandths ahead of yours truly – (bitter). Christan Kirsten put his new Leatt speed sunnies to use and went very fast, taking an easy P2, behind Unbound’s Matt Lombardi who put on a stellar display and took P1 in class, but more interestingly P2 overall.
The massive Under-18 category saw it’s fair share of spills and thrills, but in the end it was the usual suspects at the sharp end. Jake Van Schoor rode to a P3 finish, narrowly ahead of Jack Cumming. Sven Etsebeth ticked off another podium with a P2, extending his points lead in the process, – before (probably) clocking out to do more intervals. His overall season win is looking ever more certain. Jan Vreken piloted his new Giant to a solid P1 in his category and P3 overall. Just under a second behind Lombardi.
Lastly, the eBike podium was rounded out by Max Sullivan in P3, closely chased by Kyle Flanagan in P4. P2 went to Pieter Venter who collected another podium for Unbound, but even he could not challenge the 10-second gap left behind Philip Van Schalkwyk. A dominant P1 in class and overall, Phil’s hard work on the track paid off with a victory. Noice!
As usual, riders were treated to benefits from season partners like Devil’s Peak, Pit Viper and Monster Energy. In addition to that, title sponsor Burgtec came to the party with an insane prize package of bars, stems, grips and apparel sent all the way from the UK, specifically for this event.
Podiums and giveaways were littered with Burgtec bling, and riders were stoked! A huge thank you goes out to both Burgtec and local distributor 13 Industries, for their efforts and support of this awesome local initiative!
The evening was capped off with endless airdrops of crash videos, pizza and a few cold ones. Another successful round of Mates Race. The next event takes place in Jonkershoek on the 25th of February, get in touch with the Hellsend Bike Shop crew to get signed up, and join the antics. See you there! //
| WORDS: Jordan De Goede | IMAGES: Eric Palmer |