The third DH race of the 2025 season took place in Jonkershoek, last weekend. Back home from international racing duties, Theo Erlangsen was on fire and lit things up to take the win in Elite Men. In the Elite Women’s Race, Stellenbosch local Frankie du Toit put on another dominant performance to win by 21-seconds, keeping her multi-year winning streak, in tact.
If you follow local Downhill Racing you’d know that although Theo and Frankie are the King and Queen of the show, there is however, a deep field of talent across most of the categories that are not slouchers. That upcoming talent is pushing the established riders to new levels, and there’s a lot of names to include in that bunch. Narrowing it down to just five – the list would be something like Rory Kirk, Pieter Venter, Arielle Behr, Jake van Schoor and Keagan Brand, who are all imminent challengers to the royals, Theo and Frankie. The future is bright.
Equally bright and breezy was the weather in Jonkershoek. We had mostly blue skies, with valley temperatures reaching the high 20’s. The tricky element was the wind – calm conditions on Saturday morning turned to more nasty gusts that demanded attention. It’s really just on the jumps that a cross-wind can be tricky and as far as was reported, we never lost anyone to the South Easter. Here’s a photo recap of some of the action, as captured by Chris Taylor.
Married, with twins (check the podium images below), self-employed and refusing to budge to the youngsters is 38-year old star, Johann Potgieter. Pottie finished the weekend with the third fastest time and a podium photo to cherish. Locking down 3rd in the competitive Veteran category is SA’s best import and all-round nice guy, Archie Quevedo. Rico Steinfurth, a very fast Namibian, scrubbed into 10th place in Elite Men.Out-of-towner Arielle Behr says she could have done more practice laps, yet she still threw down a heater to take the win in the Junior Women category.Calin Nesbitt, second-generation from a family of mountain biking royalty enjoyed his first-ever Downhill Race and says he will be back for more, with Dad– hey Joe!‘Klapping’ eBike laps and enjoying the gravity vibe, that’s the main trail builder of Jonkershoek Bennet Nel. Mr Nel nabbed 3rd in the new category. Find him on Instagram to follow some hilarious updates on ‘life in his office.’Julian Oosthuizen, a 17-year-old with great technique that gives him safety and some fast times. Time for a DH bike Julian?Predicting which of the younger riders are likely to go far in this sport is often as simple as looking at the results sheet. When someone is consistently beating riders who are in the next age-group up, bet on them. Jake van Schoor is one of them. About a year into the sport and he’s already got crazy speed and results.This weekend Jake went 9th overall and 1st in Youth Men.Under the guidance from Dad, Tricia Rossouw from Paarl is steadily unlocking the features on the tracks around the Western Cape. Second-place in Junior Women for Tricia this weekend.I like bikes.Daniel Stone, 10-years-old and going HUGE(that’s a 4m gap)to take the win in Nipper Boys, by almost 41-seconds.Rough weekend for Kai Jansen van Vuuren who was looking for a better result. Onto the next Kai.Craig Stone took the win in the eMTB category with a time of 2min39secs that also put him in 33rd, on the ‘GC’.Joshua Ord, another name that’s constantly creeping up the results sheet. 4th in Junior Men this weekend for Josh.Toby Gaunt airs it out down the ‘Supercross’ section that is higher up the track.Jaco Veldsman threads the needle on the way to 2nd place in Vet Men.The win in the Vets class went to Andre Steinfurth from Namibia. Just 3-seconds up on Jaco.Eight weeks after breaking a wrist, William Nelson is back and winning the extremely competitive Sub Junior Boys category. Nice one William. At the tender age of *XX, Gina Nixon was the only rider in the Master Women’s category to go under 3-minutes. (*somewhere in the 50’s)MattLombardi, the boss of Unbound landed fourth in Elite Men.Fastest Junior on the day? Pieter Venter. 5th place for Keagan Brand who is always on interesting lines.Anne Cramer, another fast Namibian took 1st in Youth Women.First year in the Elite category is always a tough one. Sixth for Ethan Hunter this weekend.Shifting issues hampered Rory Kirk’s race run that was still good enough for second. Hard luck scrubber.Frankie the Fastest Femme of SA who is probably also the country’s best female Downhill Racer – of all time – took another win. Tenth at the world’s toughest DH race Red Bull Hardline in Tasmania and a win at this weekend’s SA cup are two incredible results for Theo Erlangsen who is going all-in on the 2025 season.Chapeau to the podium placers and all the riders. Gold!
Full resultshere. // Looking for racing images? Purchase yours from the official photographer of the SRAM WC DH Series, Chris Taylor on info@christaylorphotography.co.za //
