Race Report: The Witfontein Enduro in George
A six stage showdown in the Witfontein mountains.
| WORDS: Jordan de Goede | IMAGES: Diedre Cloete & Hugo Du Plessis |
The first week of October saw riders from all over the country trickling into the town of George to get acquainted with the mountain, in preparation for the last round of the provincial enduro series.
This year marked the fifth anniversary of the Witfontein Enduro, a race that has become a favourite amongst riders for it’s unique and challenging trails, great location and warm atmosphere. Organized and run by Chris Barrett & his wife, along with a small team, Chris has poured his passion and most of his year into this event for half a decade now.
Thanks to loyal sponsors like RideLife Bike Shop who have been there since day one, Eden Cycling Association, and the newly added help from the George Municipality Tourism Department, Chris has managed to keep this event going, and improving every year. This year, was no different in that regard.
Now with a revised route, a lot of fresh trail, and a couple of fast names back in the mix after the European season, the hills awaited eagerly for riders to take on the last six stages of the season. This year the riders would face a route covering 35km in total, with around 1500m of elevation. Of the six stages, two were practically brand new, three featured fresh sections and revised layouts, with only SS5 remaining unchanged.
Rider’s briefing heard the announcement that SS1 had been extended by a few hundred metres with fresh, unseen trail, and would now start above the railway line, at the tower. This came as a welcome addition to the otherwise flat and pedal-heavy stage, and was appreciated as a ‘tip of the hat’ to the original enduro spirit of blind racing. George local and OG pinner Hayden Brown was the only person to go under 6 minutes on SS1, taking the overall win on the stage (including E-Bikes) and narrowly pipping both National Enduro Champ Keira Duncan, and youth rider, Corban VZ Smit by barely 3 seconds.
After recovering from SS1 and finding their legs again, riders headed up to SS2, a mostly fresh, loamy and rocky stage. Built by Danie ‘die muishond’ Van Tonder, and named Toffiewolf after George regular Malan Morkel (RIP). SS2 begged riders to keep their speed up in the thick loam that separated a couple of rock gardens, before heading into LoamStar. Keira Duncan took a clear win over Brown by 6 seconds, who was another 6 seconds clear of rising star, Camryn Marais.
Stage 3 was a fast, rocky and loose combination of Sticks & Stones, R&B Flow, old DH, and Supertubes. A flat out 3-4 minute blast down some of George’s iconic sections. After a string of mechanicals and early retirements, SS3 brought out the first ambulance of the day, closing the stage temporarily. Due to a faulty timing pod, this stage was unfortunately cancelled to keep things as fair as possible. Still a great trail, regardless. Riders then faced the long traverse from the bottom of 3 to the top of SS4, which marked the halfway point in the day and saw a slight shift from the flatter, faster stages 1, 2, & 3, to the steeper, more technical stages 4, 5, & 6.
SS4, a notorious mix of chunky chutes, tricky sections and steep, bed-sized rock slabs, asked a fair bit from the riders (and their upper bodies specifically). The new, highly anticipated feature in the bottom section (aptly named ACDC) was a large, steep rock slab into a double compression before an off camber, rocky exit. This section drew a fair number of spectators throughout the day, and provided plenty entertainment to viewers and riders alike. Keira Duncan extended his lead over Hayden Brown, and Michard Meets snuck into P3 on the stage, 5 seconds off Brown.
SS5, Squamish into Fukushima, maintained it’s familiar layout of a flat, janky top section, twisty mid-section, before a punchy climb that lead riders over the old abandonded buildings, and back into some fast singletrack down to the finish on the railway line. A fun and unique stage, but difficult to nail, especially at race pace. Again, Duncan & Brown were 1 & 2 separated by 5 seconds. Brown narrowly avoided Unbound MTB team manager/owner Matt Lombardi, who was practically breathing down his neck, less than a second behind in P3.
After 5 stages and more than 4.5 hours, riders trudged toward SS6, looking to end the race on a high note by hanging on for a lap down the newly built Cornerstone trail. The freshly built ribbon of loamy turns, ruts, jumps and rocks was properly ‘cut in’ come race day, and served as the perfect end to a long day out, and an even longer season. Hayden Brown finished the race the way he started, taking the stage win by a narrow 0.8 seconds over Duncan. Youth rider Alesandro Lenisa slotted himself between the old boys to take 3rd, 2 seconds behind Duncan, and on the same second as 4th placed Michard Meets.
After a great day’s racing on some of the finest and most challenging trails in the country, it was Keira Duncan who came out on top. Local man Hayden Brown was just over 10 seconds back after more than 16 minutes of racing, ahead of Matt Lombardi in P3, who added to the team’s long string of podium’s this season. Michard Meets followed closely in 4th, with Camryn Marais in P5 overall. Luca Zietsman took the win in the junior men category ahead of national junior DH champ, and Pieter Venter. Joshua Ord took P3 managing to beat George young gun Alex Jonker to the final podium spot.
It’s definitely worth noting that the top three Youth Men were all comfortably inside of the top 10 overall. Camryn Marais, Alesando Lenisa, and Corban VZ Smit were in the mix all day, challenging the Juniors, Elites and Sub-Vets successfully across every stage, Marais and Lenisa within a minute of the overall win at the finish. The future is at the door, can you hear them knocking?
The Sub-Vets class was dominated by Hayden Brown, ahead of the familiar and formidable Gert Heyns in P2. The final spot was taken by Mnr Potchefstroom himself, Christan Kirsten, making it 3 out of 4 podiums in his first Western Cape season. Frankie Du Toit, fresh off a short European stint, was the fastest female rider of the day, followed by Eryn Marais who claimed P1 in Junior women. Amy Glisson was 3rd fastest, taking the win in women’s sub-vets ahead of Shauna Esmeyer and Merina Van Vollenhoven.
The sub-junior boys category saw Dawid VZ Smit win with a time of 11 minutes 39 seconds, de-throning Luc Rossouw, who had been on a perfect season until now. Luc still took P2, his only non-win this season, ahead of newcomer Dewan Ras who rode to a well deserved P3.
This year’s E-Bike category was more than double the size of last year, with 25 e-assisted racers joining the party in George. Stellies boy Philip Van Schalkwyk took the win ahead of the elusive Tuscan Hayward by nearly a minute. They were chased down by Max (in the gully) Sullivan in P3, with Nic Rezelman and Hamish Dibden following.
Amy Burton and Roxy Baynes battled closely all day for the Women’s E-Bike win, and after 23 minutes of racing, it was Amy who narrowly edged out Roxy by less than 20 seconds to take the win. Quite literally, 1.3% faster than Roxy. Close stuff. Estelle Le Roux finished in P3. With that, the Western Cape Enduro Series has reached the end of the 2025 season. Witfontein played a fantastic host to end the 4 rounds and 21 stages of racing for the year.
A big congratulations and thank you to Chris Barrett and everyone involved in building the Witfontein Enduro into what it has become. Keep eyes and ears open for next year’s event, Chris has some very special plans in the pipeline to make the 6th official iteration of the event even better. If you haven’t raced this event, consider this your calling.
Thank you to Western Cape Enduro for hosting a great series of events throughout the year, and giving us cool bike races to look forward to. The spirit of Enduro is alive, manifested in the dedication of the individuals who volunteer their valuable time to organize annd manage these events. See you all next year! //
| Full results and learn more about Enduro in the Western Cape, here |