Western Cape Downhill Finals

By Vital MTB member, Ewaldsadie

The last race on the Western Cape Downhill calender took place last weekend, at the always-entertaining Contermanskloof DH track in South Africa. Both practice and race day saw sunny and clear skies, with Saturday's practice featuring a very strong tail wind, causing a couple of riders to overshoot jumps. Sunday was blisteringly hot and dry, with almost no wind, making this one of the tougher shoots I've ever had to do and extremely uncomfortable for the riders.

     
There was an an usually high number of crashes and even more punctures throughout the weekend with the number of entrants decreasing by race day. One crash in particular put local racer, Goose, in hospital with a shoulder injury, requiring surgery a couple of hours later. Get well soon buddy!

     
The Elite men's podium featured the usual suspects with Andrew Neethling taking the top honours, and Johann Potgieter and Stefan Garlicki following closely.

Overall Top 10 results:

1: Andrew Neethling 2.02.78

2: Johann Potgieter 2.04.62

3: Stefan Garlicki 2.05.72

4: Jonty Neethling 2.09.85

5: Darryn Stow 2.14.09

6: Luke Davis 2.15.14

7: Adi van der Merwe 2.15.41

8: Gary Barnard 2.16.31

9: Dane Olsen 2.16.81

10: Theo Erlangsen 2.17.20