The last time he rode the race he had to play second fiddle to John Paul Pearton. Since then, of course, Stander has taken the mountain bike world by storm.  The 22-year-old Specialized/Mr Price star is the Under-23 World Champion, World Cup round winner, overall winner of the Under-23 World Cup series, the third best cross-country rider in the world and the SA cross-country and marathon champion.
 
The relatively short 50km ride – in professional mountain bike terms – at the Waterfall Country Estate, suits Stander’s ability to a tee. He excels in the shorter cross-country type events and he will be very hard to beat.
 
“My season has actually ended, but there is so much hype and excitement around the Cycle Challenge that I let me arm be twisted into riding. It means I probably won’t be at my best, as this is generally downtime for me, but I’ll give it a good bash,” he said.
 
Stander will also be a studio guest for the live SuperSport broadcast on Cycle Challenge Sunday and it’ll be a real treat to hear his views on the sport, while conversing with the world renowned “Voice of Cycling” Phil Liggett.
 
For the past three years, one of Stander’s biggest goals was to win the Under-23 world championship. Last year he had to settle for the silver medal. This year, in Canberra, Australia, he made no mistakes.
 
Stander says he only realised how special it was to be world champion when he wore the Rainbow Jersey for the first time.
 
That same World Championship jersey will be on display at the Cycle Challenge and the chances are pretty good that he’ll cross the finish line in first place. The big question, however, is how much fitness would he have lost by decreasing his training regime.
 
And then, of course, on the other end of the spectrum the question must be asked how much fitter will all the other South African mountain bike professionals be with the Cycle Challenge constituting a huge platform for them.
 
Stander has been taking part in road events over the past three weeks to ensure his fitness levels don’t drop completely and has featured in the top ten of these events on most occasions.
 
Phillip Buys (Garmin Adidas) proved at the weekend that his fitness is right up there at the moment when he beat multiple South African champion Kevin Evans in the Mondi Packaging Addo Mountain Biking challenge over 85km in the Eastern Cape.
 
Evans’ downtime also started two weeks ago, which shows that even if you’re just slightly off your game, it opens the backdoor to your rivals.
 
A full house of 4000 riders is expected at the Momentum 94.7 Mountain Bike Challenge, which concludes the Gauteng season for South Africa’s top riders.
 
For more information on the Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge including road closures, visit www.cyclechallenge.co.za