The good news for Gauteng’s mountain biking fraternity is that the fun will be repeated next weekend when the next race in the popular Nissan series will take place on Saturday, 19 June, at Walkerville, about 30km from Johannesburg.
The race is aptly named ‘The Fast and Furious’.
According to Fritz Pienaar, race-organizer, the name is a true description of what awaits the riders.
“In my racing days as a pro-elite, the Walkerville race was part of the National Mazda Series. It was one of my favourite races, not only because I managed to win it a few times, but also because of the route which can only be described with one word, ‘unique’.
“The Fast and Furious is a true Highveld race. Riders should, therefore, not expect to be challenged by the big energy-sapping mountain climbs that they encounter in the Lowveld.
“They will mostly be racing through dry and dusty grass veld which can be a challenge in its own way, because most of the riders will ride twice as fast as they normally do.
“As usual, we took great pains to ensure that the route will be interesting and challenging for everybody, novices as well as pro-elites. The riders will get ample opportunity to test their mountain biking skills on single-track sections, but they will also have time to recover because the single-track sections are linked by tarred roads.
“As organizer, I can guarantee that the last thing that riders will have to worry about is that they will get caught up in a bottleneck during the race.
“We managed to sort out that problem this year, by implementing a seeding system for all the races in the Nissan series.”
Riders should not confuse next weekend’s race at Walkerville with the Walkerville race that is scheduled for July.
The Nissan Fast and Furious race will start at the Lapeng Hotel.
According to Pienaar, the route of the Nissan 40km race will, in some respects, be similar to the July race, but the 70km race will be a totally new and unique racing experience.
For more information visit
www.mtbseries.co.za or
www.advendurance.com 