Big win for Mariske in the USA

Top mountain biker and club mate, Mariske Strauss has started the year off with a bang by winning her first ever Cyclocross race and US national title.

Recently recruited to race in the United States for Mars Hill College Racing,Strauss was a dark horse going into the Collegiate Women’s Division 2 Cyclocross National Championships in Madison, Wisconsin. She surprised the field by beating the favourite, Rebecca Gross, to take the title.

Strauss scorched the course in 47:22, finishing 13 seconds ahead of second-place Rebecca Gross. Kimberly Flynn rounded out the podium to finish third in 48:55.

The United States National Cyclocross Championships is a four-day competition held annually and is sponsored by USA Cycling. The winners at various levels, including elite, U-23, masters, juniors, and collegiate for men and women, wear the coveted stars and stripes jersey and are crowned United States national cyclocross champions.

Club's cyclists steal the show

The highlight of the past six weeks was undoubtedly the performance by our cyclists in the Coronation Double Century, the WP Road Championships and Die Burger Cycle Tour.

From a club perspective, the three New Balance Multisport Club cycling teams – all kitted out in their new red, black and white tops – caught the eyes of everybody at the grueling Coronation Double Century (DC) cycle race over 204km in November. Well drilled, well prepared and with their strategies in place, the three teams, under the leadership of captains Pieter Joubert, Richard Peet and Wernich Meyer, started the race in Swellendam, each rider with a clear goal in mind.

Out of all the teams, NBMC Team 3 impressed everybody! Considering that not one of the riders had any DC experience going into the event, the fact that they had covered the same distance in training as Team 1 had over a period of 18 weeks, made their successful completion of the race so much more meaningful. Says Cycling Captain Pieter Joubert: "They never complained and always believed that their team (all 10 of them) could finish the DC inside the cut-off time of 10.5 hours. Well, they beat their target by over an hour and they all finished together!"

The NBMC teams comprised the following cyclists:

Team 1: Pieter Joubert (captain), Schalk du Plessis, Doepie du Plessis, Chris John Beukman, David John van der Merwe, Johan Steyn, Japie Bingle, Gideon Knobel, Francois Viljoen and Jaco de Jager.

Team 2: Richard Peet (captain), Cedric Scwerin, Axel Unger, Marianne Unger, Anelma van Rensburg, Achmed Giesler, Vanessa Giesler, Kathy Forssman, Stephan Betz and Louis Steyn.

Team 3: Wernich Meyer (captain), Dave Ronquest, Grant January, Nico Claase, Nichol Luttig, Anzel Brink, Annemie Cloete, Karin Bosman and Kindy Theunissen.

With a bit of firepower from outside, the Cape Town Market Team clinched the DC with last year's winners, the Daikin GU Elite Team, in second place. The Daikin GU Vets Team also had a great ride and completed the race in less than six hours.

The club has three new WP Road Cycling Champs - Stefan Ihlenfeldt (U-23) and Paul Meinking (Masters) and to Sarel Louw who is the 2011 Elite Time Trial Champion.

Riding in the colours of Daikin GU, Charles Solomon won the sub vet category of Die Burger Cycle Tour in fine style.

Cape Town Market’s Anton Wynand and Theuns van der Bank came first and second respectively in the Al-Alzhar Institute Cycle Race. A week later it was Theuns van der Bank’s turn to win a race when he clinched the West Coast Mall Lagoon Cycle Challenge. Anton Wynand finished in second place.

The Pro Classic Spring Cycle League prize giving was held recently. Team Daikin GU were crowned champions of the Pro Classic Spring series in the elite men's section. The Daikin GU Sub Vet and Vets teams won their categories respectively.

Riël receives Lifetime Sport Achiever Award

The club would like to congratulate club mate Riël Hauman for his Lifetime Sport Achiever Award, which he received at the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport annual Sport and Recreation Sports Awards ceremony on Friday 19 November.

Earlier this year at the WPA Annual Awards Ceremony, Riël received Life Membership from Western Province Athletics as recognition for his contribution over a period of 35 years to athletics in the Western Province. Well done Riël, we are very proud of you!

Two Oceans 2012 Half Marathon - entries close in record time

Entries for the 2012 Old Mutual Two Oceans half marathon closed in a record time of nine days on Friday, 18 November 2011. The biggest field in the half marathon’s history will line up in Newlands on Easter Saturday, 7 April 2012. No late entries will be accepted and entries posted after Saturday, 19 November, will be rejected and no refunds will be considered under any circumstances.

Runners who missed out on an Old Mutual Two Oceans half marathon entry will have the chance to bid for one when 21 charity entries go up for auction from Wednesday, 23 November, as part of a major fundraising initiative for the Two Oceans Marathon Initiative (TOMI), the official event charity foundation.

A record field of 16 000 runners will take part in the half marathon, making it by far the biggest half marathon in the country. Just over half the entrants are women (8 380) and 8 280 of the runners will be running the half marathon for the first time, while 80 runners will be running their tenth race. 8 334 runners are from the Western Cape with the remainder coming from all over South Africa. 262 runners from Africa will be taking part together with 236 international runners. Over 10 000 are unlicensed and do not belong to a club.

Just over 1 000 entries have been received for the ultra marathon and most of these entries are expected early next year, once the runners have qualified. Entries for the ultra marathon close on 7 March 2012 or when the 11 000 entry mark is reached.

Entries for the trail runs will open on 18 January 2012, and trail enthusiasts wanting to secure their spot in this popular event will need to enter as soon as possible, as entries sold out in less than a day for the 2011 event.

Participants can enter online at www.twooceansmarathon.org.za or download an entry form from the website.

Runners will also be able to downgrade, upgrade, substitute or do seeding changes online from 1 February to 7 March 2012. Participants should visit the event’s website at www.twooceansmarathon.org.za for more details.

Dryland Traverse: It's Dry, but you can run it

The very challenging Dryland Traverse Trail Run over four stages produced excellent results for the club. Not only did Derrick Baard win the race overall (photo), the ladies team (Renata Schoeman and Colleen de Oliveira) won their category in fine style. Mauritz Jansen Van Rensburg and Juan Pretorius, running as New Balance Team, won the men’s team category.

Held in the Swartberg Mountains near Oudtshoorn from 3 to 6 November 2011, the race was run over a total distance of 80.1km, which included climbs of 2964m over the full distance.

The prologue over 7.4km started in the world famous Cango Caves where participants had to navigate through the dark network of this underground wonder to the first checkpoint. The prologue was followed by three stages over 25,7km, 28,7km and 17,7km respectively.

Great camaraderie at Impi Challenge

(by Jenny Close) A number of club members participated in the New Balance Impi Challenge (& Impi Elite) that was held at Wiesenhof Farm near Paarl on Saturday, 22 and Sunday, 23 October.

The Impi Challenge covered 12km of undulating terrain with about 17 obstacles, and the Elite covered 17km with extra obstacles, which were very tough!

The obstacles ranged from crawling through tunnels and 'snake pits', climbing over walls and up very high wooden climbing frames to leaping off ledges into water and running over 'lily pads'. It was like an adult playground! So much fun was had by all. But with plenty scrapes and scratches along the way plus a few ripped pieces of clothing it wasn’t for the feint hearted!

There were some great team outfits and some very creative artwork! It was an awesome event with great camaraderie not only amongst fellow club members, but with all the other Impi Warriors. And as club mate Lisa Smit (photo) said "Definitely one to remember. Great bunch of people. Lots of laughs, lots of fun!"