Three cheers for Beers!

KNYSNA NEWS – Former Knysna-based cyclist Matt Beers took home top prize in the Elite Men's race of the 2021 Western Cape Xco Championships on Saturday 26 June.

A great number of riders took part in the championships, which started at the Oakhill Sports Campus (OSC) at 08:30.

With 19 different age categories, the racing went on throughout the day, culminating in the Elite Men's race at 14:30. Beers, who grew up in Knysna and is now based in Cape Town, was one of 19 riders who took part in the Elite Men's category.

His race was the showpiece of the day, as some top cross country mountain-biking athletes from the province and the country took part - the likes of George-based riders Matthys Beukes and Tristan Nortjé, Somerset West native Matt Keyser, and Capetonian Luke Moir.

Beukes had the early lead and held onto it for the first lap around the newly revamped 4,71km track at the OSC. But Beers would not let himself be beaten on "home" turf and powered ahead, achieving a 13-second lead at the end of the second round.

Jamelyn Maart looks forward to the track ahead.

Beers then clocked a lightning-quick third lap of nine minutes and 55 seconds (09:55), the quickest of the day and the only one to dip below the 10 minute barrier.

Beers held his pace throughout the race and was able to negotiate the tricky track and hold onto his lead until the end. He finished his eight laps in a time of 01:32:15, a minute-and-a-half quicker than Beukes (01:33:46), who was three-and-a-half minutes ahead of third-placed Nortjé (01:37:18).

In the Elite Women's race it was Oudtshoorn native Yolande de Villiers who dominated the six-lap race from start to finish, not once clocking a lap slower than 13 minutes. Her impressive time of 01:14:45 was just over three-and-a-half minutes faster than second-placed Marzelle van der Merwe (1:18:23), who clocked an inspired final lap of 12:36 to beat Lehane Oosthuizen by less than a second.

Eventual winner Yolande de Villiers surges ahead in the Elite Women's race.

De Villiers was chuffed with her win. "It was a tough race; there are lots of climbs and there are four or five jumps that are also quite challenging," she said. "But the track was great, and the organisers did an amazing job."

Jaydan Durandt (back, left), Lood Goosen (centre), and Streicher Swart (back, right) battled it out for a podium place in the Youth Men's category.