Although the Riebeek Valley Mountain Bike race isn’t the biggest or most prestigious races on the calendar it still has a special sentiment to me.

Last year this is where I met Sean whose business, Sean Williams Contracts, is now my main financial sponsor and without his support I wouldn’t be able to do much of what I have had the opportunity to do this year.

It is also a special race for Sean, as he comes to do it in honour of his Mom who used to live in Riebeek Kasteel.

The race is traditionally a short one but shouldn’t be underestimated as the ascent up Kasteelberg is a tough one!

The start off the race winds itself through the historic village of Riebeek Kasteel before we hit the dirt.

This is where the selection of five riders was made including myself and Sean, Greef Moolman(Thule) Ivan Perold (Blend Properties) and Craig Casey Hughes (One Plan/Trek). After navigating our way through an Olive Tree Orchard, the group thinned down to just Ivan, Greef and I and this is how it stayed until the foot of Kasteelberg.

I put in a bit of a move on the lower slopes of the climb and managed to shake off the other two and then pushed it to try open as much of a gap as possible on the climb. The strategy paid off and I could just consolidate as we made our way across the farms in the region towards the finish line.

The final results were:

1.       Chris Wolhuter (Sean Williams Contracts/Cube)

2.       Ivan Perold (Blend Properties)

3.       Greef Moolman (Thule)

4.       Sean Williams (Sean Williams Contracts)

5.       Craig Casey Hughes (One Plan/Trek)