KZN Lassen Series Race 1 Report -16 January

The first race in the Lassen KZN series on January 16th went well for the Mr Price 30+ vets team.

The Mr Price Vets 30+ team for the race consisted of ; Emile Fouche, Sean Merredew, Andrew Reeves, Werner Venter and Mike Viljoen.

The Racing was tough with a lot of strong riders in the bunch and some riders have good form early in the season. The men’s bunch was big as most of the age categories started together.

The bunch was nervous with this being the first race of the year and the first lap saw a few near crashes and a fast pace. A few attacks from the teams of Cyclelab, Mr Price and Burry Stander kept the pace high and soon the bunch was splintering.

The sprint and king of the mountains laps pushed the heart rates high, the sprint competition was won by James Louter and the KOM competition by Burry Stander.

Burry showed his strength by riding away from the bunch up the climb and winning solo by 20secs on the last lap.

The remaining bunch sprinted it out with James Louter winning the bunch sprint. Sean Merredew won the 30+ category and finished 3rd overall, Andrew Reeves finished 4th in the 30+ category and 6th overall, Emile Fouche was 16th overall and Werner Venter 32nd overall.

Andrew Reeves

KZN Road Champs - 23 January 2011

On a cold and very wet Sunday 23 January, a small field of male Elite, U23 and Vets 30-39 lined up outside the Van’s hotel in Camperdown for the 2011 edition of the KZN road championships. Mr Price Vets team represented by Andrew Reeves, Mike Viljoen, Bryan Cusack and myself.

The race started at a very sedated pace for the first few kilometers as we all got to grips with the cold and rain.The first break in the group came as we turned left onto the Richmond road at Thornville, with most of the big names present. On one of the climbs toward Richmond the group broke further with a very select few in the leading group. Andrew managed to hang on to the main group, but Bryan and I dropped to the second group. We realized that Bryan had a good medal chance in the 35-39 category with only Brett Berriman from Cyclelab to contend with so we decided to go to plan B and work to protect his chance, as our main competition in the 30-34 category, Fego Coffees, was in the leading group and we had no chance of catching them.

At around 50km into the race we picked up Andrew that dropped off due to the fatigue in his legs from the previous days’ time trial effort. I worked hard in the front, driving the pace while Andrew recovered and we sheltered Bryan. On our second to last lap around the Van’s circuit, Burry Stander came racing past us as he put a lap into our group-he rode extremely well and went on to win the overall title by 3 minutes from Luke Roberts and Richard Baxter. Our race stayed together all the way to line with Andrew leading Bryan out to take a much deserved win in the 35-39 category. Good result for our team (even though that was plan B).

Thanks must go to Mr Price KZN for staging a fantastic weekend of KZN Championships as well as to all the marshals that stood in the pouring rain to protect us while we were riding.

Werner Venter

KZN Lassen Road Series 1

On Sunday 16th of January the first leg of the KZN Lassen Road series took place. This is a new series for Kwazulu Natal Road cycling and consists of eleven road races that would be held throughout the year. The racing format was in criterium style of seven laps for the men and five laps for the ladies of a 10 km circuit, with the start and finish in front of Van Der Merwe’s hotel on the R603 near Camperdown. From there the route was staying on the R603 till the cyclists turned left onto the P418 heading towards Camperdown, turning left on Old Main Road (R103) and staying on it until it bends and join the R603 again.

The men’s race kicked off at 06h00 and from the first lap you could see there was a lot of fire power in the bunch. The most fire power being that of Burry Stander (Spesialised), who won the mens race with a gap of about 20 seconds. James Louter (MTN Club 100) was second and Sean Merredew (Mr Price) was in 3rd overall, with a main bunch of almost 20 strong finishing within 1 second behind them.

After finishing in the main bunch with the men, Cherise Taylor also competed in the woman’s race outsprinting Isabel Moolman (Cyclelab) for the win, with Claire Matthews (Mr Price) in 3rd.

Results Men (70km)

Hot Spot: James Louter
King of the Mountain: Burry Stander
Elite: 1.Burry Stander - Spesialised (01:38:41), 2. James Louter – MTN Club 100 (01:39:00), 3. Trevor Court (01:39:04)
U23: 1. Aston Davies – Marties Cycles (1:39:03), 2. Jonty Tivers – Mr Price (01:39:04), 3. Bradley Stroberg - Cyclelab(01:39:04)
U16: 1. Phillip Kruger – Mr Price (01:39:03), 2. Ryan Felgate – Mr Price (01:39:04), 3. Alan Hatherly (01:47:32)
Juniors: 1. Stefan van Eck – Mr Price (01:39:03), 2. Liam Mooney – Mr Price (01:39:04), 3. Chris Cowan (01:39:05)
Men 30-34: 1. Sean Merredew – Mr Price (01:39:02), 2. Deno van Heerden – Fego (01:39:03), 3. Rowan Taylor – Fego (01:39:03)
Men 30-35: 1. Brett Berriman (01:39:25), 2. Hein Meyer (01:39:25)
Men 40-44: 1. Garth Schonewolf – Bring it On (01:39:03), 2. Werner Moolman – Cyclelab (01:40:33)
Men 45-49: 1. Iven Scharein – Cyclelab (01:39:03), 2. Mike Adey – Cyclelab (01:39:03)
Men 50-54: 1. Trevor Thompson (01:44:45). 2. Flip Krugel – Mr Price (01:44:45)
Men 55-59: 1. Bruno Quevauvilliers – Mr Price (01:51:28), David Douglas (01:58:49)
Men 60+: 1. Derrick Tivers – Mr Price (01:47:52). 2. Dave Corrin (02:06:36)

Results Ladies (50km)

Hot Spot: Isabel Moolman
Queen of the Mountain: Cherise Taylor
Elite: 1. Cherise Taylor – USN (01:28:38), 2. Claire Matthews – Mr Price (01:32:04)
Category wins:
35-39: Isabel Moolman – Cyclelab (01:28:38)
40-44: Sue Folks - Cyclelab (01:32:05)
45-49: Cynthia Ramsey – Mr Price (01:37:27)
50-54: Debbie Mayne – Mr Price (01:44:33)
Junior: Candice Parker-Dennison (01:32:09)
U16: Rochelle van Eck (01:38:26)

Emile Fouche