Neil MacDonald and Waylon Woolcock of Team RE:CM used road cycling tactics to outsmart and then out-power their rivals to finish first and second respectively at the Nissan Trailseeker Down and Dirty in Centurion on Saturday

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The two ‘hybrid’ pro bike racers, who won the 2011 joBerg2C stage race – their first mountain bike event as Team RE:CM – are also members of the Bonitas professional road cycling team. The pair put over 20 years of combined road racing experience to good use on Saturday on a fast, non-technical course.

After a rapid start, a lead group of 10 formed, but lost Woolcock to a puncture. The pace then eased and just as it began to pick up again, at 25km, Woolcock managed to rejoin, but was somewhat spent from a hard chase.

“I waited for Waylon to recover and at around 40km I put in some hard efforts to soften the others up and force them to chase me. It was then that I realised I was feeling strong and that a top finish was definitely possible. Waylon sat on the back of their pursuit and when they caught me, he counter-attacked,” explained MacDonald.

“I then sat on the back while the others chased Waylon and that led to a thinning out of the front group even more. MTN had four riders in the initial group, but when we caught Waylon there were just six of us left.”

The smaller lead group comprised Woolcock and MacDonald of Team RE:CM, Jacques Janse van Rensburg and Adrien Niyonshuti of MTN Qhubeka, Melt Swanepoel (Specialized) and Lourens Luus.

Janse van Rensburg put in a strong effort up one of the climbs in the latter part of the race, but he wasn’t able to move clear, leaving the sextet intact for the run in to the finish area.

“We went down an embankment with about 400 metres to go. I looked back and realised I had gap on the others so I just powered on to the finish line around the school fields. I had been feeling really strong during the race and knew I’d have a good chance of holding onto that gap,” smiled MacDonald.

“Waylon sensibly sat on the back of the others as they tried to close me down and then out sprinted them at the end to take second place. It was a great result for me personally as last weekend I was very disappointed with my eighth place at the Gravel Travel Ultra-marathon. I knew that a win was what I needed to get me back on track and today it worked out perfectly. It was also a great result for Team RE:CM. We haven’t won a major race for a good few weeks, so this was a great boost for our morale.”

“I’m very proud of our guys on the great result today. They’re still quite new to mountain bike racing, but they raced a smart, tactical race and were able to tip the race in their favour by working together, no doubt as a result of years of racing together on the road,” said Team RE:CM owner, Malcolm Lange.

“We definitely used road tactics today. We know how to read a race when there’s a bunch involved and the course wasn’t that technical – some rocks and loose gravel in places and quite urban in parts. It was a course that suited us and we made the most of it,” remarked MacDonald.

LEADING RESULTS:

1 Neil MacDonald (Team RE:CM) 2hrs 15min 03sec
2 Waylon Woolcock (Team RE:CM) 2:15:06
3 Jacques Janse van Rensburg (MTN Qhubeka) 2:15:07
4 Melt Swanepoel (Specialized) 2:15:15
5 Lourens Luus 2:15:21
6 Adrien Niyonshuti (MTN Qhubeka) 2:16:04
7 Max Knox (Ghost DoItNow) 2:18:52
8 Charles Keey (MTN Qhubeka) 2:19:33
9 Andrew Warr 2:22:09
10 Francois Theron (Garmin adidas) 2:23:25