Hill climbs to another Sharks Trail Adventure win
It was Andrew Hill's sixth MTB marathon title at the STIHL Sharks Trail Adventure.
ANDREW Hill romped to a sixth title in seven years with his empathic win in the 40km MTB marathon at the STIHL Sharks Trail Adventure at the Summerveld Estate on Sunday.
Riding on trails that he regularly trains on, the cycling ace was able to assert himself early on in the race, climbing away alone in the first quarter of the tough outing through the Shongweni farmlands to win by almost four minutes.
His power on the hills and his speed on the single-track and roads through the sugar cane fields were pleasing for him as he has come off a gruelling week of long distance training and intense hill climbing in the Valley of a Thousand Hills.
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“I have just come back from a three day training camp where we did about 6 500 metres of climbing, so I was really feeling it! But it was encouraging to able to muster up some speed today. The only year I haven’t managed to win this race was when I was beaten by Alan Hatherley, but I can deal with that,” he added.
Hill heaped praise on course designer Ewan Cochrane, who made a lot of changes to the routes, taking the riders and runners to higher vantage points, and bringing them back on well-thought out contour roads that managed the necessary climbing on the return leg.
“Ewan (Cochrane) really put a lot of effort and thought into this year’s track,” said Hill. “That brought in some climbing along the way but it helped with the climb back to the finish at the end. He added in a lot of new sections, smoothed some out and actually added in some sections that I had never ridden before, which is unusual because I train here all the time,” he added.
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Shelley Higgo took the women’s title from Nadine Nunes and Gisela Stephens.
The well supported 20km MTB ride was won by Nick Burczak, well clear of a scrap for second between Chad Smith and Justin Swanepoel.
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