Cyclists crank along coast in 69er

THERE was certainly a buzz around the Toti Cycling Club crew over the weekend.

Firstly, the mountain bikers all rode at Renishaw on Saturday morning.

Two different groups left Scottburgh beach and headed straight into the track.

One group had a cool 14 people and the slipstreamers had 10 to keep track of. Meanwhile the ‘making dust’ group left Illovo grass patch and did the big trek along the Umnini Dam road past Sappi to Renishaw, did the Renishaw track and struggled home on the Umgababa road against the beastly easterly. This was an 80km training ride in preparation for the upcoming Hill2hill.

The mountain bikers all took advantage of the good weather on Saturday’s ride, as they were going to marshal the Toti 69er the next day. This was organised so that the club’s roadies could for once be free to ride their home race.

The Hypersure Toti 69er kicked off to a beautiful sunrise at 6.30am on Sunday morning. There were large groups of cyclists being sent off down our beautiful coast line. It’s a very impressive sight to see big groups of road riders. There were a few different distances for the competitors, including 20kms, 69kms and 94kms.

First place in the men’s 94km was Ryan Gibbons (U23) 2.16.23; second place Theuns van der Bank (vet 30-39) 2.16.29.

First place in the women’s 94km was Heidi Dalton (elite) 2.26.29; second place Isabel Moolman (vet 40-49) 2.49.14.

First place in the men’s 69km was Ewan Cochrane (vet 40-49) 2.03.28; second place Dean Barry (vet 40-49) 2:06:57.

First women over the line on a tandem were Suna Ferreria and Lisette Keightly in 2.08.32.

Next woman was Lauren Kendrick (vet 30-39) 2.41.21 and second woman was Nicola Howard (vet 40-49) 2.42.40.

It’s incredible that the top guys did an average speed of 41.1km/h on the hilly, mini Tour de France route. There were plenty of groans as people were hitting the last little bump home . ‘Not another hill’ was a cry heard many times by the marshals.

A huge thank you goes out to the races main sponsor Hypersure for their incredible support. The race’s second main sponsors are Cyclesphere, Pickfords and Pick n Pay. The Cyclesphere car was seen going up and down the course helping out riders in distress and the Pickfords van was used to safely transport all the fencing, tables and other race equipment to different areas en route.

Lucky draw prizes from for the race came from Spur, Leighs Cycle Centre, Let me Airbrush and Thule.

Goody bags and T-shirts were courtesy of Hypersure, Bokomo, Pick n Pay Athlone Park. The race committee thanks everyone involved in making the race a big success and thanks the public for their patience with the cyclists and marshals on the race route.