Team Contego/Giant's Ariane Kleinhans defended her title as the queen of Attakwas successfully this past weekend when she won the women's race over a grueling 121km from Oudtshoorn to Groot Brak in 6 hours, 5 minutes and 22 seconds. Her new team-mate Philip Buys (5:17.27) started his tenure with his team with a third place in the men's race that was won by Matthys Beukes (5:09.10).
Ariane was joined on the winner's podium by Ischen Stopforth (6:07.45) and Kathrin Stirnemann (6:11.45). "I started in front, but had no plans to try and stay with the guys. I just wanted to settle into a nice pace."
Source: Zoon Cronje
Ariane was joined by Yolande de Villiers, but was soon on her own again. Then bad luck struck. She had a puncture which was very difficult to fix and she lost some valuable time. "Ischen caught up with me and we rode together till the final 15km or 2012-01-28 1so when I dropped her. The last few kilometers are really hard, because you are so tired. But I love the Attakwas. It was a hard and challenging race."
For Philip it was an exciting but also challenging time leading up to Attakwas. "Riding your first race for a new team is always exciting and I was really motivated to do well. I got a bug before the race though and wasn't able to train for five days, luckily I did some hard training before that and still felt good. I always start a race with the idea of winning it and Attakwas was no different."
Renay Groustra was the first rider to take the lead, but more than half way through the race Beukes took over. As one of the chasers Philip had mechanical troubles with his wheel though and lost some time. Charles Keey (finishing second) rode away on a climb and Philip was left with Waylon Woolcock for the last kilometers of the race. With some sharp turns to the finish-line Philip felt confident of securing his third place and took no chances leading up to the finish.
The Team's Adriaan Louw (8th) and Hannes Hanekom (10th) finished in the top 10. Hannes was the third sub-vet rider and his brother Sakkie was 10th in this category. Erik Kleinhans had a bad accident and wasn't able to finish the race. "It wasn't the way I wanted it to end, but I couldn't grip my handle bars because of the pain in my arm."
Also read Erik & Ariane's Blog on the event. Click here
