Hugo Hahn and Genevieve Weber both did the double by winning the Cycle Classic road race as well as mountain bike titles over the weekend.
In yesterday’s 100km road race, national champion Drikus Coetzee broke away from the pack after about 60km, but the leading bunch, which included Hahn, managed to catch up to him with 15km to spare. Going into the final kilometre, six cyclists remained and in the final sprint it was down to four, with Hahn just pipping Coetzee to the line in 2:23:52, while Gerhard Mans came third and Ingram Cuff fourth.
The 19-year-old Hahn said it was a tough race.
“From the beginning we started putting the hammer down to try and break up the pack a bit, so it was full gas right from the start. Somewhere down the line Drikus managed to break away and get a little gap which he built to about a minute. I knew he did it at the nationals this year and that’s how he won the race, so I couldn’t let him do it again. We started pushing hard to try and catch him. We managed to do so but it was already getting quite close to the finish, so it was just cat and mouse till the end. With about 200m to go, Drikus went for the sprint, so I decided I just had to go for it and pushed it all the way,” he said.
“It’s nice to win two races in one weekend and it’s good to see my form coming along compared to the beginning of the year, when I thought I was under performing in all of the my races. I’m slowly getting stronger to the point where I need to be,” he added.
Coetzee said he decided to break away from the leading bunch after about 60km.
“I like to risk it, I like to ride with my heart and ride aggressively, so I decided to pull away and built up a gap. I knew it was going to be extremely hard to win, so I just rode quite hard, and when they caught me with about 15km to go I knew it was going to be quite tough, because I’m not a sprinter,” he said.
“Well done to Hugo for taking his second win this weekend, that’s really awesome. For me personally it’s a bit of a disappointment because as the national champion I got to wear my national champions jersey for the first time since February, so I really wanted to take this win. But generally I’m happy, it was a good race, everyone rode hard and we really worked well together,” he added.
On Saturday, Hahn was a comfortable winner of the MTB Cycle Classic, finishing more than three minutes ahead of Martin Freyer. Hahn won the 50km event in 1:54:52, with Freyer second in 1:57:59 and Xavier Papo third in 1:59:43.
Genevieve Weber, meanwhile, emulated Hahn by also doing the double.
On Saturday she comfortably won the women’s MTB Cycle Classic, finishing more than 10 minutes ahead of Courtney Liebenberg.
Weber won the 50km race in 2:17:24, with Liebenberg second in 2:29:06 and Michelle Doman third in 2:29:28.
Yesterday, Weber added the Cycle Classic Road Race title to her collection, completing the 100km race in 2:51:15, with Michelle Doman second in 2:51:16 and Anri Krugel third in 2:51:17.