SINGLE-TRACK MINDS Courtesy: SA Racer Magazine It is often said that motorsport people have single-track minds. I recently discovered that some indeed do have single-track minds. Take the likes of current Nissan Production driver and 1993 SA Drivers Champion, Duncan Vos, 2000 Superbike champ Stewart Macleod and former Off-Road motorcycle champion Brian Bontekoning. They all have single-track minds, only it is single-track as known in mountain bike circles.
Misguided people are under the impression that Johannesburg is flat, those who have ever ridden a bicycle know the truth. You’ll battle to find a kilometre of flat road in the City of Gold, and the Walkerville area is full of hills, so much so that the route took riders very close to the highest point in Gauteng. Terrain was varied, made up with everything from smooth district roads, jeep track, single-track paths and white knuckle rocky descents. Speaking to Vos he said it was a great help to upper body and arm strength, which is very important in off-road racing. “This is a fast race, but sometimes we are in the saddle for six hours,” he explained. Bontekoning was also of the opinion that it was a great way of keeping fit.
Macleod also has a road bike to complement his MTB. “The mountainbike is much more fun though,” he reckons, before adding that he often does laps around Kyalami. Incidentally, a top line cyclist will lap Kyalami in just over six minutes. What really struck me was how big cycling is. At this event, quite a popular race, but by no means the biggest, there were over 800 entries with 550 in the 30 km race. All three proved to be a lot more competitive that I would ever have imagined. Bontekoning was fourth in the Sub Vet class with Vos placed fifth in the Veterans while Macleod bagged 11th in the Sub Vet class of his race, a class with 111 entries! John Paul Pearton won a closely fought 65km race in a time of 2 hours 11 min 38 sec, just five seconds clear of Grant Impey while the aptly named Yolande Speedy won the Womens race comfortably, she has backing from KTM in addition to title sponsor IMC. It was even closer in the short race where Mauritius Jonker had a three second advantage over Drew Murphy, the winning time being 1:50:36 compared to Irene Booysen who won the Women’s race easily in 2:12:12 Another thing about Mountain Bike racing that you probably don’t know, is that Mazda sponsors the national championship. Steve Wicks |
The trio recently took part in the Walkerville Classic organised by the Rockhoppers MTB Club with Vos riding his full suspension Fuji in the 65km race along with Bontekoning on a trick carbon fibre device, while Macleod opted for the slightly easier 35 km event on his hardtail, which for the uninformed, has no rear suspension. 
Macleod also thinks it is a good way of keeping fit, but the reason why he missed the last Kyalami Superbike race was because he fell off his mountainbike and broke a collarbone. This was his first outing since the injury, hence entering the shorter 30km race, “but it was closer to 40km than 30km after we all got lost soon after the start – that cost about 15 minutes.”