Stewart finally gets his just rewards

Pietermaritzburg¹s Brandon Stewart finally shed his bridesmaid tag when he cruised to a deceptively big victory ahead of a huge field in the Sunday Tribune Jeep Hill 2 Hill Mountain Bike Marathon from Hilton to Hillcrest yesterday. (SUNDAY) Stewart, who had two seconds and a third to his name going in to this prestigious race through the hills between Pietermaritzburg and Durban, finally secured the victory that eluded him in previous years when Burry Stander was grabbing the headlines with three wins from three starts.

In the women¹s race, an ecstatic Samantha Oosthuysen was never challenged, and after finishing seventh last year in seven hours, she cruised to a dominant victory in four hours 42 minutes 41 seconds. Robyn Adendorff ended second, 17 minutes back, followed by Tania Raats and Hungarian Eszter Erdelyi-Cluer in quick succession, and then Shawna Thunder.

Stewart was in sublime form yesterday and his record-winning time points both to a brilliant ride and the fact that the course was in superb condition after midweek rains and then two days of sunshine settled the dust and then baked the mud into a fast surface.

Stewart completed the 101 kilometre route in three hours, 53 minutes 29 seconds, just over four minutes ahead of a fast-finishing Ben Melt Swanepoel, followed by Max Knox who matched his 2008 finish, with the Team Garmin duo of Marc Bassingthwaighte and Francois Theron wrapping up the five-man podium.
But while Stewart was without doubt the strongest rider on the day, he was the first to admit that his DCM Chrome teammate, Knox, was the general who sacrificed his chances to give Stewart the win he wanted so badly.

³Max was brilliant and he rode for me today,² said Stewart after collecting the R13 000 winners cheque. ³He really wanted to win in Sabie and I sacrificed myself to help him get that win, and he did returned the favour today.

³As we went through a little climb in Pietermaritzburg, Max asked me if I wanted him to push. I saw that Ben Melt, who I thought would be the strongest, had dropped off the group so I told him to go hard and he just took us away from everybody.² Stewart and Knox slowly moved away from the chasers and only Bassingthwaighte remained within any kind of striking distance. But the gap was always going to be tough to bridge and with the two leaders working as a team the winner was always going to come from the DCM duo.

Eventually Knox¹s efforts early on took its toll, and he was forced to wish his teammate well and fight for second as Stewart moved away and rode the final 30kilometres in time-trial mode.
While the DCM Chrome duet opted for a go-hard-and-then-hang-on strategy, Swanepoel took a steady, controlled approach and moved from eighth to pass Knox going up the steep and long Bartletts climb to collect the runner¹s up prize.

If anybody was had doubts about Stewart¹s commitment and desire to win the event, they would have been dispelled by the tears he shed after the victory when he dedicated the win to his family ³who put up with so much to enable him to train for the race² he describes as his favourite in South Africa.
But, probably the quote of the day belonged to Swanepoel who described himself as a ³fisherman² of the day as he quietly ³reeled off his opponents but let the big one get away.²

RESULTS: MEN

1.Brandon Stewart 3:53:29;
2.ben Melt Swanepoel 3:58:08;
3.Max Knox 4:01:14;
4.Marc Bassingthwaighte 4:01:33;
5.Francois Theron 4:02:20;
6.Pete Smith 4:14:59;
7.Graig Paul 4:15:51;
8.Brett Disckson 4:18:08;
9.Carl Calverley 4:24:38;
10.Roan Exelby 4:28:26.

RESULTS: WOMEN

1.Samantha Oosthuysen 4:42:41;
2.Robyn Adendorff 4:59:40;
3.Tania Raats 5:02:44;
4.Eszter Erdelyi 5:04:42;
5.Shawna Thunder 5:09:09