Keira Duncan and Sabine (Beani) Thies strung together two days of smooth, fast racing to claim home-province victories at the Stihl Enduro, which doubled as Round 2 of the 2021 Enduro SA Cup and the 2022 KZN Enduro Champs, held at Karkloof, KwaZulu-Natal at the weekend.
Words: Sean Badenhorst | Images: Chris Taylor Media, Go Badger Agency, Rory Scheffer/Gameplan Media
The event formed part of the 2022 Sappi Karkloof Trail Festival and boasted two days of racing on some of Karkloof’s best-loved and iconic descending trails. Day 1 on Saturday 11 June comprised four stages on the old Howick trails, which are more rocky and technical. Day 2 on Sunday 12 June was a five-stage day on the Outback trails, which are more flowy and predictable.
Duncan actually lives in the Karkloof valley and such is his connection to the Karkloof Trails network that one of the trails is named after him; and was the penultimate stage on Day 1. The 2018 SA Enduro champion recorded the fastest time on all four of the Day 1 stages and took a healthy 01min07sec lead into Day 2 over Mpumalanga ace, Willie van Eck and 1:10 over fellow KZN racer and top junior, Ross Kew.
Day 2’s five stages were three Karkloof Outback trails classics: Jewitt’s Jive, The Gauntlet and Voodoo Lounge – a series of shortish but stimulating and flowy forest trails. The legendary Sisonke was also on the roster with its lengthy descent, as was Windsong. Duncan’s impressive form and local knowledge had him favoured to retain his lead going into Day 2.
The Windsong stage, the first of the day for the top 68 men, created some drama as the first few starters were victims of incomplete route marking and ended up going off course briefly. A rerun was given just to those riders once the course had been marked correctly, but the stage was eventually, sensibly, removed from the results as it hadn’t offered an even opportunity for all the riders.
The removal of the stage didn’t really have any effect on the overall positions, which saw Duncan claim another clean sweep of stage wins and the overall title in a total time of 25min21sec. Van Eck lost a bit of time, but held onto his second place overall with a final time of 27:05, with Kew maintaining his third place a further seven seconds back. Fourth overall went to Western Cape’s Jason Boulle in 21:19 with another Western Cape rider, Philip van Schalkwyk, rounding out the top five in 27:26 and taking the silver medal in the Junior division.
“I had a great race. I felt smooth on my bike and managed to finish quickest on all eight stages – really happy with that! It’s a pity about the cancelled stage, but there were eight more that counted so a good overall reflection,” said Duncan.
“I focussed on a consistent pace throughout the stages and tried my best not to make any mistakes. Being a local in Karkloof is certainly a big advantage, but I’m really happy that I had a successful race without any mechanicals or crashes. There are a lot of technical sections on the trails we raced, so careful line choice and bike management was important.
“A big thanks to the Karkloof Mountain Bike Club and the KZN Gravity Committee for pulling off the radical weekend of racing!” added Duncan.
The number of female entrants was impressive, with a total of 28 entrants across all categories. Thies, the 2022 South African Downhill champion, started as the outright favourite, but had to share stage wins on Day 1 with Limpopo junior, Lillian Baber. Thies finished Day 1 in the lead, but with just a 10-second buffer to Baber, who is primarily a XCO racer.
On Day 2, Thies won all four stages and clocked a total overall time of 31:27. Baber’s final time was 32:01, which gave her second overall and the win in the Junior division and Gauteng’s Arielle Behr, overall winner at Round 1, was third in 32:30, giving her the victory in the Youth category.
Other notable performances came from KZN local Omar Wilson, the leading Youth category rider, who finished sixth overall and top Veteran, Dan Fowler, from Gauteng, who was seventh overall and raced all the stages blind.
Round 3 of the 2022 Enduro SA Cup is the Giant Witfontein Enduro on Sunday 7 August in George.
Stihl Enduro, Karkloof 2022
Leading Results
Overall men:
1 Keira Duncan (KwaZulu-Natal) 25:21
2 Willie van Eck (Mpumalanga) 27:05
3 Ross Kew (KwaZulu-Natal) 27:12
4 Jason Boulle (Western Cape) 27:19
5 Philip van Schalkwyk (Western Cape) 27:26
6 Omar Wilson (KwaZulu-Natal) 28:10
7 Dan Fowler (Gauteng) 28:12
8 Keagan Brand (KwaZulu-Natal) 28:21
9 Cobus Esterhuyse (Western Cape) 29:13
10 Andre Pretorius (KwaZulu-Natal) 29:23
Age categories
Elite men:
1 Keira Duncan 25:21
2 Willie van Eck 27:05
3 Jason Boulle 27:19
Junior Men
1 Ross Kew 27:12
2 Philip van Schalkwyk 27:26
3 Keagan Brand 28:21
Youth Men
1 Omar Wilson 28:10
2 Cameron Morewood 30:00
3 Gabriel Burns 30:32
Sub-Junior Boys
1 Troy Cole 31:26
2 Daniel Uys 31:32
3 Hanro Ehlers 32:31
Sub-Veteran
1 Cobus Esterhuyse 29:13 983
2 Andre Pretorius 29:23
3 Stuart Waterworth 30:08
Veteran
1 Dan Fowler 28:12
2 Ian Perry 30:46
3 Jacques Dreyer 32:24
Master
1 Barry Crouse 31:42
2 Alastair Brand 33:19
3 Peter de Beer 33:30
Grand Master
1 Mike Behr 37:46
Overall women:
1 Sabine Thies (KwaZulu-Natal) 31:27
2 Lilian Baber (Limpopo) 32:01
3 Arielle Behr (Gauteng) 32:30
4 Danika Botha (Mpumalanga) 35:35
5 Tashane Ehlers (Limpopo) 35:50
Age categories
Elite
1 Sabine Thies 31:27
2 Talia Behr 38:36
3 Minsie Grobler 51:11
Junior
1 Lilian Baber 32:01
Youth
1 Arielle Behr 32:30
2 Danika Botha 35:35
3 Tashane Ehlers 35:50
Sub-Junior Girls
1 Tyla-May Smale 41:31
2 Shae van Heerden 50:27
Sub-Veteran
1 Maude Badenhorst 38:30
2 Lauren Pretorius 39”54
3 Jade Davies 40:27
Veteran
1 Sandra O’Shea 36:03
2 Kirstin Shearer 38:52
3 Melody French 39:51
Master
1 Karen Fortune 40:28
2 Fiona Williams 41:39
3 Ronel Dreyer 42:33
Stage podiums
Stage 1 Men
1 Keira Duncan 4:46
2 Willie van Eck 5:04
3 Philip van Schalkwyk 5:06
Stage 1 Women
1 Lilian Baber 6:08
2 Beani Thies 6:15
2 Arielle Behr 6:15
Stage 2 Men
1 Keira Duncan 2:48
2 Willie van Eck 3:05
2 Ross Kew3:05
Stage 2 Women
1 Beani Thies 3:28
2 Lilian Baber 3:41
3 Arielle Behr 3:45
Stage 3 Men
1 Keira Duncan 3:23
2 Ross Kew 3:44
3 Marc Fourie 3:47
Stage 3 Women
1 Lilian Baber 4:22
2 Beani Thies 4:25
2 Arielle Behr 4:39
Stage 4 Men
1 Keira Duncan 1:53
2 Ross Kew 1:59
3 Willie van Eck 2:00
Stage 4 Women
1 Beani Thies 2:16
2 Lilian Baber 2:23
3 Arielle Behr 2:26
Stage 6 Men
1 Keira Duncan 2:13
2 Willie van Eck 2:17
3 Jason Boule 2:19
Stage 6 Women
1 Beani Thies 2:39
2 Arielle Behr 2:42
3 Lilian Baber 2:46
Stage 7 Men
1 Keira Duncan 1:51
2 Willie van Eck 1:54
3 Ross Kew 1:55
Stage 7 Women
1 Beani Thies 2:07
2 Arielle Behr 2:12
3 Lilian Baber 2:14
Stage 8 Men
1 Keira Duncan 1:57
2 Jason Boule 2:01
2 Dan Fowler 2:01
Stage 8 Women
1 Beani Thies 2:18
2 Arielle Behr 2:20
3 Lilian Baber 2:24
Stage 10 Men
1 Keira Duncan 6:30
2 Jason Boule 6:48
3 Ross Kew 6:50
Stage 10 Women
1 Beani Thies 7:59
2 Lilian Baber 8:03
3 Arielle Behr 8:11
Here’s the summary of the Enduro SA Cup Round 1 at Buffelsdrift, Gauteng.
