Johann ‘Pottie’ Potgieter confirmed his status as an incredible allround bike racer when, in atrocious conditions, we won his seventh Elite Men’s South African Downhill title in Sabie at the weekend. How does he do it? We analyse this here and we also look at the rest of the champs’ top performers.
By Sean Badenhorst
With 21st Century-appropriate live timing set up by the oraganisers, anyone not there already knew before sundowner time on Sunday that Pottie had dug deep into his well of experience and claimed his ninth South African gravity title. Ninth, people! It’s now seven DH and two Enduro crowns he’s worn. Explains the strong neck.
You really have to give Pottie kudos. The guy is 36 years old, always smiling, quick with a joke, very approachable and flippen fast. It’s no wonder his Youth Skills Camps are so popular. That’s the kind of guy you want your kids to be like. Pottie rather crushes the cliché that nice guys don’t always finish first.
What were the chances that he would win the 2023 title at Sabie this weekend? Not super high really, for a few reasons. For starters, there’s his age – he’s double the age of Ross Kew, who won the Junior title and finished fifth overall. But with age, comes experience and when conditions are shite, that’s usually when the experienced racers have an edge. Pottie’s years of tearing up trails at race pace gave him that edge on Sunday.
Then, there’s the fact that there has never been this much depth in downhill racing in South Africa. Any one of half a dozen riders could have won that coveted title on Sabie’s sodden slopes. Everyone but Greg was there. Starting last as the fastest Elite men’s qualifier, Pottie needed to be snappy, but safe. One small error is all it takes to dismantle your title hopes.
And it’s not just the small errors, because every rider makes a few in almost every run, but it’s recovering from the error and limiting any time loss that can pull back a lost half a second here, a full second there. That takes a blend of skill, power, finesse and a calm head. And that’s Pottie – all of that.
But perhaps the biggest factor counting against Pottie successfully defending his national title, was desire. In addition to all the obvious stuff, you have to be hungry for success to be a winner. In Elite-level sport, sometimes the athlete that wins isn’t the most gifted, but the one who wanted it most. Look at Pottie’s young rivals – they’re all bristling with talent. And when you have won the national title so many times, surely your desire to win it again starts to fade?
Evidently, not if you’re Pottie. Did you see his Instagram reel? He was as overcome by emotion at winning his seventh Downhill title as if it was his first. That’s not to say nobody else was hungry for the win, it’s just noticeable how Pottie has maintained his hunger for so long. Maybe all of the factors mentioned here gave him the deep desire for one more win. Or make that, another win. There isn’t anyone that’s not impressed with Pottie; or happy for him. What a bike racer. What a worthy 2023 SA Downhill Champion.
Before we look at the women’s race, let’s just mention that the top-ranked men’s racer going into this national champs was Theo Erlangsen, who, by his own account, says that he struggled with illness all weekend, managed to put a solid race run down but crashed on the last corner. Character-building experience and we’re sure to see the three-time SA Champ back on the top step again.
Let’s also take a moment to celebrate the silver-medal ride by Stefan Garlicki. Seeded a lowly 57th going into the champs as a result of another surgery and recovery period, the former two-time SA champ recorded a slightly underwhelming seeding run – seventh in 4:02. But in the final, the 32-year-old showed his big match temperament and laid down a rapid 3:53. He can postpone his acting career a little longer.
Connor Finnis (21), third overall and Rory Kirk (19), fourth overall were both consistent in their seeding and race runs and really do represent a bright future for men’s Downhill racing in South Africa. They were second and third respectively at the 2022 SA Champs at Cascades, a very different course, which confirms their ability to race well, regardless of the conditions.
Kirk is a gravity-racing anomaly. He lives in Joburg and his local trail is the bloomin’ Braamfontein Spruit, an almost pancake-flat trail that cautious, middle-aged women are comfortable riding and where there’s more risk of being mugged than actually crashing. Give that young man a place to live in Stellenbosch and watch him really flourish.
And it would be difficult not to be impressed with Ross. Unable to finish on the podium as a first-year Junior last year (he broke his wheel and finished fifth), he blitzed the course in his seeding run to lay down a 3:52 – fastest Junior and overall. His final run was five seconds slower, but enough to secure the Junior gold medal and fifth overall. Last year’s champion, Keagan Brand came back from a 4:08 seeding run to a 4:01 final run and the silver medal, with Western Cape’s Ethan Hunter securing the bronze.
WOMEN
It was encouraging to see some new names in the women’s divisions. The increasing popularity of Enduro is definitely benefitting Downhill – in both men and women.
After posting the fastest time – 4:24 – in the seeding run, by quite some margin, Frankie just needed to get down without drama in the final to secure the title. Turned out that was the fastest women’s run of the day. Defending champ, Beani Thies set a 4:40 in the seeding and Junior, Jenna Byrns was third quickest down overall in 4:49.
Although not the quickest, Jenna was the most consistent on the day, slicing a second off her seeding run to clock a 4:48 in the final, giving her second in the Junior division and third overall. Beani said she made a big mistake in the first left hander. She wasn’t able to recover from it, giving her a 4:52 that would see her finish second Elite and fourth overall.
Frankie also took a tumble in the final and crossed the finish line with skew handlebars and saddle. She clocked a 4:37, which turned out to be good enough for first Elite and overall. This is her third SA DH title after winning in 2020 and 2021.
Second overall, just one second back was Gauteng’s Danika Botha. She’d crashed in her seeding run but had a far better race run, although she was slowed somewhat when she caught the rider that started ahead of her, had to brake hard, cased the second jump and almost came to a stand still. She still won the Junior title at her first attempt. This was her third DH race, so her future looks promising.
Gauteng’s Julia Kotze, overall winner of the Enduro SA Cup the week before, tried her hand at Downhill and managed to survive the conditions to post a 4:57 in the final, good enough for third Elite and fifth overall.
Well done to the Mpumalanga gravity community for rallying to host the event after the initial venue couldn’t. If you break it down, a downhill race is a short, single-line time trial down a slope. But as we all know, there there’s so much more that goes into making that competition environment that’s safe, supported and stimulating.
“Building a track and organsing an event in basically just over a month had its challenges. We had good support and built what we could to try and accommodate every rider’s strengths. That’s a hard task, especially when the rain came down and we needed to make changes to the middle sector, slowing it down and making it a little more pedally than I’d have liked,” said Justin Victor, Race Organiser and Track Builder.
“The track was actually well liked by every rider I spoke to, even with a few… “it’s fun, not too difficult…” But, being a local and knowing that we’ve had rain over this period for as long as I remember, I knew it would change things. We stuck to as natural terrain as we could and with +700ml of rain in the weeks before, the track had little to zero erosion. A huge thank you to CSA and everyone that gave Sabie another shot to shine!”
Here’s a list of all the medallists:
Elite men
1 Johann Potgieter (Western Cape)
2 Stefan Garlicki (Western Cape)
3 Connor Finnis (KwaZulu-Natal)
Junior men
1 Ross Kew (KwaZulu-Natal)
2 Keagan Brand (KwaZulu-Natal)
3 Ethan Hunter (Western Cape)
Sub-Veteran men
1 Lance Morris (Western Cape)
2 Stuart Waterworth (KwaZulu-Natal)
3 Waldo de Wet (Western Cape)
Veteran men
1 Denzil Lawrie (Mpumalanga)
2 Oliver Jones (KwaZulu-Natal)
3 Erasmus Botma (KwaZulu-Natal)
Master men
1 Patrick Morewood (KwaZulu-Natal)
2 Barry Crouse (Gauteng)
3 Alastair Brand (KwaZulu-Natal)
Youth men
1 Alexander Jonker (Western Cape)
2 Fourie van Wyk (Western Cape)
3 Gabriel Burns (Mpumalanga)
Sub-Junior Boys
1 Daniel Uys (KwaZulu-Natal)
2 Jack Schliemann (Western Cape)
3 Angus Copeland (KwaZulu-Natal)
Sprog Boys
1 Willam Nelson (Western Cape)
2 Luc Rossouw (Western Cape)
3 Ethan Duvenage (Gauteng)
Nipper Boys
1 Peter Nelson (Western Cape)
2 Joshua Oosthuysen (North West)
3 Hendry Cruz (Western Cape)
WOMEN
Elite women
1 Frankie du Toit (Western Cape)
2 Beani Thies (KwaZulu-Natal)
3 Julia Kotze (Gauteng)
Junior women
1 Danika Botha (Gauteng)
2 Jenna Byrnes (Eastern Cape)
3 Teah Gundry (KwaZulu-Natal)
Youth women
1 Arielle Behr (Gauteng)
2 Tyla-May Smale (KwaZulu-Natal)
3 Mikyla Herbst (Mpumalanga)
All the Seeding and Final results are here.
