Piet Swiegers' engine still running smoothly
Mountain biking
The masters men’s rider Piet Swiegers from Klein Aus Vista in the south of Namibia successfully partnered with Robert Sim of South Africa at a renowned multi-stage mountain bike race in the Southern Cape last week.Five days of stages took the riders in the Cape Pioneer Trek all the way from George to Oudtshoorn on a tough route of 368 kilometres, with Swiegers and Sim competing in the colours of their sponsor Momentum Short-term Insurance Namibia.
On Saturday, the 56-year-old Swiegers and Sim (58) completed the tour in an impressive overall 16th position on the general classification, while also winning every stage of the masters category (50 to 59 years).
Swiegers says the first two stages were especially tough with jeep tracks over steep uphills on the Outeniqua mountain pass. The five days’ distances were 57 km (with 1750 metres of vertical ascent); 73.5 km (1450 m climbing); 90 km (1450 m climbing); 84 km (2100 m climbing) and 64 km (1100 climbing).
“Our main opposition lost about 20 minutes on the first day while repairing a cut to the side wall of one of their tyres.
“On day 2, the Pitstop team were ready to take us on, but we just covered them until they tired out in the later days of the race,” Swiegers said.
“The second-last day’s queen stage again finished at the top of the Swartberg mountain pass, where we won the master’s race on the day by about ten minutes.
“Rob Sim has a best achievement of 17th in the Cape Epic as a 49-year-old and has won the grandmaster division three times with Udo Bölts of Germany. The two of us have also previously won the Cape Pioneer Trek masters division. We will also take on the Wines2Whales in the next month.”
Swiegers and Sim's total time was 18 hours 27 minutes. The second-best masters men's team completed the tour in 19 hours 42 minutes.
The elite men’s winning team was the South African pair of Arno du Toit and Keagan Bontekoning (Insect Science, 15 hours 16 minutes) after an untimely puncture held back PYGA Euro Steel’s Jaedon Terlouw and Pieter du Toit (15 hours 21 minutes) on the final stage.