Durban – The Kargo Pro MTB team stole the show at Saturday 11 January’s first leg of the KZN MTB Provincial Cross Country Series as they went one, two, three overall as well as claiming the top step of the podium in both the elite and under-23 men’s categories.

Having ridden the majority of the way together, team star Rourke Croeser and under-23 rising talent Travis Walker crossed the line hand in hand to claim their first wins of the season respectively with team mate Stuart Marais following them home shortly afterwards to finish second in the elite category and round out a Kargo Pro MTB top three.

The whole team, who have a firm focus ensuring team star Rourke Croeser qualifies for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, will take good confidence from their positive local season opener and will now look to build on this platform heading into the upcoming African Continental Championships in Cape Town on 25 and 26 January.

“It’s always nice to start the season with a win,” explained Croeser afterwards. “Saturday was a good confidence booster and really helped just clear some of those early season cobwebs that most of the guys would have at this stage.

“It’s a tough old sport that we compete in and after some time off one tends to forget just how hard it can be so I was very happy with how it all went for us in our first outing.

“I’ve never really been one to set big goals for myself in the past and qualifying, and then doing well, at Commonwealth Games is probably the first big goal of my riding career so African Champs is pretty important and therefore it was nice to have a good run at smaller KZN Cup race before then,” he added.

Kargo Pro MTB team’s Rourke Croeser (left) and Travis Walker (right) celebrate their respective victories in the elite and under-23 men categories at the KZN MTB Provincial XCO Series opener on Saturday 11 January. Kargo Pro MTB team’s Travis Walker in action during his victorious effort at the KZN MTB Provincial XCO Series opener on Saturday 11 January.

For Walker, one of a handful of new faces to have joined the Kargo Pro MTB setup in the off-season, the team’s success had added importance as he looks to clear a few early season cobwebs and find his top form as quickly as possible.

“It was great to be able to keep up with Rourke (Croeser) and it was really good that we were able to get a race in ahead of African Champs, especially with a lot of the other races around the country having been cancelled,” said Walker.

“Having had a really good pre-season, coming into the race I thought I’d manage quite easily but racing is just a completely different animal to training so it was really good get that one under the belt and now I know exactly how hard I’m going to have to push at African Champs in a couple of weeks’ time.”

Despite having been boxed in at the start, resulting in a slow first half a lap, Walker soon made his way up to Croeser at the head of the race and the two the knuckled down and worked together for the rest of the clash with their choice of the Momsen Vipa soft tail 29er adding to the talk in the car park afterwards.

“Once I caught Rourke we really went quite hard until lap five, when we took it a little easier, but then on the final lap we really pushed hard and ended up setting the quickest lap time of the day which I was pretty stoked about!” said a pleasantly surprised Walker.

“It was also great to give the bike a bit of race testing. I had been a little sceptical when I first heard we’d be on soft tails but I was really happy with the bike on Saturday. It was really efficient and, with the course being quite bumpy on some of the climbs, it really was a big help,” he added.

More info can be found at www.peschlracing.com

SUMMARY OF RESULTS
KZN MTB PROVINCIAL XCO SERIES FIRST LEG

Overall
1.Rourke Croeser (Kargo Pro MTB)
2.Travis Walker (Kargo Pro MTB)
3.Stuart Marias (Kargo Pro MTB)

Elite Men
1.Rourke Croeser (Kargo Pro MTB)
2.Stuart Marais (Kargo Pro MTB)
3.Leeroy Emslie

Elite Women
1.Melanie Palframan
2.Kim Westbrook (Velo Life)
3.Tamryn Taylor

Under 23
1.Travis Walker (Kargo Pro MTB)
2.Callan Deacon
3.Lee Penderis

Under 23 Women
1.Ashleigh Moffatt (Velo Life)
2.Hayley Smith (Bell/Specialized-SA)

Juniors Boys
1.Alan Hatherly (ASG PYcycling)
2.Julian Jessop (Team Jeep)
3.Devon Smit (Team Jeep)

Junior Girls
1.Bianca Haw (Velo Life)
2.Frankie du Toit (Velo Life)
3.Alexandra Mapstone (Velo Life)

Photographer: Darren Goddard/Gameplan Media