The 10th and 11th June 2023 saw the running of the Kwa-Zulu Natal Provincial Championships powered by Greg Minnaar Cycles, the KZN Gravity Series title sponsor. KZN Gravity joined forces with the beloved Karkloof Trail Festival Series, once again putting on one of the best enduros of the season. This much loved venue drew participants from all around the country for the opportunity to race.
Riders for Gauteng and the Free State took the opportunity to ride Karkloof mint trails.
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From the ROAG Reporter;
Karkloof – Keira Duncan and Arielle Behr continued where they left off and on Sunday duly wrapped up the respective KZN Enduro Championship titles by claiming the men’s and women’s victories at the Stihl Enduro on the final day of action at the Sappi Karkloof Classic Trail Festival.
Keira Duncan, reigning Champion
While Duncan was able to make things looks deceptively easy with a clean sweep of ten wins from the ten legs of the two-day event through the Karkloof Forests, Behr had to keep a wary eye on pre-race favourite Sabine Thies before edging to the win.
Duncan started on Sunday with a 46-second lead over young Omar Wilson and it was always going to be a tough task for the Maritzburg College schoolboy to make up the deficit on trails Duncan knowns intimately. That task became almost impossible for Wilson on the opening stage of the second day when he fell and dropped behind third-placed Brandon Waugh. That eased the pressure on Duncan and the final four sectors were about consolidation and the 23-year-old former national champion ended up a massive two minutes and 34 seconds clear.
Wilson fought hard to regain second place and he came tantalisingly close to getting ahead of Waugh once again, but the pair ended in the same time at the end of ten sectors and shared the second-step of the podium.
“I am really pleased with how the weekend went,” said Duncan after claiming his convincing victory. “I caught a bit of a cold toward the end of the week and so I just had to do what I could to prepare, but it ended up being OK and I was just happy to be able to put the power down and get the win. “I was very pleased to have been able to make it a clean sweep of wins on all ten legs.”
Duncan is also the chief trail manager at the Marriott Karkloof Country Club, so he had a double interest in making sure the trails he raced on were in perfect condition.
“Together with the club I think we have been able to put together a nice combination of the best sections of the club’s trails for this enduro. At the end of the day we wanted to make sure this event had something for everyone, and I believe we achieved that. We had a combination on nice flowing single-track and some technical sections … it was a nice mixture of the best selection of the best Karkloof track.”
Luke Kirk putting down a fast lap on Keiras Trail
In the women’s event, as with Saturday, 15-year-old Behr and Thies once again swapped fastest times on the opening three sections, but overall Thies was not able to do enough to close the gap and Behr ended the event with a 22-second advantage.
Final mens overall podium
Final womens overall podium
FINAL RESULTS
Men
1 Keira Duncan 0:27:32
2 Omar Wilson 0:30:06
2 Brandon Waugh 0:30:06
4 Shaun Charlton 0:31:02
5 Jason Davies 0:31:42
Women
1 Arielle Behr 0:35:12
2 Sabine Thies 0:35:34
3 Amber Cole 0:37:33
4 Melody French 0:38:24
5 Tyla-May Smale 0:39:51
Article: ROAG Event Management
Photography: Chris Taylor Media [Cape Town]
Timing: Elite Timing
Results: https://kzngravity.co.za/race-results/2023/2023-kzn-enduro-3-champs/
