Schools MTB League in Port Elizabeth

The Spur Schools MTB League is in full swing and early indications are that the league will quickly reach its target for 10 000 entries for the 2015 season.

This weekend keen mountain bike riders in the greater Port Elizabeth and East London area will get a chance to conger up points in an effort to qualify for the Eastern Cape team that will be competing in the national finals at Bekker School later this year.

On Saturday, 11 July the second event of the season will be hosted at Baakens Valley in Port Elizabeth and 3 Silos Adventure Park in East London.

Points will be allocated to the top 10 positions in the following order starting from 1st position, 15, 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2. Every finisher from position 11 will receive 1 point. The School achieving the most points overall, including all categories, will win the series.

Riders will be competing in individual age categories on the cross country lap race course. Although primary schools riders can also compete, only high school riders can qualify for the provincial team.

Riders in Port Elizabeth can register from 12:30 with racing for the Nippers (u/10) and Sprogs (u/12) starting at 13:45 on a shorter 2km track, followed by the Sub Junior (u/14), Youth (u/16) & Junior (u/18) riders on the longer 3km course at 15:00.

Registration in East London starts from 12:00 with the first race for all categories under 12 starting at 13:00 followed by the older categories at 14:30 with medals for all finishers. HTS Daniel Pienaar is currently lying top of the log with 44 points, followed by Alexander Road High with 30 points in second and St Dominic’s Priory School in third place with 23 points.

PE Schools that are interested can contact Charl Joubert at bigblade@eastcapemtb.co.za or 072 0812 801 and East London Schools can contact Eastern Wheelers at info@EasternWheelers.co.za or 043 726 0044.

The Spur School MTB League was launched in 2009 as a joint initiative between Amarider and Spur Steak Ranches and its humble beginnings saw 900 riders participating in the initial 20 events. Founded by Meurant Botha, Amarider is a national trails advocacy organsisation aimed at improving and promoting trail opportunities around Southern Africa.

Although mountain biking is an individual sport, the Spur Schools Mountain bike league aims to promote cycling as a team discipline. Over the past seven years, the league has logged an average 45% year-on-year growth and has successfully increased the footprint of youth MTB cycling in Southern Africa.

A natural progression of the development of the league has been the establishment of South African Schools Cycling (SASC) headed up by Deon Steyn, as national governing body of the sport. Apart from the further development of regional structures, the major drive for SASC is to lobby with the Department of Education to accredit mountain biking as an official schools sport.