Over 800 cyclists from across KZN turned up to ride the season’s biggest kick-off - the Subaru Jowetts MTB Classic - held in Cedara on Sunday, 1st February, and they weren’t disappointed.

The weather was cool, providing perfect conditions for the infamous 45-km challenge with miles of single track; the perfectly-balanced 25 km and the 10 km fun ride for the families.

Typical of a Nic Floris course, the tough and technical 45 km was highly contested.

Overall results for men: junior Julian Jessop (2:06:55), sub vet Tyronne White (2:07:06) and sub vet John Ntuli (02:10:33); and women: Jeannie Bomford (02:29:35), Natalie Bergstrom (02:34:16) and Carla Van Huyssteen (02:35:47).

The 25 km was perfectly balanced between single track and climbing with a handful of sections to catch your breath. The superb youth racer, Gage Hansson tore the track up winning by nearly 5 minutes, but with only 2 minutes between 2nd and 8th place!

Overall winners in the men’s was youth Gage Hansson (01:14:08), sub vet Wouter Jordaan (01:19:18) and master Bradly Sander (01:19:23), and in the female category, it was sub-junior Beanie Thies (01:19:47) who also came 4th overall men and women; sub-junior Sarah Ryan (01:29:12) and master woman Cynthia Ramsay (01:29:21). For all the results, click here.

Said cyclist Green Groenewald, after finishing the 45-km course, “Absolutely incredible race yesterday at Cedara, you can be well proud. Mixture of excellent single track, hard climbs and I thought (except for that one section at the end) was very well marked. Thanks and keep it up!”

Jowetts Cycles launched their 2015 Racing Team and kit at the event confirming that Derrin Smith, Natalie Bergstrom, Gareth Cook, Dean Wortmann and Dreyer Botma will be names to look out for on the podium.

Now in its 8th year, the Subaru-Jowetts MTB Classic has become synonymous with the spirit of mountain-biking, allowing all participants to push their personal limits.

The courses, built by Nic Floris, are fun with enough technical to make it a real and lots of single track to keep you focused and smiling!

Supported and sponsored by Subaru Pietermaritzburg, this year participants were treated to a range of lucky draw prizes from Craft; Scott, Thule and Buzz Racks, Lizzard, Rushsports, Racefood and Powersol, ensuring that not only the winners, but many riders, received something special.

For all the results, click here.