#SpurFinals2019

The 2019 Spur Schools MTB League culminated this past weekend in a hail of watts as 500 of South Africa's strongest youngsters descended on Wagpos High School outside the mining town of Brits in the North West Province.

As official league partners, Signal Bikes was proud to be a part of the action awarding the final pair of Fastest Lap caps as well as the overall Fastest Lap prize of a Signal Elite valued at R20 000!

PROMOTING A HEALTHY DOSE OF COMPETITIVENESS

While the League's 60 regional events focus primarily on promoting participation, the inter-schools and inter-provincial Finals are heavily focused on performance with only the fastest girls and boys taking part.

Signal Bikes believe the League is succeeding in achieving the balance between getting South Africa's kids on bikes, while fostering a healthy dose of competitiveness. While the racing at Wagpos was fierce on the track, the camaraderie and friendships developed off the bike was inspiring to see.

Ultimately, this is the true success of what Meurant Botha and his team have achieved in creating a sustainable Schools MTB League.

FASTEST LAP IS A WRAP

Throughout the 2019 Season, Signal Bikes has awarded Fastest Lap caps to the fastest single lap ridden on the day. It was awesome to see so many of the regional winners present at Wagpos (above) with riders proudly wearing their hard earned caps in the event village.

With some searingly fast laps recorded, it was Mpumalanga's Zandri Strydom (of Rob Ferreira HS) and KZN's Travis Stedman (of Thomas More College) who earned themselves the bragging rights of recording the fastest lap over the course of both Friday and Saturday's racing.

In what was Zandri Strydom's last year participating in the Schools MTB League, the enthusiastic Nelspruit local won both days' racing in the Junior Women's category and was awarded the prestigious Junior Women Cyclist of the Year award alongside Matteo Damilano who was awarded Junior Men Cyclist of the Year.

Zandri's winning streak wasn't confined to the race track as her name was drawn in the Fastest Lap lucky-draw competition where she rode off with a brand new Signal Elite valued at R20 000!

DO YOU HAVE WATT IT TAKES?

The Signal Bikes WATT CHALLENGE injected a great deal of excitement into the Finals weekend with over 120 youngsters giving it their all in an effort to record the highest power up a specific climb on Zwift.

Things heated up once League ambassadors Alan Hatherly and Ariane Lüthi threw down the gauntlet. From the sidelines the short effort seemed easy, but it proved tougher than expected with a lot of banter among riders who jostled for position on the leader board.

League Founder Meurant Botha (below) was not going to be left out of the action and recorded a very respectable output that saw him spend a few hours in the Top 10 ... Mooi Oom!

Congratulations to the WATT CHALLENGE Champions, Herman Fourie of Limpopo and Chanté Olivier of Mpumalanga. Both Herman and Chanté are in the Youth 16 category and clearly had the kick that counted!