Kevin Evans and David George debuted in spectacular fashion at the third annual Old Mutual joBerg2c, taking five stage wins en route to overall victory at Scottburgh main beach on Saturday.

The Nedbank 360Life duo, who won the African leader jersey at the recent Absa Cape Epic, conquered both their rivals and the nine-day, 910km journey from Heidelberg in Gauteng to the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast.

Kevin Evans and David George of Nedbank 360Life enjoyed a bittersweet triumph on the penultimate day of the Old Mutual joBerg2c as they dedicated their fifth stage win on Friday to the memory of friend and former national rider
Juan van Heerden.

“He was a talented cyclist and a good guy who battled depression for years,” said George. “We wanted to celebrate his life with a win.”

After seven days of racing, the Old Mutual joBerg2c is coming down to a two-horse race between defending champions Neil McDonald and Waylon Woolcock of RE:CM and overall leaders Kevin Evans and David George of Nedbank 360Life.

On Thursday, Evans and George notched up their fourth stage victory as they outsprinted Woolcock and MacDonald after 86km of racing between Hazeldene Farm near Underberg and McKenzie Club in the Ixopo region of KwaZulu-Natal.

Another fantastic day of riding in glorious weather through KZN. Today covered the familiar Sani2C day 1 route which included some incredible single track which was very welcomed by the riders. We woke up to a very chilly Hazeldean Farm, with a general sense of calm filtering through the race village due to the ‘short’ day ahead of us. Farmer Glenn even referred to today as a rest day!

Kevin Evans and David George had more than winning on their minds as they extended their already comfortable overall lead to almost nine minutes on day six of the nine-day Old Mutual joBerg2c on Wednesday.

The Nedbank 360Life riders were racing for a greater purpose as they sealed their third stage victory in 3:17:13 on the gruelling 94km route from Glengarry resort in the Kamberg district to Hazeldene Farm near Underberg.

Today will go down as one of the hardest days I have had on a bike for a long time. Last night I developed the legendary multi stage jippo guts which leaves you feeling pretty weak and unenthusiastic for 103km’s on a mountain bike. I managed to force down some breakfast and get to the start line feeling rather sorry for myself. After a short neutral zone we hit the dirt and the racing began.

Wow, what an amazing day of riding, one I will not forget for a long time. It was tough, no doubt, 122 km with 2000m of climbing, this after 125 km yesterday. This morning saw some weary riders lining up for what was going to be the longest day of this years Joberg2C. Another mass start in a chilly 7 degrees behind the Massey Ferguson tractor saw us riding 3-4km of neutral zone before the racing started.