After dominating the men’s team field on all three days of the 2012 Columbia Grape Escape, the Team Songo-Specialized duo of Burry Stander and Christoph Sauser claimed a resounding victory today. Second place went to the Team Bulls duo of Stefan Sahm and Karl Platt, while the other Team Bulls duo of Tim Böhme and Thomas Dietsch took third. Below is a roundup from stage 2 and 3.

Swiss u23 rider Vivienne Meyer has just touched down in South Africa to compete in the MTB World Cup in Pietermarizburg later this month. Vivienne enjoyed some solid results last year, achieving top10 positions in all the XCO World Cups as well as a 2nd place at the Langkawi International Mountain Bike Challenge. Definitely a rider to look out for in Pietermarizburg

The Team Specialized duo of Burry Stander and Christoph Sauser won the first stage of the 2012 Columbia Grape Escape in a breath-taking photo finish, a split-second ahead of defending champions Kevin Evans and David George of Team 360Life.

The all-women Italian based MTB Pro-Team Colnago-Südtirol will jet into South Africa next week targeting the season-opening RockyRoads UCI MTB World Cup as strategically important in an Olympic year.

The current world champ bronze medallist Eva Lechner and Swiss star Nathalie Schneitter, both former winners on the World Cup circuit and both in the top eight of the UCI World rankings will spearhead the team of athletes.

Cool video from Ultimate X held in Cape Town earlier this month. Mad BMX, FMX, skating and wakeboarding.

World-renowned mountaineer and polar adventurer, Alex Harris, will take up the challenge of riding the legendary Absa Cape Epic – a challenging 781km mountain bike race with 16 300m of climbing. At 25 years of age, Harris was the youngest person ever to lead an expedition to Mount Everest.

With less than a month to go before all the action of the 2012 RockyRoads UCI MTB World Cup season opener in Pietermaritzburg gets underway, cyclists throughout South Africa and around the world are starting to catch what is fast being termed ‘MTB World Cup fever’.