Cycling South Africa is delighted to welcome Red Bull as an official partner to the South African Mountain Bike National Series for 2012.

Mike Bradley, National Director of Mountain Biking, is super excited about the sponsorship and welcomes Red Bull to the National scene: “Cross-country (XCO) and especially Downhill racing, are the more extreme and technical aspects of the sport, as was witnessed at this year’s opening round of the UCI MTB World Cup in Pietermaritzburg.”

Red Bull will be supporting the remaining 3 events in the series as well as the SA XCO and DHI Championships to be held at Mankele MTB Park (in Mpumalanga) in July.

The widely anticipated Elite Men’s cross country race of the 2012 RockyRoads UCI MTB World Cup Pietermaritzburg delivered all the action, drama and excitement as expected with world number two Nino Schurter (Scott-Swisspower MTB Racing Team) of Switzerland edging out local hero Burry Stander (Specialized Racing) to claim the spoils in the season opener at Cascades MTB Park.

The world’s best mountain bikers spent a scorching hot day getting to grips with the cross country and downhill courses on the first official training day for the 2012 RockyRoads UCI MTB World Cup Pietermaritzburg that starts today (Friday).

Local downhill star Andrew Neethling posted the second fastest run in the afternoon time straining session, four seconds quicker than world champ Danny Hart, with the day’s fastest time being laid down by Frenchman Cedric Garcia, while the fastest woman on the day was Sabrina Jonnier (FRA).

The cross-country course for the 2012 RockyRoads UCI MTB World Cup Pietermaritzburg hosted its first competition at the weekend, the Momentum Health XCO Internationals, and afterwards the general consensus was that it’s a step up on the 2011 course.

“The guys have found it to be a better course than last year, with more overtaking, shorter climbs, and more technical challenges,” said course designer Nick Floros.

This weekend sees the opening round of the 2012 RockyRoads UCI MTB World Cup Pietermaritzburg presented by Shimano, from 16th to 18th March at Cascades MTB Park.

With riders earning UCI points in the three Momentum Health XCO Internationals, held in KwaZulu-Natal preceding the World Cup, our local SA riders are starting to climb the rankings and move South Africa closer to final qualification for the 2012 London Olympics.

Beijing Olympians Burry Stander and Yolande Speedy showed that four years later they’re still South Africa’s top mountain bike racers in the Olympic Cross-Country (XCO) discipline, winning the Elite men and women’s races respectively at the opening round of the 2012 South African National Cup Series in Durbanville, near Cape Town on Saturday.

South African mountain bikers participating in the cross-country (XCO) and downhill (DHI) disciplines will be making their way to Cape Town in February for the first round of the national series.

The SA XCO and DHI Series gives riders around the country the opportunity to compete against one another in these disciplines, and provides SA Mountain Biking the chance to see the best of the best in action, and how they handle the competition on the different courses in varying conditions. This process assists SA MTB in selecting the best possible team to represent SA at the MTB World Championships.