Crank attended the UCI African Continental Champs in Jonkershoek on Saturday. The riders were met with stifling hot conditions and a super technical 4km course designed by Chris Nixon. We got there just in time to see Yolande Speedy win the Elite ladies race with Samantha Sanders in 2nd and Yolandi Du Toit in 3rd.

The elite men got underway at 2pm and had a grueling 7 laps to look forward to. On the first lap I was standing on the first technical uphill section, roughly 1.5km into the lap. Renay Goustra had a flying start and led Burry Stander, Marc Bassingthwaighte and Philip Buys through the section. On lap 2 it was Burry coming through first, 1 minute ahead of Marc and Philip. From here on it was Burry showing his class by extending his lead all the way to the end with Marc and Philip consolidating their positions on the podium.

Burry Stander

Also having a solid race was the evergreen Mannie Heymans (Namibia) and Adrien Niyonshuti (Rwanda). Erik Kleinhans also showed some good speed and finished strongly. Renay Goustra had some bad luck with 2 punctures that ended his chances.

The u23 race was a tightly contested race with James Reid taking the African title. This was a great result considering that this was his first race as an u.23-rider. He was hounded all the way by Dominic Calitz, Adriaan Louw and Rourke Croeser.

James Reid wins

Full results here

Check out some of the pics that Rob Glimour took for us.