The 125th Paarl Boxing day track cycling challenge took place at the Faure street stadium, Paarl, on Tuesday 26 December.
This track cycling event started in 1897 with the open 25-mile race being the most prestigious event on the program. The winner of this races gets their name engraved on the Minnaar trophy that dates back to 1908.
90 riders participated this year ranging in categories from under 11 scholars to masters.
The elite field saw the professional rider, Jonas Rickaert, from Belgium lining up on the start line along side the top local track riders. He took top honours by winning the 25-mile and was also awarded the top rider of the day trophy.
Jonas Rickaert wins the 25-mile race. Photo Marc Pentz
Track cyclists from across South Africa are ready to race at Maximum Velocity 7. This is the final event at Bellville velodrome before the national track cycling championships.
It takes place on the Cape Town Cycle Tour weekend. This allows visiting riders the chance to an outing on the track on Friday, 10 Nov, before the Cycle Tour.
The program is fast and action packed. It features a sprint invitation, a team pursuit and and endurance competition.
The sprint event is by invitation and these riders will entertain the crowds in a match sprint tournament.
The endurance events are there to sharpen the skills before the national championship. It features technical events such as the points, scooter scratch and elimination races. Riders in the Cape are familiar with the scooter scratch. This is an endurance race where the scooter paces the riders for a set amount of laps while they rotate. Riders may only sit behind the scooter for 1 lap. The scooter pulls of with a few laps to go and then it is a scratch race from there.
Spectator entry is free. There will be coffee and food on sale at the event.
Entries close on Tuesday, 7 March 2023. No late entries.
Sign-on and number collection closes at 6.30pm on race night. Racing starts at 7pm and finishes at 10pm.
The first of nine Western Province (WP) league events took place at Bellville velodrome on Wednesday, 1 June.
The event featured an invitation sprint tournament, Category A, Category B, Women’s, veterans and scholars racing.
Team events are back at the league and the program started with team sprints.
DSV took the team sprint win ahead of the ASAP team. TrackCyclingSA was third and Active Bodies sport development was fourth.
The league features a sprint tournament where invited sprinters do battle for the sprint trophy. Jordan September (Kinetic Pro) started the sprint tournament with a win in the keirin and then also set the fastest flying 200m qualifying time. The 3-up match sprint final delivered a surprise. Duwayne Adams (DSV) jumped and held off both Jordan September and Wade Theunissen (Enza) for a convincing match sprint win. Jordan heads the sprint tournament going in to the next round.
Category A racing started with a 30-lap tempo race which was won by Jonathan Bouwer (Kinetic pro) at and average speed of 47.3 km/h. The next event was a surprise since the fans voted for it. The riders only heard that it was an elimination scratch when they lined up at the start. It was “bell, off”, “bell, off” unitl 4 riders remained. The 4 riders then had a 4-lap scratch. Linwell Jansen (Enza) took it long to take the win. The final category A event was a 25-lap scratch race and Jonathan Bouwer (Kinetic Pro) was victorious. Jonathan finished on top of the Category A standings at the end of the night.
Maroesjka Matthee (Reach for Rainbows) took a hat-trick in the Women’s events by winning the 4-lap, 6-lap and tempo races.
Theo Williams (DSV) is leading the Category B field after victories in the 8-lap and tempo races.
Timothy Mell (Phoenix) leads the veterans category.
Western Province cycling is hosting a 9-event track league at Bellville velodrome. The league runs from May to December. The first event is on Tuesday, 31 May 2022.
There will be racing for all categories. Category racing will count towards individual results. The team events will determine the top team at the end of the series.
The top clubs and racing teams in the province will compete for the top team trophy. Points scored in each team event will determine which team will be victorious.
Note that the event of Tuesday 12 July was moved. It is now on Friday, 16 September . This was to make provision for the African continental champs that moved out as well as for the Youth festival. (edited on 30 May 2022)
The sprint tournament at Maximum Velocity 6 saw 10 riders competing on an omnium basis. The event took place on Tue 15 Mar 2022 at Bellville velodrome.
The top 6 riders scored points in the following events:
Flying 200m
Match sprint
Keirin A final
Flying 200m results
Burton Witbooi set the fastest flying 200m time at 11.57s. Jordan September who is a junior was not far behind in 2nd place at 11.76s
Here are the other times:
3. Wade Theunissen 11.82
4. Graeme Ockhuis 12.09
5. Duwayne Adams 12.2
6. Oswin Booysen 12.36
7. Hendrik Grobbelaar 12.57
8. Gavin Cannone 12.58
9. Dirk van Zyl 12.65
10. Matthew Ferguson 12.96
The flying 200m efforts were followed by the match sprints, but first Dirk van Zyl and Matthew Ferguson had to ride a 2-up sprint to determine who goes through to the 3-up sprints. Dirk kicked hard in the back straight on the final lap and opened up a gap for a solid win in 12.61s
Results of 3-up sprints:
P3,4 & 5 from the qualifyers 3-up result:
Graeme Ockhuis 13.17
Wade Theunissen
Duwayne Adams
P2,6 & 7 from the qualifyers 3-up result:
Jordan September 12.08
Oswin Booysen
Hendrik Grobbelaar
P1, 8 from 200m & winner of the 2-up sprint
Burton Witbooi 12.16
Dirk van Zyl
Gavin Cannone
The winners of the 3-up sprints then proceeded to ride for P1-3 in the match sprint. The 2nd placed riders rode for P4-6 and the 3 riders for P7-9.
P7-9
Duwayne Adams 12.29
Hendrik Grobbelaar
Gavin Cannone
P4-6
Wade Theunessen 12.39
Oswin Booysen
Dirk van Zyl
P1-3
Jordan September 11.99
Graeme Ockhuis
Burton Witbooi
P6-9 and Matthew Ferguson rode in the Keirin B final
Duwayne Adams
Gavin Cannone
Matthew Ferguson
Hendrik Grobbelaar
P1-6 rode in the keirin A-final
Wade Theunissen
Jordan September
Oswin Booysen
Dirk van Zyl
Greame Ockhuis
Burton Witbooi DNS (technical after being dropped by holder on the line)
Final Sprint tournament points
Jordan September 22
Wade Theunissen 17
Burton Witbooi 14
Graeme Ockhuis 11
Oswin Booysen 7
Dirk van Zyl 4
Duwayne Adams 2
Gavin Cannone 0
Hendrik Grobbelaar 0
Matthew Ferguson 0
Position of riders on equal points was determined by who finished the best in the keirin.
TrackCyclingSA club will host the Maximum Velocity track classic at Bellvlle velodrome. The event takes place on Tuesday 15 March 2022 at 7pm.
Maximum Velocity 6 makes a welcome comeback after the event took a break over the past few years.
The club has pulled out all the stops to make it a memorable event. There will be a sprint invitational race featuring Wade Theunissen, Duwayne Adams, Jordan September, Burton Witbooi, Dirk van Zyl and Hendrik Grobbelaar.
Wade Theunissen will be spearheading the invitation sprint competition. Photo by Rudie Kellerman
Category A racing will be fast with the elimination scratch and scooter scratch races being the highlights. U17 boys and cat B will race together to help the u17s to prep for national champs.
The women’s racing at Maximum Velocity is always top class and there is a separate women’s category.
Who will triumph at MV6?
Innovation is key and Maximum Velocity will bring something new to the veterans 30+ racing with masters 50+ receiving a handicap advantage.
Veteran’s racing is well supported at Bellville velodrome
Scholars are important for the future and there is a full program for the youngsters. Their program and price giving finishes a bit earlier since it is a school night.
Pre-entries close on Friday 11 March 2022.
There are limited spots, but late entries will be accepted on the line where we still have space available.