The second big event of this year's PicknPay Knysna Oyster festival saw Team Abantu win the 109km Momentum Weekend Argus Knysna Cycle Tour on Sunday.
Nolan Hoffman won in a time of 2:43:57 with teammate Reynard Butler a close second and Stefan Ihlenfeldt was placed third, recording a time which was just milliseconds behind the two leaders.
According to a statement Hoffman said he was delighted with his win. "I've done this race many times before and I know exactly where the finish is and I positioned myself quite well. I managed to snuck onto the inside of the group and started my sprint as I exited the turn and just put my head down and went flat out for the line. Luckily for me today I had the legs to do a good sprint so I'm super happy."
Defending ladies champion Anriettte Schoeman overcame some medical hurdles to beat Lise Olivier (2:58:31) and Carmen Buchacher (2:58:32) with a time of 2:58:30, said that she was really grateful for today's victory.
"Health-wise I've had a tough year and I had to dig deep. This is my first proper race since Argus - after the Cape Epic I had a bit of an iron deficiency and then I fell on a MTB race and had to have an operation to remove a devil thorn from my hand two weeks ago and I still have stitches, so I'm really grateful for this win.
Meanwhile, Theo Blignaut won the Knysna Dragons Lagoon Mile Swim in a time of 22:20 to leave him neck and neck with Stuart Marais in the BIG5 Sport Challenge with 167 points each.
Dean Hopf is lying third with 162 points.
Blignaut said that he knew that he was "a better swimmer than Stu" and was lucky to have his training partner from Maties, Stephano Roodt, swimming with him.
"Normally he would whip me in the pool but in open water I have some skill. We tried to get away from each other the whole way but we couldn't and then out the water I'm a triathlete so I can run better than a fish!," he quipped.
Theo Blignaut and Carla van Huysteen with Ryk Neethling in Knysna.
(Pic and statement: Supplied)
