Red Bull Cape Town Man
Red Bull Cape Town Man
22.11.2005
As well as having won the prestigious title of Red Bull Cape Town Man the team walks away with US$ 10,000.
'It was really hard race, harder even than the Red Bull Dolomiten Mann,' said Peter Presslauer, mountain biker for Team Leingruber Personal. 'For us it was very, very hot. Back home it is now about 5 degrees and there is snow. The course was great, very technical, riding through the city had danger and it was very exciting.'
'The international teams have dominated all the way,' said Race Director Dezroy Poole. 'But it's been very close. The top SA mountain biker came in 11th, but he was just six minutes behind the leader. Lieuwe Boonstra, a top South African triathlete did a world-class run and his team Intel placed fourth overall was the first SA team to finish.'
Leingruber Personal only took the lead during the mountain run. Sid Taberlay of Team Australia came first in the mountain biking leg after a fast 36km on tar and dirt. Kicking off the race with a mass start at Sunset Beach on western seaboard of Cape Town the mountain bikers raced through the working harbour, into the busy city centre and the historic Cape Castle of Good Hope before hitting the dirt on a very technical course that zigzagged over the lower slopes of Table Mountain and up Devil's Peak before speeding back to Transition 1 at Deer Park. Taberlay tagged his team mountain runner Ben du Bois after approximately 1 hour 10 minutes in the saddle. Peter Presslauer, mountain biker for the winning team came 4th in the mountain biking, but was just one minute behind Taberlay. 'For our runner one minute behind was no problem, he's the World Champion mountain runner and when he got to the top of Table Mountain he was several minutes ahead.'
It was 15 minutes into the run that Team Leingruber Personal took and retained the lead as New Zealander Jonathan Wyatt powered past the other athletes. Wyatt was a hot contender to win this leg having recently won both the World Championship Mountain Run and the running leg of Dolomiten Mann (brother event to Red Bull Cape Town Man). He completed the grueling 12km race in 1 hour 6 minutes and 5 seconds but he admits that even he didn't run up the steepest parts of Table Mountain. 'It was a difficult course, a real mountain race.' Wyatt found the route very beautiful but the conditions challenging. 'At one point it was 39 degrees in the shade in Platteklip Gorge,' said Mountain Running Discipline Director Chris Goldschmidt. 'The guys really suffered in the heat.' The running route traversed the lower slopes of Table Mountain before heading toward Devil's Peak, up Oppels Kop then crossing a precipice to reach Saddle Rock then going back towards the cable way and heading straight back up Platteklip Gorge. In total the runners ascended 1000 metres on the 12 km route, 600metre of which was Platteklip Gorge itself.
With Wyatt's lead Leingruber Personal's paraglider Christian Amon was first to get the virtual tag and set from Signal Hill, running and carrying his gear to the launch site on Lion's Head. It took him just 24 minutes 30 seconds to complete the run and the fly down to the Finish at La Med.
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