#TuksCycling: Tuks riders can cause an upset during the Varsity Mountain Bike-event

Posted on October 24, 2019

Andries Nigrini has already helped TuksCycling achieved two breakthroughs this year, but his campaign in the "Striped jersey" is far from finished.

He has now set his sights set on helping Tuks win a Varsity Mountain Bike title for the first time. Judging by how things have gone so far he Antonie Joubert might succeed in doing so. 

In an exciting new development, the Varsity Mountain Bike-race now forms part of the FNB Wines2Whales Pinotage event. It is a three-day stage race from Lourensford to Hermanus.  All indications are that is going to be a cold, muddy and wet battle from start to finish. To complicate things, even more, they will be challenged by some steep technical climbs.

All of this does not faze Nigrini as he believes the conditions are the same for everyone. According to him, controlling the controllable is what it is going to boil down. The biggest challenge facing the Tuks riders will be to ensure they don't have significant wipeout during any of the stages. 

Mountain bike stage racing is all about teamwork which literally means it is one for all and all for one. If one rider has a setback, it is a setback for both. 

The past weekend without really planning to do so Nigrini and Joubert ended up finishing second and third during a USN-race. According to them, it was a great confidence booster.

According to Joubert he and Nigrini complement each other as riders. 

"Andries is the strong one who loves nothing more than to challenge himself against climbs. It does not matter how steep it gets Andries will relentlessly keep grinding it out until he reaches the top. 

"I am technical more astute. I start coming to my own when the route becomes tricky and slightly dangerous," explains Joubert who as junior once finished third in a World Cup Cross Country-race. 

Apart from Tuks teams from Maties, UCT, Madibaz, Northwest and TUT will be competing. Michael Sutton and Mornè Hollander will be trying to defend the title Maties won in 2017. Brendan van Eeden (Northwest) is tipped as a rider to watch. 

Nigrini's first breakthrough moment for TuksCycling was during the South African Road Cycling Championships in Pretoria when he won a bronze medal in the under-23 individual time trial. It is hard to remember when last a men's rider from Tuks managed to medal at a national championship.

Nigrini was equally as impressive during the USSA Championships in and around Stellenbosch. He was instrumental in helping his teammate,  Alex Worsdale, won the coveted yellow jersey in the individual competition. The last time a Tuks rider managed to do so was in 2014. Nigrini could have finished second if he had not fallen back to see if Worsdale was OK after he had crashed. In the end, he was third.

Michelle Benson and Tanya Kotze will be representing Tuks in the women's competition. They are tipped for a podium finish.

During the last Varsity Competition, both Tuks's men's and women's teams were second. 

 

 

- Author Wilhelm de Swardt

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