Big mountain bike event this weekend

The Spur Schools MTB League is in full swing and early indications are that the league will quickly reach its target of 10 000 entries for the 2015 season.

The second Spur Eden MTB League event will be presented on Saturday, July 25 at the Montessori School in Knysna, following the first Southern Cape event hosted in George.

After the George event, York High School is top of the leader board with 82 points followed by Glenwood House second with 56 points and High School Langenhoven in third place with 45 points.

Mountain bike fans from across South Africa and neighbours Zimbabwe and Namibia will take to the track in nearly 60 races leading up to the finals at Bekker School in October. The action-packed finals will once again see schools as well as provinces competing for the coveted Spur Schools MTB League Trophy and top spot on the provincial log.

Points shall be awarded to the top 25 positions, while every finisher from position 26 onwards will receive one point. Combined points of all six riders of a school team will determine the school positions. The Eden School Team winners will attend the Western Cape Semi-Finals on September 12 at Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch and the secondary school team winners will attend the national final event.

Saturday’s registration opens at 07:00 at a cost of R360 per school team of six riders and R60 for solo riders. The course will open at 07:30 for training with racing starting at 09:00.

Follow The Spur School MTB League on twitter at @SpurMTBleague, facebookSpurSchoolsLeague or www.spurmtbleague.co.za.

Background
The project was launched in 2009 as a joint initiative between Amarider and Spur Steak Ranches and its humble beginnings saw 900 riders participating in the initial 20 events. Founded by Meurant Botha, Amarider is a national trails advocacy organisation aimed at improving and promoting trail opportunities around Southern Africa.

The Spur Group is widely invested in a number of youth sport development projects that promote a healthy lifestyle with the Spur Schools MTB League considered as the flagship campaign. Other youth initiatives include the Spur Masidlale Soccer League, Spur Adventure Series and the Spur Ironkids Aquathlon.

Although mountain biking is an individual sport, the Spur Schools MTB League aims to promote cycling as a team discipline. Over the past seven years, the league has logged an average 45% year-on-year growth and has successfully increased the footprint of youth MTB cycling in Southern Africa.

A natural progression of the development of the league has been the establishment of South African Schools Cycling (SASC) headed up by Deon Steyn, as a national governing body of the sport. Apart from the further development of regional structures, a major aim of SASC is to lobby with the Department of Education to accredit mountain biking as an official schools sport.•

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