Nico Bell (Westvaal/Bell Cycles), who is currently the top rider on the KIA Mountain Bike rankings, has proven that consistency does pay off.
Hardly a weekend has gone by without Bell achieving a top-ten finish in some race. A definite highlight for the rider from Nelspruit was when he won the MTN Rooiberg ultra-marathon. This was his first ever victory in what is known as the ‘hard men’s series’.
He also won the three-day Sani2C stage race (with Max Knox (EAI Solutions/Specialized) as his partner) and was victorious in the Nissan TrailSeeker Hazeldean marathon. In both the South African Marathon Championship at Hazyview and the MTN Sabie ultra-race Bell came ‘oh-so-close’ to winning. He finished second in both races, but with a little bit of luck he could have won both.
It is, of course, no surprise that Knox is currently the second-best rider on the KIA Rankings. During the month of May he totally dominated the series by achieving four consecutive victories in four consecutive weekends.
His victory streak started when he won the MTN Clarens ultra-race. He continued by winning the MTN Gravel Travel, which was followed by victories in the Sani2C (with Bell as partner) and the national cross-country race at Rietvlei, just outside Johannesburg. Knox also won the MTN Barberton ultra-race.
The third ranked rider on the KIA rankings, Lourens Luus (RE:CM), can only be described as impressive. At 22 he is by far the youngest rider this season to achieve a top-three finish in a MTN National MTB Series ultra-race.
Luus came second at Tulbach and Wellington, as well as in the Attakwas ultra-race. In June he and Waylon Woolcock won the three-day RE:CM Knysna 200. Another good result for Luus was when he finished second overall in the Joburg2C.
The rest of the top-ten riders on the KIA Rankings are:
4. Charles Keey (Cannondale/Blend Properties);
5. Matthys Beukes (Scott);
6. Waylon Woolcock (RE:CM);
7. Gawie Combrinck (Westvaal/Bell Cycles);
8. Darren Lill (Cannondale/Blend Properties);
9. Neil MacDonald (FedGroup-Itec);
10. Brandon Stewart (FedGroup-Itec).
The top-five ranked women riders are:
1. Ariane Kleinhans (RE:CM);
2. Robyn de Groot (Need Sponsor);
3. Samantha Sanders (Valencia);
4. Ischen Stopforth (Bizhub);
5. Yolandi du Toit (Bizhub).
For the complete rankings go to www.kiarankings.co.za
The organizers of all mountain bike races are encouraged to register their respective events for the KIA rankings.
Find us online: www.kiarankings.co.za
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How it works
Since the end of 2009 SASeeding have compiled over 500 race results into a Seeding structure for seeding over 36000 participants. We have now linked to the same race results to generate the first accurate ranking system for mountain bike person’s events in Southern Africa.
The KIA SA Ranking MTB system is directly linked to the SAS Seeding engine. Using the result’s from all the participants, we compare the performance of each participant and create one list in order of each person’s results for that year.
This list is sorted and numbered 1 – 36000 (currently) including all categories, genders etc.
I think the ranking system is an outstanding idea and has really fired my mates up. HAHA! Any how, I was looking for my wife and despite doing many events listed she doesn't appear on the list. No big deal but would love to see her rank. Why would that be?