Raleigh Riding High at 2007 Mazda Mountain Bike Series 

Raleigh’s primary goal with its mountain bike team is to dominate the endurance events in South Africa, by far the most popular category of mountain biking. In fact, that’s the main reason Stewart and Swanepoel were added to the 2007 Raleigh MTN Energade team following their impressive performances in the 2006 Series where Stewart finished second and Swanepoel fourth. Between them, the four riders won seven out of the 10 Mazda Series events last year.

The Mazda Series is South Africa’s largest mountain bike series attracting an average of 15000 riders a year. The Series uses 10 of the country’s top races, offering points and prize money and most significantly, plenty of TV coverage. It is the strong TV presence that has largely led to the Series becoming so popular and prestigious in its short six-year existence. And at an average value of R30000 per minute, the TV exposure has provided an excellent platform for sponsors like Raleigh.

“We’re very content with the team’s performances so far,” said Brandon Els, Probike Managing Director. “We’ve always placed our emphasis with Raleigh on the endurance market because of its popularity so it’s important that our riders deliver in the Mazda Series.”

Kevin Evans has had to replace his South African champion colours to wear the orange Series leader’s jersey at the Mazda Series events this year.	The the lead group at the Mazda Forest to Falls in Graskop comprises Burry Stander, who is following Kevin Evans (in orange) with Mannie Heymans and Melt Swanepoel on the flank. Numerical supremacy of Raleigh MTN Energade team riders has become the norm at the front of the major endurance events this year.

The fact that Evans is already leading the Series is actually a bonus since the 29-year-old shifted his focus somewhat at the beginning of the year, adding cross-country racing to his marathon/endurance schedule. Cross-country is an Olympic discipline and the race for selection to represent the country at the 2008 Beijing Games has become fierce.

However, while Evans has been the leading Elite rider in local cross-country racing this year, he’s been forced into a supporting role in his Olympic qualification quest by the superb performances of Mr Price GT’s Under-23 star, Burry Stander.

“Burry’s has had a fantastic season so far and has shown that he should be South Africa’s first choice rider for Beijing,” said Els. “However, Kevin’s efforts at accumulating UCI cross-country points won’t do South Africa any harm since they’ll be added together with Burry’s to determine how many start places the country will get at the Olympics. Who knows, if things continue to go well this year, they could both be on start line in Beijing!”

The next leg of the Mazda Series is the Mazda Big Induna in Hazyview, Mpumalanga on 16 June. This event doubles at the 2007 marathon championships, which will see the Raleigh MTN Energade riders out in full force as usual with Evans particularly intent on defending his SA title.

The Mazda Mountain Bike Series events for 2007: