Shopping centre action at debut Gateway Gauntlet MTB

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Tuesday, 12 October 2010 10:02

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Reid and Roberts in epic Gateway Gauntlet battle

James Reid and Luke Roberts battled it out in the final heat of the only MTB event in Africa to take place inside a shopping centre, The Gateway Gauntlet, which took place on Saturday at Gateway Theatre of Shopping.

Reid who won the three lap, 18km long Big Spenders race just ahead of Roberts, was in fine form and it was only in the final heat of the 3km long Gauntlet race that he managed to clinch victory over his challengers. Tyron White who started the final heat as the fastest rider, made a series of small errors, and lost his lead time to make way for Reid to clinch first place, Roberts second and Ellis in third.

The Gateway Gauntlet is the first ever Mountain biking event to start and finish inside a shopping mall in Africa, was the brain child of B-Active Sports in 2009 and took 18 months of planning to transpire. The event comes with its own unique challenges and drawbacks, such as late set up times, managing the general public and limiting Traffic access around and inside Gateway, however with good management and a dedicated management team from B-Active Sports and Gateway, the event was a huge success with hundreds of spectators and 101 competitors taking to the starting line.

The unique MTB course was set by Melville Cycles manager Storm Fergusson, who has put together a number of successful MTB routes for Durban events. The route offered something for everyone, with some challenging tar and cobbled sections and steep descents. There were two chicken run options, where competitors could choose their own route according to their competency. The unique 6km route included pavements, bridges, ramps, cane fields, cobbles, jeep track as well as gravel pathways. The routes went through the gateway 4x4 Track as well as the world Famous Wavehouse and Skate park.  The routes will be changed slightly each year to give the competitors a different yet challenging course.

In the Ladies Big Spender race, it was Joanne Hoyer who clinched victory ahead of Sabrina Ward and Robyn Khoury. The Shorter 2 lap men’s Mall Crawler race was won by Brys Rawlands followed by Timothy Baker and then Tyler O’Connor. The Ladies Mall Crawlers race was won by Melissa Schoeman, followed by Carla Schoeman and then Belinda Schoeman.

Big Spender competitor Leon Ward was the winner of a Giant Trance X4 Duel suspension MTB in the GIANT pre-entry draw. Leon who did the Big Spender race, proudly walked away with this bike valued at R13,000.

The Gateway Gauntlet event donated R5,000 in hay bales to the Durban SPCA and presenting sponsor Thule committed to a further R1,000 donation towards the SPCA. So not only the MTB animals benefited from the running of the Gauntlet.

Next year's race is scheduled to take place in September with the event becoming bigger and better. There will be a number of improvements and additions to the 2011 event, so look out for the event details at www.thegauntlet.co.za