12 Jun 2017

Spot Africa team riders Timothy Hammond and Derrin Smith won the 240km Kalahari Challenge 2017 mountain bike cycling event held near Gaborone over the weekend.

The men’s category winners clocked a total time of over 10 hours and 18 minutes (10.18.13) creating daylight distance between themselves and the second placed Lefty Boys riders BK Bokamoso and Pontsho Makana, who clocked 12.06.14.

The women’s category was won by Galileo Risk Valencia duo Samantha Sanders and Theresa Ralph, with an impressive time of 10.58.14, while Scania Ladies Botswana represented by Ashlee van Tonder and Comine Bruwer came second with 13.41.09.

In the men’s field, third spot went to Old Dog and Young Buck duo Richard Hawkins and Jonathan Hawkins.

Local teams Stanbic 1 (Lebonetse Mokgwe and Boikhutho Matebu) as well as Symphony Health (Othata Pelotona and Laone Raboloko) came third and fourth respectively in the men’s category.

The Kalahari Challenge, which attracts local and international, mostly South African riders has a 240km long route, including 2.4km of climbing over the hilly terrain between the Lion Park to the south of Gaborone and the Mogobane and Ntlhantlhe hills further south.

The race was held over three days. Day one (June 9) saw the bikers traversing a 91 km route, before taking a further 76km the following day before concluding the race with an additional 73km on June 11.

Both Spot Riders and Galileo Risk were already having an healthy lead after the first day, clocking 03.50.18 and 04.10.27 respectively, further building their lead over the second day, before comfortably emerging triumphant on the third day. ENDS