Andrew Neethling

Press Release: Feb

Andrew Neethling (Trek) clearly thrives on pressure, a fact he confirmed on Sunday when he secured a thrilling victory at the second round of the MTN National Cup downhill mountain bike event at Mankele in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa.

Riders each get two runs at South African downhill races, and their fastest of the two determines their final position. That was the format used on the technical 1.8km course through some rugged, lush bushveld terrain, which included rock gardens, bridges, jumps, berms and tight switchbacks.

Neethling, winner of Round 1 in Stellenbosch last month and strong favourite to win Round 2 on Sunday, clocked a time of 2min09.27sec for his first run, a performance which most felt was good enough to take the early lead and put his rivals under pressure for the second round of competition. But fellow Capetonian, Johann Potgieter (Cannondale), eclipsed Neethling with a time of 2:08.56, setting the scene for an exciting finale.

“I usually use the first run as a ‘feeler’ run but felt that time was pretty good on such a tight, short course which leaves no room for error,” explained Neethling afterwards.

The 2007 national champion, widely regarded as one of the classiest downhillers in the world, then showed his ability to perform under pressure when he set the course on fire with his second run, clocking a snappy 2:04.54 which Potgieter and the others were unable able to better.

“Johann really forced me to wake up for the second run. I’m pretty much expected to win when I race in South Africa and I try my very best to live up to those expectations. It feels really good to get a second win so early in the year. It gives me a confident start to the season and it is great exposure for my new team, Trek.”

Neethling finished 11th overall in the 2008 UCI Nissan World Cup and began a new contract with the Trek international racing team last month. He’s one of a crop of talented downhillers from Cape Town, four of whom secured the top four places overall on Sunday.

Potgieter’s first run gave him second place with Gary Barnard (Fox Morewood) third, Jonty Neethling (Fox Morewood) fourth and 2008 national junior champion, Hayden Brown (Mongoose), rounding out the top five.

Rika Olivier, winner of Round 1, sustained an injury in a practice session crash and had to sit out Sunday’s action giving Vicky Phillips (Fox) a path of less resistance to capture the victory with a solid first run time of 3:10.75.

Round 3 of the MTN National Cup Series, in association with MiWay, takes place in George on 14 and 15 March, and doubles as the national championships. For full results from Round 2 and more information, visit www.cyclesport.co.za

MTN National Cup in association with MiWay
Downhill – Round 2
Mankele, Mpumalanga
Leading results
MEN
Overall
1 Andrew Neethling ¬– Trek 2min04.54sec
2 Johann Potgieter – Cannondale 2:08.56
3 Gary Barnard – Fox Morewood 2:10.18
4 Jonty Neethling – Fox Morewood 2:11.64
5 Hayden Brown – Mongoose 2:11.65

Pics: Gary Perkins

SUNDAY 11 JANUARY 2009

NEETHLING SAVOURS HOMETOWN VICTORY

Cape Town’s Andrew Neethling (Trek) responded well to hometown pressure when he won the first round of mountain biking’s MTN National Cup Series downhill event in Stellenbosch, South Africa on Sunday.

Neethling, who ended 2008 at 14th on the UCI world rankings and who finished 11th in the 2008 UCI World Cup, clocked a time of two minutes and 11.34 seconds for the fast, narrow descent through the forests of Jonkershoek.

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Canberra Australia

Mongoose’s Andrew Neethling has traveled to more places over the last few racing seasons than most would ever dream of. He has been all over Europe, North and South America and is from South Africa so it was interesting to find out that he had never been to Australia which was the sixth stop of the UCI World Cup gravity MTB schedule. While planning for the trip to Oz Mongoose team manager Steve Spencer and the teams Euro’ Master Mechanic Mark Maurissen decided to team up with Andrew to get into Australia a few days early to take in the sites which is something the team doesn’t get to do much in their whirlwind travels to international races. Upon their arrival they were quickly reminded that it was winter time in the southern hemisphere. Their shorts and t-shirts were quickly swapped out for long pants and hoodies. The boys spent a few days north of Sydney in Manly Beach and got to do some surfing and shopping. They also had the good fortune of hooking up with Richard Button who is the dad of Australian Mongoose support rider Josh Button. “Skipper” Rich picked up the boys at Manly Wharf and took them on a tour of Sydney Harbor with stops at the famous Sydney Opera House and Sydney Bridge. On the way back to Manly Wharf Rich decided to anchor up the boat in a cove and baited up the boys for some fishing where TM Steve was the only one lucky enough to hook a fish. During the last night in Manly Needles and Steve decided to jump into a poker tournament where Andrew bested a large field of competitors to get 2nd place and $300.00, a sign of good things to come.

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Whistler B.C. Canada

The Crankworx Festival is in the history books and WOW! what an event.  Great weather, great crowds and amazing mountain to ride all day.

Whistler Crankworx decided to put on a Giant Slalom which was a longer slalom than normal which has riders riding head to head down a amazingly groomed slalom track. Qualifying didn’t go to well with a big mistake in my second run putting me in 11th spot. I knew I would have my work cut out in the finals. I advanced to the round of 16 but met up against a very strong Bmxer/4x rider Joost Wichman.. It was close in the first heat but I ran out of legs in the 2nd run, thus getting knocked out. I was a bummed but knew I had one more event that would suit me a little bit better… the Canadian Open of Downhill.

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Bromont, Canada
The mid-summer swing of the UCI MTB World Cup series drops off the Mongoose squad outside of Montreal, Canada in lush green town of Bromont, Canada. The landscape coming into Bromont appears to be rather flat but along the way there are molehill-like mountains speckled along the south eastern border of Canada. Don’t let the “mile-hill” reference fool you though as the mountain in Bromont has all of the steepness and technicality of any downhill course found in the world.

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Pic: Martin

Mont Sainte Anne, Canada
The World Cup circus took a four week break from racing after the World Champs which were held in Italy.  Many riders headed home for a much needed break. It was great to make the trip back home and prepare for the fourth round of the UCI World Cup Series in Mont Sainte Anne, Canada.  The race is a favorite for many riders as its a true test of downhill with a + 4min 30 sec track.  It has a great mixture of fast open sections on the ski slopes and tight rocky rooty sections in the woods. It had been raining a fair bit and the course was very wet and muddy. Practice was very tricky with deep ruts forming in the open muddy bits.
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Willingen, Wheels of Speed World Downhill Challenge

Many riders took a week off after Fort William WC but I decided to join a couple of the top riders at the Wheels of Speed World Downhill Challenge. The event is an invite event with the organizers really looking after the riders. The world cup track of 2005 and 2006 is used for this event. It is quite a different course being only 2mins and being made up of man made DH sized jumps, fast rock gardens and fun turns…
Practice was really fun and it was nice break from the World Cup circuit. All the riders got together for some intense indoor go karts as well.

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Vallnord, Andorra . The Mongoose team flew into Barcelona, Spain after racing the US Open in New Jersey. We packed all the things into the van and got on with the 3 hour drive to Andorra which is a small country between Spain and France.  The drive reminded us all of Utah with red rocky formations all around. The scenery was breathtaking as we entered Andorra.  From what we heard Andorra has a population of +- 70,000 people and home to Commencal Bicycles, with Cedric Gracia having moved here 6 yrs ago.   (more…)

Vernon, New Jersey

Mongoose’s downhill ace Andrew Neethling spends most of his season meandering around Europe on the World Cup mountain bike tour but one of the most hotly contested downhill events of the season takes place on US soil in of all places, New Jersey. Just because mountains don’t come to mind when you think of New Jersey doesn’t mean that they don’t have some serious elevation drops. The Diablo Freeride Park in Vernon is the home of the US Open of downhill racing and the place is an amusement park for mountain bikes. The hill offers miles of trails that are littered with jumps, berms, ladders, wall rides and rocks and offers trail riding for all abilities. With a hospitable staff, great terrain and mild weather it had the makings for a great weekend of racing.

Andrew had just returned from Lisbon Portugal after competing in the Lisbon Downtown race which is very different from the courses he races on during the season which is good for a little variety but Andrew prefers the gnarly, technical, steep and fast downhill courses.

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Lisbon Downtown, 17^th may 2008:

The ninth annual Lisbon Downtown race was held on Saturday 17^th May. A packed field took to the infamous cobblestone stairways winding down the old city of Lisbon, Portugal. The race way different to the normal DH Race we do and was a mixture of slippery tight coble turns, car jumps, and huge stair cases. Tons of spectators and old ladies hanging their washing with it dripping on the course are things to look out for on the course.Team GT team member Bryn Atkinson and I embarked on the city of Lousa, Portugal for some training before Lisbon. There were so many trails to pick from. We were shown around by the locals and did so many downhill runs that after 2 days we were feeling it. The Lisbon race is run on a tight schedule. All the riders walk the track on Friday evening and get shown where the track will be marked. (more…)