Alan Hatherly and Hayley Preen started their 2026 seasons with commanding victories at the Momentum Medical Scheme Attakwas Extreme, presented by Biogen. Mossel Bay Advertiserreportsthe 120km race from Chandelier Game Lodge, near Oudtshoorn, to Pine Creek Resort in Great Brak (affectionately known as the ‘Hell of the South’) featured a revised route that lent itself to faster times, aided by cool weather on Saturday. Dryland Event Management estimated that removing two infamously rocky climbs within the first 40km would keep riders on their bikes rather than forcing them to run, and significantly speed up the course.
For the UCI Men, the expectation was that the changes would make the race about 15 minutes faster, though this proved conservative. Or perhaps Hatherly and company simply delivered the best traverse of the Attakwaskloof in the event’s 20-year history. “I think the smoother opening kilometres helped us stay fresh longer,” Marc Pritzen, who played a key role in the race, speculated.
“Last year we went hard on the climbs and then sat up; this year we kept a consistent pace all the way to the start of the King of the Mountain climb,” Hatherly noted. This led to a blistering opening 40km. “Normally, if we went hard, it would take us an hour 45 to 1:50 to the first feed zone,” Tristan Nortje added.
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“This year, we were there in under 90 minutes, and it didn’t feel like we were going that hard.” That water point was moved 10km earlier, to the 40km mark, and just before it Nortje suffered a puncture. “I felt my front wheel going slowly soft, then knocked the rim on a corner, and I knew I had to stop. Initially, I couldn’t find the hole; I had to bomb it, then plug it, and then stop at the feed zone for a new wheel.” Nortje left the feed zone two minutes behind the front group and would not see the race leaders again.
“Before I knew it, we were nearing the top of the climb into the Attakwaskloof,” Pritzen recalled. “I had told myself I wouldn’t sprint for the King of the Mountain Hotspot, but when I accelerated, and nobody came with me, I decided to go for it. It didn’t seem like we had a gap, but over the top, there were suddenly only four of us in the lead group.” Punctures behind may have contributed to the split.
Andreas Seewald punctured early in the descent but limited his losses. “It was a first race of the year mistake,” the European Marathon Champion admitted. “But fortunately, it didn’t cost me too much energy, and I was able to catch the leaders again.” Pritzen led Hatherly, Wessel Botha and Travis Stedman into the Attakwaskloof, but a crash ended Stedman’s challenge.
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