Track cycling had an exciting weekend with the Central Gauteng Provincial Championships held at Hector Norris Park, Johannesburg. 

With the championships being open to all provinces, the riding was truly of superb quality and extremely entertaining to watch.  Encouraging to see was the increasing number of professional riders responding to national manager Tony Harding’s call to supplement the road with track racing.

With Microsoft rider Malcolm Lange and the Exel and Tuks riders competing against the well-established track riders, the gauntlet was in the air for exciting riding.

The eight SA records that were shattered reflected the extreme quality of the racing.  One of the outstanding performances of the championships came from Annerine Wenhold who bettered 2 long standing Elite woman records - first in the in the and 500m time trial (37.58s) following it up with the 200m flying start (12.20s).  She also came within hundreds of a second of the 500m world record in her age category.

Annerine truly dominated the ladies field by taking gold in 6 events. This is no small feat, as she was up against the likes of Anel Wasserman (Pursuit SA Record holder) and Ronel van Wyk (Elite Road Champion).

Anel continue her clear dominance in the Pursuit by outracing Ronel for the Gold. However, in the points race, Ronel turned the tables by taking the win (18 pts) with Anel in close second (14pts).

One of the most exciting races of the championships was the 40 lap Madison.  Gary Rabie and Liam de Roche shattered the field to claim a well deserved win in front of the Exel duo that included Nolan Hoffman. 

Excellent riding also came from Dennis van Niekerk (Exel) in the 30km points race.  After lapping the field he continued to challenge the sprints to take the honours with 47 pts in front of Jay Thompson (29 pts) and Malcolm Lange (27 pts) with an average speed exceeding 45km/h.

If the Provincial Championships was a barometer of the quality of riding that could be expected at the South African Championships, we are in for a good one!