Burry Stander wins his first World Title
Burry Stander from South Africa catapulted his Specialized S Works Epic to his first World Title in Canberra, Australia in the men’s under 23 race.
Nerves were tight before the gun, with all eyes on Burry who was considered to be the favorite. Both his mum, Mandie and Dad, Charles were here to support Burry. Mandie recalled a five-year-old kid heading out on his bike into the neighboring sugar cane plantation trails and getting lost many times in his quest to be a cyclist. “He had an inbuilt determination from a young age and all those years had lead to this, today’s world championships,” said his nervous mum prior to the start.
Burry did not disappoint and rose to the occasion. In the early part of the race he was riding in second position with Thomas Litscher from Switzerland, but going into the second lap felt he had an advantage and made his move. “The bike was awesome. I had a great start and going up the early rocky part on Thomas’s wheel I realized The Epic was a real advantage and going into lap two, knew this was the place where I would make my move”. Burry made his move and consistently increased his margin lap after lap. Litscher was caught by Vuillermoz from France, who worked as a duo for one lap, but the Frenchman was stronger, riding solo for the silver medal.
Burry was so impressed with both his equipment and the team behind his victory. “On the Epic it’s crazy. You try and ride smooth and the bike does the rest. You make up time on those little spots where others are resting. The team did an awesome job and everybody pulled their weight to make this happen. The mechanics must have checked the bolts at least one hundred times”.
On his victory, Burry said it was a long time coming, describing it as “probably the best day of my life”, with the rainbow stripes being the biggest title in the sport outside of the Olympic Games. “You can win ten races coming into this race, but at Worlds you can have a bad day and loose it all. This was my last shot at the under 23 title, so for everything to come right on the day was just perfect”!
Race Result:
1 Burry Stander (South Africa) 1:47:26
2 Alexis Vuillermoz (France) 0:01:21
3 Thomas Litscher (Switzerland) 0:02:46
4 Peter Sagan (Slovakia) 0:04:15
5 Marek Konwa (Poland) 0:04:45
6 Guillaume Vinit (France) 0:04:59
7 Mattias Wengelin (Sweden) 0:05:14
8 Fabian Giger (Switzerland) 0:05:32
9 Lukas Kaufmann (Switzerland) 0:05:57
10 Catriel Andres Soto (Argentina) 0:06:31
Browse Timeline
Add a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
