REGIONAL NEWS - South Africa's homegrown cross-country world champion, Alan Hatherly, will start his 2025 season off-road at the Momentum Medical Scheme Attakwas Extreme, presented by Biogen. Having signed for Jayco-AlUla, the Olympic bronze medallist is expected to split his time between the road and the XCO circuit this year.
Hatherly's unexpected entry into the Hell of the South means the famous race will feature arguably its most formidable ever elite men's field.
When the action gets underway from Chandelier Game Lodge near Oudtshoorn on Saturday 18 January, Hatherly will face off against former champions Matthew Beers and Wessel Botha, as well as other top talents like Marco Joubert, Tristan Nortjé, Marc Pritzen, Jaedon Terlouw and Arno du Toit.
The elite women's race is headlined by reigning South African Marathon champion Danielle Strydom, who faces stern competition from Samantha Sanders, Bianca Haw, Sarah Hill, Hayley Preen and frequent visitor to the Rainbow Nation, Felicitas Geiger.
There is also a slight route change for the 2025 edition as the Dryland Event Management team follows an old servitude onto the ancient Attakwaskloof Pass. The update to the course adds a single kilometre to the total distance, but will not affect the elevation gain the riders will need to conquer. As a result, the route will be 124km long with 2 900m of accumulated ascent.
A further change does not affect the course statistics, but rather improves the rider experience. A new water point will be added at the 82km mark, and the elite feed zone will move to Ruiterbos Primary School on the Robinson Pass road at the 97km mark. This means that both spectator points and feed zones will now be on the asphalt road, making it easier for fans to cheer on their favourites.
Hatherly, unlike his former training partner Beers, has only participated in the event once before. In 2022 he failed to finish in extreme heat when his then teammate Simon Andreassen came straight from a snowy Denmark to win in 45-degree temperatures.
Since then, Beers has taken the race down to the wire, winning out over Alexander Miller in 2023 before the Namibian bested South Africa's most celebrated marathon racer in 2024.
The heat and the fierce competition are unlikely to be the only challenges Hatherly faces.
Starting in the Klein Karoo the route is rocky and technical, despite the lack of singletrack, to Bonniedale at the 70km mark.
The final 50km are contested on increasingly smooth gravel roads, but the constant descents into deep river gorges followed by climbs to the arable plateau 250m above take their toll.
In recent years, various ways of winning the race have emerged; some have opted to go long, using the climb out of Bonniedale to break the elastic to the chasing pack, while others have left it late and only surged in the final 10km. In 2021 and 2023, the race even came down to a sprint finish.
The updated route profile for the 2025 Attakwas Extreme
Beyond the top favourites, Hatherly and Beers, the course record holder, Botha, can never be discounted. The same holds true for the Imbuko Pro Cycling combination of Joubert and Nortjé - the latter, like Hatherly, is a former Attakwas Mini champion as an age grouper. Pritzen and Terlouw will be eager to start their seasons with a big victory, while Du Toit has already expressed his desire to give the Hell of the South his full early season focus.
Further down the elite men's start list there are a number of riders who should challenge for the expanded top five podium places. These include Lood Goosen and Rudi Koen of Imbuko Pro Cycling, Rossouw Bekker and Cronje Beukes of Valley Electrical Titan Racing, Jan Withaar and Keagan Bontekoning. In total there are 48 men on the elite men's start list, the largest ever for this competition.
Womens' race
In the women's race, Strydom starts as the favourite despite not being one of three previous winners in the women's field. Hill and Sanders have both lifted the iconic Attakwaskloof rock trophy before.
The former is an unknown quantity in the early season while the latter remains formidable, as does another former winner, Yolande de Villiers. Both Sanders and De Villiers thrive in the searing heat and should outperform their rivals if temperatures soar into the 40-degree range.
Arno du Toit of Insect Science has also entered for the Attakwas Extreme. Photo: Oakpics.com
Strydom is also likely to face competition from Haw, Preen, and Geiger for the top step of the podium. However, given those three's lack of experience in the Hell of the South, anything could happen. German triathlete Linda Detering, Kelsey van Schoor, Elrika Harmzen-Pretorius, Cherise Willeit and Catherine Colyn complete the list of podium hopefuls.
The extended battle for the top ten will also see usual 'Working Heroines' teammates and rivals up against each other in the ultra-marathon. Nicola Freitas, Sarita Louw, Rebecca van Huyssteen, Sanchia Malan and Shauna Esmeyer would all be happy with a placing in the higher reaches of sixth to tenth tussle, though that will take some doing in a field of 20 elite women.
"We would like to remind riders ahead of the race that the water point cut-offs will be strictly enforced this year," warned Henco Rademeyer of Dryland Event Management.
"We have experienced a few very hot editions in a row now and rider safety is always our first priority. While we are sympathetic to the desire to finish, the cut-offs are there for your safety. The addition of a sixth water point, 82km in, increases the availability to fluids but if you are a slower rider who will be up against the cut-offs all day, you should be prepared to make rapid refill stops.
"We've seen over the years that the riders who miss cut-offs are often the riders who linger at the water points for tens of minutes, rather than getting moving again as quickly as possible."
To follow the action as it unfolds on Saturday 18 January, fans can watch the regular updates on the event's social media handles. Follow @attakwasmtb and like the Momentum Medical Scheme Attakwas Extreme, presented by Biogen Facebook page. For more information and to enter online, visit www.atta.co.za.
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