Two cyclists were robbed at gunpoint of their bicycles and even their clothes by two men near the Meerhof bridge on Sunday morning.

Gawie Victor (46) and Lionel Scholtz (48) from Pretoria were riding near the bridge opposite the Meerhof Oewer at 08:30 when two men in a white Toyota bakkie overpowered them.

“We left Pretoria at 06:00 on Sunday for a training ride and were supposed to meet our wives for breakfast in Meerhof. We stopped on the hill near the bridge and two men in a bakkie came driving up. It seemed as if they wanted to turn around and Lionel even assisted them in order to avoid a big rock. The next moment the passenger got out and approached me with a gun in his hand. The driver got out and ordered us to hand over our cellphones, helmets, gloves, shoes and sunglasses,” Gawie told Kormorant.

“He then asked what else we had, and ordered us to take off our shirts. They loaded our bicycles with our Wahoo computers onto the bakkie. Only left with our cycling shorts and socks, we were ordered to climb down the rocks. They sped away.”

“Soon after the robbers had left, a group of motorcyclists came up the other side of the hill. We stopped them and told them what had happened and they sped off to see if they could catch the robbers.”

Gawie and Lionel walked across the bridge and encountered a couple who kindly helped them phone their wives and the police. “We could trace them with the Wahoo Live tracking to Atteridgeville where all signals stopped,” Gawie said.
The Hartbeespoort police are investigating an armed robbery.