Perfect conditions for cyclists at Tour Durban
Bradley Potgieter clinched victory in the aQuellé Tour Durban cycle race on Sunday morning.
A COOL tail wind brought home many cyclists to the finish of the aQuellé Tour Durban on Sunday morning.
Bradley Potgieter added the Tour Durban title to the impressive catalogue of victories by the on-form RoadCover team as he edged out Telkom Pro Cycling's Herman Maree on the line, while seasoned pro Lise Olivier added her name to the women's trophy for a second time after her Time Freight eTeam totally dominated the women's race.
The core of the Europcar team that took Ryan Gibbons to victory last year, the RoadCover outfit sported Cape Town Cycle Tour winner Clint Hendricks, who proved to be something for a marked man.
The team used this distraction well, and sent Potgieter away in a key breakaway on the closing leg back down the M4 coastal freeway to the finish at Moses Mabhida Stadium.
In what proved to be an intriguing arm-wrestle between the strong Telkom Pro Cycling outfit and RoadCover in tough windy conditions, the Telkom strategy to contain the race at a steady rolling pace to prevent any breakaways seemed to be working in the first half of the race. “We let that happen over the climb (to Pinetown) and we made sure we had most of our guys there,” said Potgieter. “When we linked onto the M4 highway to Ballito we made the call to make the racing harder because Telkom were happy to just ride consistently.
Telkom Pro sprinter David Maree finished second with Herman Fouché (Darkhorse AutoDen) third, just ahead of Under 23 speedster Rohan du Plooy.
In the women's race Olivier rounded off a thoroughly dominant showing by the Time Freight eTeam to win a three way sprint for the title.
Their five strong outfit attacked from the get-go and used the push up to Pinetown to whittle the women's peleton down to six riders, with Olivier winning the Queen of the Mountain hot-spot.
“The finish was a proper team effort and we managed to get first and second,” said a satisfied Olivier, who could reflect on a great outcome for a team, that is made up of riders of varying experience and strengths.
She said the high standard of racing in the women's division was pleasing given the loss of some riders to other events on the same weekend, and professional commitments to European teams. “It is one of my favourite races,” she added. “It is properly organised and the full road closure is something that we really enjoy, and we keep coming back to this race. KZN is one of our favourite places to come and race,” she added.
The second hotspot was won by Vera Adrian, who finished second overall to make it a Time Freight eTeam one-two, with Brittany Petersen clinching her first major road race podium scooping third ahead of Juanita Venter.
The 55km cyclocross race which included off road sectors was won by Marco Joubert (Kargo Pro) from Joshua Nelson and talented junior Cayde Muldoon, with Hayley Smith getting the better of Kargo Pro team mate Frankie du Toit in the women's race.
