In its first year as a continental team, ProTouch Cycling has continued to put on gritty, fighting performances at some of Africa’s toughest tours, and the Tour de Langkawi has proved no different.
With the Tour du Maroc taking place at the same time in Morocco, ProTouch was forced to split its riders into two teams to represent them at the two UCI Continental Tours. The cyclists that make up ProTouch’s five-man contingent at the Tour de Langkawi are James Fourie (Captain), Clint Hendricks, Rohan du Plooy, Jaydé Julius, Calvin Beneke, and Kent Main.
The five cyclists have been battling it out tooth and nail through every stage, trying to earn as many UCI points for ProTouch and South Africa as possible, with their highest place in a stage thus far being Clint Hendricks’ third place in Stage 1. The next-best placing in a stage was once again Clint, as he finished seventh in Stage 5, which saw him lie in fourth place on the points standings with three stages to go. He unfortunately dropped to fifth after Stage 6, and is in now out of contention for a podium finish, with two stages left.
Clint’s efforts wouldn’t have been possible without his teammates’ performances, with Jaydé, Calvin, and Kent all earning Top 15 stage finishes at some point on the tour thus far. Despite not finishing inside the Top 10 in a stage yet, Kent remains the highest-placed ProTouch rider on the General Classification standings as he stands in 13th place after Stage 6*.
Jaydé is next-best in 26th place, as Clint rounds off the ProTouch riders inside the Top 50 on the General Classification standings. This is however not the only measure of the team’s performances at the tour, as the team stands at 7th out of 21 of Africa’s best teams on the tour.
*The standings are all according to the results after Stage 6, which were the newest results at the time of writing.
