Race Report: Maluti Classic SuperSeries

First of all, condolences to the family of the rider that was tragically killed in this race. I don't know any of the details, just that a rider was killed during the race and that is tragic to say the least.

After an absence of a couple of years, this race has been revived and it is certainly a very nice race. 125km of rolling terrain makes for good, hard racing. The race has been included in the Vets and Ladies SuperSeries and has a good prize purse.

Absolute Systems/Bulk Pack Meat are leading the Team Competition, with Jock Green (Absolute Systems/Bulk Pack Meat) also leading the Men's Individual Competition, with Jaco Ferreira (Team Computer-Smith) just 5 points back.

Our goal for the race was to get Marco van Biljoen the win to bring him up in the standings, and ensure that Jock Green beat Jaco to extend his lead. With Jock and Jaco leading by such a great margin, it is a simple case for TCS to just watch Jock. Making Marco a threat in the series gives us a lot more attacking options going forward. With Andrew not being there, our only threat from a series perspective was Jaco.

Unfortunately, this event clashes with the Cape Epic, meaning that Toyota/SuperCycling and Andrew Mclean would not be present. However, Mr. Price Cycle Club were there in full force (as they always are), as well as Dimension Data. Team Computer-Smith also signalled their intent by having a strong contingent as well. Unfortunately, none of the MTN/Club 100 riders were present, which was a bit of a surprise.

Since Absolute Systems/Bulk Pack Meat are leading both competitions, the onus is on the rest of the teams to attack us. This doesn't seem to be happening and the start of the race saw all the teams looking to us to make the racing. Our priority was to get Marco away in a break, hopefully with myself to support him, and hopefully force TCS into having to change from just watching Jock. With none of the teams showing any aggression, I decided to start attacking the bunch. TCS were marking us closely, and each time I went I had Philip Fourie with me. Dimension Data also sent Dave Mitchell down the road but none of the attacks got away. Then after quite a few attempts, a break got away at around 40km containing Jock, Marco, Jaco, Lee Muir (Mr. Price), Werner Moolman (Mr. Price), Flip Krugel (Mr. Price), Donovan van Gelder (Greenoffice/Cybercoach), and Gary Beneke (Dimension Data). I decided not to try get across and risk bring the bunch back to the break, as this break had the makeup to stay away for the race. Also, there were a number of top riders that had missed the break (particularly Dimension Data as Stefano Madies, Mark Beneke, Jackie van Eeden had all missed out).

Stefano Madies belatedly tried to get across, but had let too much of a gap open and was left in no-mans land for a long time.

With Jaco marking Jock, Marco had an opportunity to get away solo. Jock could play the policeman in the break and was able to remove some of the Mr. Price riders on Surrender Hill (they were the team with the most numbers and hence the biggest threat to this race). In the meantime, I also pushed quite hard on the climbs to reduce the size of the chasing bunch - with Jackie van Eeden being amongst the casualties. The chase bunch was down to about 12 riders by the time we reached Clarens, and we picked up Flip Krugel and Lee Muir with about 40km to go in the race.

On the road back from Clarens to Bethlehem, Mr. Price did all the work but there were still points to be had. I sat in and enjoyed the ride and waited for the final few kilometres. There is a small climb just before the finish which could present an opportunity to get away. Unfortunately, when we got to the climb, it was straight into a headwind which would make it difficult to ride away solo for the last 4km. I pushed the pace up the climb, but not enough to break it up. In the last couple of km's Philip Fourie (TCS) and Stefano Madies (Dimension Data) both put in attacks. This broke up the bunch and led to a fragmented group of riders going across the line. Stafano managing to take the spring, with Philip behind him and myself a bit further back.

In the meantime, Marco van Biljoen had managed to stay away for 60km and take the win, with Jock edging out Jaco in the sprint to take second.

So, overall, everything went very much according to plan. Marco has jumped up to 3rd place in the individual standings, and Jock has increased his lead over Jaco to 9 points.