The Fast One

First race with my new team - Toyota SuperCycling Vet's 40+, and a good result to go with it!

This is the season opener, and is pretty much a 100km flat gallop from the south of Johannesburg to Van der Bijl Park.  Then a steady training ride back home!  Average speeds are usually around 45km/h, so it is quick, and can be a bit dangerous.

In years gone by, there used to be a climb at the start, which allowed the bunch to split into a more manageable size.  However, now the race starts literally on a downhill, and is pretty flat from there onwards.

There is, however, one section that is a slight uphill drag, and always as a gutter wind.  Tactically, this is the main place to force a split.

So, after about 35km of racing, with a few minor attacks off the front, the Karee Kloof section arrived.  Toyota SuperCycling team took control of the front of the bunch, and forced the gutter.  Andrew Mclean kept things coordinated, which Colin Germs made sure none of the other riders could get into the paceline and disrupt it.  Jorge Faria (Westville Steel) joined in the pace making, sensing that the race winning split was about to happen.

At the end of this section of road, there were only 7 riders left of the 150+ starters.  Included in this 7 were 4 Toyota SuperCycling riders, myself, Andrew Mclean, Issy Zimmerman, and Colin Germs.  We had lost 2 teammates, Mark Thijs was feeling the effects of a mountainbike race the day before, and Kevin Vermaak punctured.  With us were 2 Boss Logistics riders, Anton Duvenhage and Billy Haasbroek, along with Jorge Faria of Wadeville Steel.

Turning right after the Karee Kloof section, we had a strong tail wind.  Ideal for keeping the pressure on the break away group.  Andrew and I drove the pace really hard, but succeeded in losing two of our own riders.  With the time gap under one minute, it was important to keep the pace high!

Soon, the break started working together, with still 45km of racing left and a 1 minute gap, we couldn't ease up.  The status quo remained for the next 35km, with the time gap surpisingly remaining at around 1 minute.

With 10km to go, I decided to try to get away.  Not knowing the riders in this category, I wasn't sure what their sprint capabilities were, and didn't want to risk it.  Also, looking at Anton Duvenhage, he is built like a sprinter!

I tried a couple of times to get away, but Anton was able to match the attacks and keep things together.  Andrew was also feeling the effects of the previous days MountainBike race, so he wasn't feeling very sharp.

The finish is a long uphill drag and the finish line can be seen from about 500m away.  Coming into the last turn, there was chaos.  We had caught the back markers of a number of bunches ahead of us, and they all wanted to get involved in the action.  After some shouting and gesticulating from the commissaire, our group was finally left of fight it out.  Billy went first, and I got onto his wheel.  Anton countered and I went as well.  Anton had the better of me and took it by a good few bike lengths, I took second and Andrew took third.

So, overall I'm happy with that.  My sprint wasn't too sharp, after 60km of hard pacing.