Following on from the profitable Tour Durban MTB powered by CycleLab on Saturday, the principle occasion on Sunday as soon as once more attracted passionate riders that took on the assorted distances with broad smiles and pleasure on a good looking Mother’s Day Sunday.
The extra achieved riders set off on the 110km route early on Sunday morning in good driving circumstances, with the cool autumn climate offering the best backdrop to the day’s racing.
Tour Durban goes right down to the wire
Despite the occasions shift to a extra mass-participation targeted occasion, there was undoubtedly nonetheless a racing component on the front-end of the sector and the entrance bunch produced a quick, thrilling duel that went proper right down to the finish line subsequent to the long-lasting Moses Mabhida Stadium.
Ultimately it was Ivan Harkema of Officeguru Racing that pipped final 12 months’s MTB winner, Brent Yelland, on the line to take the honours whereas it was Michael Rowland who got here house in third place total.
“It was a very positive race and there wasn’t much chance for a breakaway until the second lap when about five or six of us got away,” Harkema mentioned after his win.
“We managed to make a little bit of a spot after which introduced the group right down to 4 on the climb and that’s how we raced to the finish after which I managed to take it within the sprint by about half a wheel; however it was such race.
“I knew that Brent was the guy to watch and so as he went for the line, I went with him, and he almost had me but I just managed to nick him on the line.”
Harkema produced the trip of the day to pip Yelland on the road and the Johannesburg-based rider loved his time down racing on the East Coast.
“It’s such a lekker course,” he expressed. “It’s a bit bizarre in that it’s a head wind in each instructions, don’t know the way that works! The climbs usually are not that tough, however they’re testing.
“We could have gone with anyone on the team to win today and I was the lucky one to be in the end break that got to the line first.”
Missing out on the double
For Yelland, he feels that this was a possibility missed as he was crushed on the line for the general crown.
“He (Harkema) was riding on my back wheel, and we were holding towards the line, and I was thinking to myself that I can actually win this thing,” Yelland mentioned.
“I don’t know what happened and I lost it in the last five metres which is going to haunt me!”
The girls’s race was way more straight ahead with defending girls’s champion Joanne van de Winkel as soon as once more proving her dominance over this occasion as she powered to victory.
The Sandton City Cycle Nation star, who is predicated in Hillcrest now, completed in sixteenth total on the day.
The race noticed the ladies go off with the lads and never in a particular girls’s batch which meant that there was a distinct dynamic for the ladies which Van de Winkel loved.
“I really enjoyed it out there today and it was very different with a big bunch with the men and not the smaller ladies’ bunch, so tactics didn’t really play a role as I just did my best to race the men,” she mentioned.
“I took my activates the entrance, tried to go along with the breaks and had a extremely good trip, however with an enormous bunch it’s additionally simpler to take a seat in and take some breaks.
“When you are racing in a smaller girls peloton you spend a lot of time doing most of the work and the whole time you are working.”
MTB riders coming via
Van de Winkel gained the ladies’s race on Saturday on the aQuellé Tour Durban MTB powered by CycleLab and this win rounded out an incredible weekend of racing.
“It is a good feeling and nice to do the double in an area race for me now that I reside down right here, so it was an incredible two days of racing.
“My legs are feeling it after the two days of racing but it’s a great event and I really enjoyed it,” Van de Winkel added.
Young Under 17 rider Errin Mackridge completed second within the girls’s race and 59th total with Alta Lombaard third.
East Coast Radio presenter J ‘Sbu took half within the shorter 28km occasion and he was filled with reward for the occasion as his first biking race.
“It was so much fun, man,” the Drive Show host mentioned. “An enormous shout out to the organisers of the occasion, I had a lot enjoyable on the market and it seemed like everybody was having a good time too.
“Well done to the organisers and the sponsors aQuellé on a great event.”
More info could be discovered at https://tourdurban.co.za/
SUMMARY OR RESULTS – 2023 aQuellé Tour Durban Road Race
110km
Male
1 Ivan Harkema 2:40:55
2 Brent Yelland 2:40:55
3 Michael Rowland 2:40:58
4 Emile Van Niekerk 2:42:28
5 Miles Liebenberg 2:42:28
6 Warren Moolman 2:42:31
7 Josh Rheeders 2:42:45
8 Danie Lombaard 2:42:45
9 Oliver Williams 2:44:37
10 Cameron Wright 2:44:37
Female
1 Joanna Van De Winkel 2:44:41
2 Yvette Ferreira (E-Bike) 2:44:52
3 Errin Mackridge 2:52:47
4 Alta Lombaard 3:00:09
5 Kadence Leigh Ribbink 3:00:17
6 Kayla Leigh Ribbink 3:00:20
7 Sarah Littleton 3:06:11
8 Angelique Muller 3:08:03
9 Jackie Moore 3:08:54
10 Linda Potts 3:09:36
42km
Male
1 Matthew Huson 1:09:18
2 Connor Hawkins 1:14:15
3 Philip Theron 1:14:16
4 Luke Henderson 1:14:17
5 Travis Hewitt 1:14:17
Female
1 Ava Moore 1:14:21
2 Chantal Johnson 1:16:49
3 Cara Huson 1:17:05
4 Emily Simpkins 1:17:21
5 Melissa Hulsen 1:17:22
28km
Men
1 Paul Muller 1:02:14
2 Andrew Larkan 1:03:28
3 Andrew Basford 1:03:36
4 Chris Meyer 1:12:44
5 Ebrahim Osman Khan 1:13:05
Female
1 Kaitlyn Muller 1:02:13
2 Susan Stanley 1:05:29
3 Lauren Stanley 1:05:30
4 Alison Meyer 1:10:06
5 Roxanne Marais 1:19:49
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