SIMONSVLEI LEAGUE RIDE

Written by Neil:

 

It was cold and windy as day broke on Sunday for the last race on the Spring League calendar.  Just before we were off the wind died down and the mercury rose which made for perfect racing conditions.  

 

The race started at a fast pace over the rolling hills around Paarl all the way along the R44 to Stellenbosch.  Just before the Hellshoogte climb, Ingram launched a big attach but the bunch was waiting for the move before the climb.  As soon as Ingram was caught another group went away and Stuart went after them, but again the group was brought back.  As the bunch hit the climb André attacked with Tredoux on his wheel.  Soon afterwards the attacks came from all the overall contenders going after Tredoux.  A small group of about 10 riders went over the climb first containing Tredoux and all the big names.  André and I went over in the second bunch of 12 riders but soon caught up to the leading bunch.  Ingram and Stu paid for their big efforts before the climb and came over in the next bunch.

 

With a small break of 4 riders ahead of the first bunch and the breeze from behind, the pace was kept close to 50km/h by a hard working MTN team assisted by André and myself all the way to Paarl where the 4 riders were caught.  With about 4k’s to go André again launched an attack but the bunch was not going to let anybody get away so close to the finish.

 

The sprint was won by Michael van Staden from Team Sotherby’s closely followed by Moolman Welgemoed and David Garrett both riders from Team Daiken.  Tredoux was boxed in for the sprint but finished strongly in 7^th position pushing him up one place in the overall league standing to 6^th. 

 

As in the Bonnievale race Team Capestorm again received complements on the new red Speedman jearsy which seems to be working well to keep the team riders at the sharp end of the racing.

 

On behalf of the team I want to congratulate Tredoux for an excellent finish to the season and the writing seems to be on the wall that next season is going to be even better than this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bonnievale league

The Speedman lives up to its promise!

Team Cape Storm got a nice surprise this week when we were given the new Speedman shirts (hot off the production line).  The new shirts are a tweaked version of the original Speedman and has been updated to include some of the suggested features that the team gave to CS to improve an already great shirt.  Besides the features, the bold Cape Storm logos on the new shirt will make the team far more recognizable in the peloton.

If you read the description on the tag that comes with the shirt it ends saying: “We have done our part, now it is up to you to do the rest for your podium finish”.  I think these words were written directly to the team, who while have been racing well this season haven’t quite cracked a big result yet.  Well the new shirts were all the motivation we needed and Tredoux proved the label prophetic and made the podium at the Bonnievale league race this past weekend.

 

It was an early morning for the team, having to get to Bonnievale (170km from Durbanville!!) in time for the 7am start.  Due to the distance it was a fairly small bunch that lined up for the 80km route but it included all the favourites for the yellow jersey. 

The race was anything but a steady pace with many of the riders thinking they could get a break away to stick.  Neil unfortunately punctured early in the race reducing our team to just 3.  Stuart, after a tough working week spent in Joburg, took it upon himself to try control the race during the first part of the race.  At 45km Ingram made a good attempt to break away and was out front for a number of kilometres.  Unfortunately for him he was caught just before the break of the day went with 8 riders.  Tredoux managed to make this decisive split and stuck with it all the way to the finish and with it claiming Team Cape Storm’s first podium of the season.  He now is lying in 7^th position overall in the PPA elite league with one race to go.