Local speeds into first place at Tour Durban

GLENWOOD resident Josh Rheeders claimed his first-ever victory at this year’s aQuellé Tour Durban men’s cycle race title when he won a big group sprint at the cycle race title in Durban on Sunday with a time of 02:39:10.041 in the 110km race.

The 23-year-old, who joined his cycle team, Luso ACDC Pro Cycling, at the start of 2024, said he was very excited going into the race. “I love getting the opportunity to race on home roads, especially against people that I have ridden with for many years. I was quietly confident going into it, as well, as I seemed to be picking up some form as the season progressed.”

Rheeders has been competing in the sport since he was nine years old, starting out on the mountain bike at the Spur Schools series before transitioning to road racing as he finished school.

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Rheeders was a dominant force in the lead group. He got into what looked to be the racewinning break on the final lap, but despite being caught by the chasing bunch, he still timed his finishing sprint to perfection to come out of the group to claim his first Tour Durban win.
He says his game plan heading into the race was to be as tactically smart as possible. “I was coming into the race with no teammates, so I had very little room for error. Midway through the final lap, I had forced a breakaway of five that got a substantial gap very quickly. The break then
got whittled down to three of us on one of the fi nal climbs but then, subsequently, fell apart on the way to the finish as one of the guys was struggling.

We got brought back by the main bunch, and I sat in and recovered, heading into the final few kilometres, and just tried to maintain a good position going into the last corner. The sprint started with a downhill, and there was a tailwind so I started sprinting earlier than a lot of the others, and I managed to carry the speed and hold them off .”

“The race went as expected due to the flat nature of the course and the wind which made it diffi cult to get away from the bunch alone. There were a few challenges with being outnumbered by other teams, but I tried to choose the places to attack where I thought they had the least advantage and I could do the most damage,” said Rheeders.

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The young cyclist says he was elated after winning the Tour Durban. “It has been one of my goals for a long time to win. It’s a home race so it means a lot because I did it in front of friends and family.”

“My short-term cycling goals are to win Amashova later this year, which is another local race, and to also win Ride Jo’burg later this year, which would be against some of the best riders in the country. My long-term cycling goal is to be able to make a living off racing my bike around the world,” said Rheeders.

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