Metkel shows his mettle in Stage 1 of TRAC Cycle Tour
The TRAC N4 Cycle Tour got off to a great start for Metkel Teweldeberhan of MTM Feeder who was first to cross the finish line in the u/23 men’s race today.
Teweldeberhan made the most of the 125km Stage 1 to take the honours in 3:37:13 hours.
As expected, competition was tight on day one of the four-day Tour and led to a nail-biting finish for second and third place between Ryan Gibbons of Europcar and Chris Jooste of ASG. Both riders gave it their all until the very end with Gibbons (3:44:25) piping Jooste (3:44:27) to the finish line by a mere two seconds.
The 122km junior boys’ race was also highly competitive with the top three cyclists finishing neck-in-neck. First place went to Stefan de Bod of Cycleworld (3:44:44), second to Gustav Basson of ASG (3:44:44) and third to Kent Main of ASG (3:44:45).
The results of the other categories were as follows:
Elite ladies (122km)
1. An-Li Kachelhoffer – 3:53:90
2. Heidi Dalton – 3:53:90
3. Juanita Venter – 3:53:90
U/16 Boys (84km)
1. Dylan le Roux (Europcar) – 2:46:07
2. Michael Pretorius (Cycleworld) – 2:46:07
3. Eckhard Binding (Cycleworld) – 2:46:07
U/16 Girls (84km)
1. Catherine Colyn – 3:02:03
2. Lynette Benson – 3:13:18
3. Tyneale Terry – 3:13:18.
With Stage 1 ending on such a high note, TRAC, Tour organisers and the cyclists are looking forward to Stage 2 tomorrow which starts in Nelspruit (u/23 Men), White River (Juniors and Elite Ladies) and Sabie (u/16 boys and girls) and is sure to offer great spectator value.
