Cycling like mad at the inaugural Liberty race
Ryan Harris won the final stage of the Liberty 250 Road Race and claimed the overall individual title.
The Dolphin Coast was inundated with cyclists over the weekend for the inaugural Liberty 250 stage cycle race.
The Bluff Meat Supply team won the final day of the Liberty 250 road cycling team stage race but it was just not enough as Thule Cornubia clinched the overall title by just one second after the third exciting day’s racing in a row at Ballito on Sunday.
In the concurrent Liberty 150 mountain bike event Andrew Hill and his Gauteng partner Shaun-Nick Bester cruised to their third win in three stages to extend their lead and wrap up an easy overall title.
The TIB Best 4 Sports Silverback pair added another four minutes to their lead to beat Ballito Bicycle Company’s Andrew Johnson and Andrew Cairns by over 30 minutes overall.
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Leading individual rider Ryan Harris (Office Guru) and Deno van Heerden broke away early and held off the chasing bunch before Harris won the final sprint to the line. A minute behind the leading pair the battle for the team honours saw the remaining Bluff team attack as much as they could.
They pushed the pace throughout in an effort to blunt the sprint finish of the Thule Cornubia team but it was not quite enough as the lead was halved, but not wiped out.
“Being a short and flat 40km day we knew we had to attack today,” said Price after the finish.
“Trevor (Rowe) was also a bit sick today which did not help us but we did what we could.
“We tried to keep the pace high and we attacked on just about every small climb. We decided to race it a bit like a mountain bike race so we could try and blunt the finishing speed of the Thule guys.
“This was an awesome event. It is the first time I have raced a stage race on the road and it was really exciting.
“The tactics and everything were different and I woke up each day excited to be racing. I really hope it grows into something big.”
Harris was a clear winner in the individual road event with Olympic swimmer Terence Parkin and Martin Hillerman taking the two-man team prize.
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