ROHAN du Plooy and Sonica Klopper claimed top honours when they won the 100km Invitation Race at the aQuellé Tour Durban in association with Cycle Lab on the Durban beachfront on Sunday.

Du Plooy (Team Fly Cool Collective) outsprinted the remainders of the breakaway group to claim the men’s title from Ryno Schutte (Team Nessa Africa) and Honeycomb 226ers’ Scott Blount.

Du Plooy said he enjoyed the race format of two 26km laps and then the action of four fast 12km circuits from Moses Mabhida Stadium to Durban North on the M4.

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“It was different; not like we are used to coming from Johannesburg where we do not do too much lap racing. It was nice in terms of we know what’s coming up and you can anticipate what’s next … and the spectators can see us for six laps,” he said.

“I’m very happy that our team tactics paid off; we all worked very well together, staying calm and just trying to get the job done, and then I was actually able to win it in the sprint,” added Du Plooy.

Meanwhile in the ladies race, Klopper led home teammates Megan Botha and Lucy Young for a Tshenolo Womens Pro Cycling team 1-2-3 after the trio were able to stay in the main men’s peleton for all but the last few kilometres.

“Our plan today was just actually to stick with the men for as long as we could. Racing with the men we knew it was going to be really hard – I felt more nervous at the start of this race than I do before any other women’s race.

“We ended up doing what we planned and we kind of had a plan going into the finish that I would take the win – but a win for one of us means we all win.”

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