Local girls excel in top cycle race
Two local girls were among the top three in the Bestmed Cycle4Cansa Road Classic at Sun City this past weekend.
It was mission accomplished for Team Telkom’s Nolan Hoffman as he took the honours in an exciting sprint finish in the Bestmed Cycle4Cansa Road Classic at Sun City today.
The 31-year-old professional timed his finishing burst perfectly with about 80m to go to edge out Team Luso’s Calvin Beneke and RoadCover’s Bradley Potgieter in 2:18:13.
In what Hoffman described as a dream scenario, a small breakaway formed in the early stages of the 103km feature race in which all the pro teams were represented.
“The racing in the first 10km was pretty aggressive and the breakaway group formed about five kilometres later,” said Hoffman.
“HB Kruger and I were there for Telkom and as I was the fastest out of the group it made sense for us to drive it. Within about 10km the gap went out to three minutes and then to seven. Once we got that lead the guys in the big group behind sort of gave up,” said the champion.
Charlene du Preez of Team Clover Prestigio sprinted to victory in the women’s race.
The 28-year-old from Pretoria East crossed the line in 2:46:24 to finish ahead of Time Freight’s Kim le Court, who won the 50km MTB Classic on Saturday, and Pretoria Box’s Michelle Benson.
“I was very happy with the win. The race was quite flat so that made it difficult for anyone to get away. There were a few attacks but with the bunch being bigger than normal it was easier to close down the gaps,” said Du Preez.
Du Preez said there were several accelerations in the last two kilometres and it was matter of keeping in touch and trying to save the legs for the final sprint.
“That worked out well for me.”
Alex Pavlov of NorthCliff Cycles, who will be competing in the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships in Perth, Australia, in early September, won the men’s section of Saturday’s 50km MTB Classic.
“This is a race I really like because it suits the roadies and I’ve got a road background,” he said after posting a time of 1:45:10.
“I have been training quite hard for the world championships and I had good form going into the race. I felt good today.”
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