ProTouch remain positive despite the ups and downs

Tour du Faso 2021, Burkina Faso kicked off on Friday, October 29 and will end on November 7 after 10 stages that are followed by the final classification individual road race.

Stage one of the tour saw ProTouch Continental Cycling suffer two untimely punctures on the finishing circuit with Ormiston Callum and Moise Mugisha falling victim to the surface.

Gustav Basson was wide awake as the team kept him well positioned, and he was able to make a six-rider break and claim third position.

The second stage which was the longest of the Tour did not disappoint as the pressure of a long, hard day in the saddle could already be felt on the start line.

A convoy of attacks tried to go off the front to no avail in the first 100km, with the biggest gap being just over a minute with both Mitch Eliot and Mugisha in this break.

Once again, bad luck tried to upset the team’s plans with five punctures thrown in to test the South African outfit.

ProTouch’s leading General Classification (GC) man Basson punctured at a pivotal time in the race and Tiano Da Silva stopped to exchange his wheel and await the team car.

With a 30-second deficit to the leader on GC, ProTouch was happy with their result as Basson finished sixth on GC.

Stage 3 started following a massive storm in the previous night, and ProTouch hoped the heat would subside but the African sun proved to have a mind of its own.

With the team down to just four riders, they were forced to ride according to a strong plan – not show too much strength and try and remain under the radar, whilst staying in GC contention.

The stage didn’t go without the daily mishaps as the team found themselves on the wrong end of a few punctures again at the worst times.

They had no option but to pull out all the stops to keep everyone in contention, and with 25km to go, the team found themselves in the break, with Callum and Basson having superior firepower to keep it going to the finish.

Unfortunately Callum had a puncture and Basson was still in the break to hold on and see the team’s plan to take a little time back every day work in their favour, as he moved back into forth on GC.

Stage 4 of the tour proved that the ups and downs in cycling are never far apart and the commissaries had seen enough to call an urgent meeting with all the Sports Directors before the start of the stage.

ProTouch ended the stage down to two riders for Stage 5 which is a shorter stage while they continued to try their best. Even with the bad luck they remained positive.

Stage 5 was like a high-speed chase from the Fast and the Furious and they gambled to sit back and observe the action whilst focusing on four top GC riders.

There was a massive crash in the run into the line. Luckily, with Mugisha running forth, Basson put in a final kick to almost catch the breakaway riders, ending up in sixth place and missing the pile up behind him.

Despite all the unfortunate circumstances and issues faced in the previous stages the team was able to leave the finish line with their heads held high, and still proudly in the top 10 on GC.