Darren Lill takes stage 6 of Cell C Tour of South Africa

Saturday, 26 February 2011 12:06

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Lill bags the Queen stage

The Queen stage of the Cell C Tour of South Africa from Hermanus to Stellenbosch over four passes was won by Darren Lill of DCM after a good scrap in the final kilometres.

It was the stage that was expected to allow the best climbers their final opportunity to dislodge the yellow jersey from Kristian House of Rapha Condor -Sharp. With ascents of Houwhoek pass, and others before the big one of Franschoek. Rapha Condor - Sharp had their work cut out for them, and delivered as expected while an early move slipped clear en-route to Houwhoek.

Johann Van Zyl (Toyota CSA) made this move, and went clear after a few skirmishes taking with him Neil Macdonald (Bonitas), Clinton Barrow (DCM), Stefan Cohnen (CCD) and James Perry (Tasol GT). They opened up their lead as the bunch decided that the move was safe to let go.

Up Houwhoek pass after 35kms, the pace was set by DCM, in an effort to separate some of the leaders team mates from the bunch. They were able to get a few riders off the, but not with the desired effect to Rapha Condor - Sharp, and the steady tempo was set again with the next destination - Franschoek Pass - in mind.

The break lost Perry on Houwhoek, but their chances of surviving the big guns was not good, as the race proper started on the run in to the big Category 1 climb.

David George had his team 360Life set him up with an attack on the lowest slopes of the Franschoek, and he went alone, clear of the rest. This move caught everyone by surprise, and despite a few riders trying to get away from the peleton and get across, he was on his own and departed. His was typical David George style, an attack of that fashion.

This was a situation that the race had been waiting for. A time to put pressure onto the leader, House, who had only one team mate left to defend the lead. They did not panic though, and waited until MTN Qhubeka decided to take control and set the tempo up the remainder of the climb. George had a lead of 50 sec on top of the climb, and sped down the descent.

This situation was a really good one to pressurize the leader, but MTN continued their chase into the valley between Franschoek and Stellenbosch, catching George on the run up towards HelsHoogte pass. The attacks flew again, and a reduced group went over the big road pass, and then into the old road ascent towards the finish. A few attacks and then towards the end the SA Champion, Darren Lill went clear, and soloed to victory for South Africa's first stage win of the tour!

The bunch splintered a little up to the finish, creating a few small gaps to separate the General Classification some what, and Johann Rabie (Bonitas) took second place from Jaco Venter (Veranda's Willems - Accent) and then Daryl Impey (MTN Qhubeka).

Impey gained further points to seal his King of the Mountains Competition, and Rabie took some pints to get the lead in the Point Competition. Chris Jennings (Burgos2016) rode strongly and leads the Best Young Rider Competition.

An exciting result in the day was the 10th place of Louis Meintjes (Toyota CSA), the youngest rider in the tour, just turned 19 years old on the rest day of this tour. He has shown that he has some strong climbing capabilities and is a rider to keep an eye on for the future.

Stage Result:
1 Darren Lill (RSA) DCM 3:18:26
2 Johann Rabie (RSA) Team Bonitas 0:00:18
3 Jacobus Venter (RSA) Veranda's Willems - Accent 0:00:20
4 Daryl Impey (RSA) MTN Qhubeka
5 Perrig Quemeneur (Fra) Team Europcar
6 Thomas Degand (Bel) Veranda's Willems - Accent
7 David George (RSA) 360 Life 0:00:24
8 Milan Kadlec (Cze) Czech Republic
9 Adil Jelloul (Mar) Morocco 0:00:27
10 Louis Meintjes (RSA) Toyota CSA

General classification after stage 6 # Rider Name (Country) Team Result
1 Kristian House (GBr) Rapha Condor - Sharp 19:11:15
2 Johann Rabie (RSA) Team Bonitas 0:02:09
3 Daryl Impey (RSA) MTN Qhubeka 0:02:11
4 Perrig Quemeneur (Fra) Team Europcar
5 Thomas Degand (Bel) Veranda's Willems - Accent
6 David George (RSA) 360 Life 0:02:15
7 Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) Burgos 2016 - Castilla y León 0:02:18
8 Jonathan Tiernan-Lock (GBr) Rapha Condor - Sharp 0:02:28
9 Darren Lill (RSA) DCM 0:02:29
10 Milan Kadlec (Cze) Czech Republic 0:02:50

There has been a lot said of the tactics of the stage, and what some should have or shouldn't have done. I think that everyone is free to race as they want, given that they have strength to do so. But certain situations allow for certain decisions, and at the end of the day it is all a bit of a poker game, with some chess thrown in. If some teams can bluff their way into getting others to do what they can't and come away well for it, then good for them. But at the end of the day, a situation has to be read, and advantage taken for the benefit of your team.

The final stage takes place in Paarl, and is a lap race of 10kms, to be raced 10 times. It is expected to be a formality, and a bunch sprint may be the order of the day. But then again, it is cycling, and nothing is predictable..

Nic White

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It was predicted that the longest stage of the Cell C Tour of SA ending in Barrydale would result in a big sprint finish and Italian Bernardo Riccio (d'Angelo & Antenucci Nippo) won the sprint from Daryl Impey and Christoff Van Heerden (Both MTN Qhubeka) after a lot of hard work by their teams to control the race at the end.

The race started in Oudtshoorn in very warm conditions, and with only the obstacle of Huisrivierspas at 70km, many riders thought that they would have a chance at the long breakaway.

It was not an easy effort to get into a move, with a fast, flat and straight road into a slight headwind, many riders tried. But it never looked good as there was always a team that was missing out and sought to close the gap.

Kristian House's Rapha Condor - Sharp team were on the ball controlling who was going and who wasn't. Eventually after an hour a group of six riders went clear and got the desired gap.

Jeremy Maartens (DCM), Tyler Day (Bonitas), Estifanos Gebresilassie (UCI African Team), Clint Hendricks (Tasol-GT), Frank Dressler-Lehnhof (Team Differdange-Magic-Sportfood.de) and Gregory Habeaux (Veranda's Willems-Accent) made up the front group

Over the big climb of Huisrivierspas Gebresilassie rode clear of the rest to take the mountain top, but was soon rejoined by the rest on the descent. The gap to the front riders went up to about 5 minutes, and without any danger men to the GC in front except Habeaux (at 6 mins from House), the break was well controlled by the bunch.

It was with about 80km to go that the teams of MTN Qhubeka and d'Angelo & Antenucci Nippo decided to get involved in the chase, as a possible stage win interested them. They worked hard while the rest of the bunch watched from the wheels. They were rewarded when they started to catch the stragglers from the break were picked up in the final 15km, with Maartens and Habeaux the last to be caught in the final 5 kms.

The run into Barrydale was really fast and with a turn at 1 km to it was a little risky, but MTN Qhubeka had a good lead into the final meters. However it was the speed of Riccio that was superior and he was the fastest to the line winning from Impey and Van Heerden.

The top placed riders rewarded the hard work of their team in chasing down the break by finishing off the sprint well. This doesn't always happen, but in this case today it did!

Full Results
1 Bernardo Riccio (Ita) d'Angelo & Antenucci - Nippo 4:34:04
2 Daryl Impey (RSA) MTN Qhubeka
3 Christoff Van Heerden (RSA) MTN Qhubeka
4 Yohann Gene (Fra) Team Europcar
5 Herman Fouche (RSA) DCM
6 Arran Brown (RSA) MTN Qhubeka
7 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) Veranda's Willems - Accent
8 Oscar Grau (Spa) Burgos 2016 - Castilla y León
9 Tomas Smolen (Pol) CCC Polsat Polkowice
10 Alexey Shmidt (Rus) Team Type 1 - Sanofi Aventis

General classification after stage 5
1 Kristian House (GBr) Rapha Condor - Sharp 15:52:18
2 Daryl Impey (RSA) MTN Qhubeka 0:02:22
3 Johann Rabie (RSA) Team Bonitas
4 Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) Burgos 2016 - Castilla y León
5 David George (RSA) 360 Life
6 Perrig Quemeneur (Fra) Team Europcar
7 Thomas Degand (Bel) Veranda's Willems - Accent
8 Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (GBr) Rapha Condor - Sharp 0:02:25
9 Kévin Reza (Fra) Team Europcar 0:03:00
10 Darren Lill (RSA) DCM

Stage 7 starts in Hermanus and includes four big climbs before finishing in Stellenbosch. This will be the last time for the challenging riders to attack Kristian House with the climbs of Franschoek and Hellshoogte defining the race.

Until then,
Nic White

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