Tuesday, 22 February 2011 12:18
House on fire in stage one of Tour of South Africa
Report by Nic White
Starting in Menlyn in Pretoria, the race was very aggressive from early on, with riders trying to get away before the categorized climb at 52km. Dan Craven of Rapha Condor made it over in first place, and then after the race regrouped a little, a counter attack went clear containing Kristian House and Czech, Martin Blaha. House led over the hotspot at 64 km just after the dam wall of Hartebeestpoort.
At this point of the race, the bunch decided to let the duo run, and it was a sort of time out for a natural break. The next few kilometers were relaxed and then the first time gap came back with the two leaders at 2m40, and their names. I recognized House from racing in the past, and realized that it was a dangerous move, but everyone was very relaxed, and the tempo stayed gentle up the tracking station road.
The lead of the two in front went up to over 5 minutes, and then the group got a bit more organised. Europcar, DCM, 360Life all put a few guys on the front. Eventually MTN Qhubeka also got involved. House was now alone in front, and maintaining a good lead. An unfortunate crash took out a favourite of the tour, Anthony Charteau of France, riding with Europcar, he broke his collarbone. That also took a little steam out of the chase as quite a few riders went down, including Jay Thomson (360Life), Johann Rabie (Bonitas) and a few others including Stefan Ihlenfeldt from our Toyota CSA team.
Everyone except Charteau rejoined the race, and now the pace was on in earnest, but House had flown, and he was not to be brought back. The bunch made a good effort, but the days efforts had taken their toll, and after 154 km the bunch sprint for second place that finished outside of Monte Casino was won by Herman Fouche of DCM from Milan Kadlec of the Czech National team and Tyelr Day of Bonitas.
The first day of a tour is always a nervous one, with riders unsure of the competition, and no teams that are willing to take control before that have a clear advantage. This made for a bit of uncertain racing with a little too much hesitation in the effort to chase down the break.The top teams were eyeing each other a bit too much before committing.
The bunch racing through Pretoria, Image © Craig Dutton
But now Kristian House and Rapha Condor - Sharp of England have a substantial lead. The question is: are they prepared to commit themselves to defending the lead? And are they strong enough? The second stage is a tough one starting at 10h00 from Monte Casino, and finishing 164kms later again at Monte Casino in Johannesburg. The stage will take us through to Roodepoort, Soweto, Johannesburg CBD before a few laps around Santon, with the highlight of Santon drive and the King of the Mountain primes that are on offer!
From my side, our Toyota CSA team rode well, represented in many of the early moves. We did not get involved in the chase, and a few of us were a little on the jaded side in the last kilometers. Johann Van Zyl, Louis Meintjes and HB Kruger all finished securely in the bunch and will hope to feature in the young rider classification, a few seconds were lost for the rest of us in the last kilometer. Tomorrow offers another opportunity to enjoy the race through the streets of Joburg!
Stage 1 Results:
- Kristian House (Rapha Condor Sharp)
- Herman Fouche (DCM) @2'22''
- Milan Kadlec (Czech Republic)
- Tyler Day (Team Bonitas)
- Martin Verschoor (Team Type 1)
- Alex Meenhorst (Team Differdange-Magic-Sportfood)
- Daryl Impey (MTN-Qhubeka)
- William Dugan (Team Type 1)
- David George (360 Life)
- Jacques Janse van Rensburg (Team Burgos 2016)
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