Leg-breaker hills on Stage 4, Cell C Tour of SA

Thursday, 24 February 2011 07:45

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Stage 4 in the Garden not so peaceful

Bloukrans Bridge to George, stage four of the Cell C Tour of South Africa was won by Italian Davide Torosantucci of d'Angelo & Antenucci - Nippo. It was a stage that was expected to offer a spring board for the top climbers to launch free of the bunch and into George.

Designed by Kevin Evans, and offering some interesting climbs like Piesang Valley rd in Plettenburg Bay, and finally a road through the Wilderness before entering George on the old Knysna Road.

The race started out really fast after a neutral decent into Natures Valley due to road works. The climb out of the valley was intense and with cold legs the race was ripped apart. Despite a large group getting some time at the top, the next two groups on the road worked hard to get it all together by the N2 leading into Plett.

Many attacks were fired from the bunch, but none could gain ground. Even after the climb of Piesang Valley road out of Plett, the race came together again. Jay Thomson riding for 360Life eventually managed to get away alone after 60km and only then the race slowed under the pace-making of the Rapha Condor - Sharp team, as always strong when it was time to control the race!

After Thomson was able to gain a gap of up to 2 minutes, he was reeled back in time for the race to enter the final 20km. This is where the action took place, and on a steep 1.5km incline in Wilderness, the race exploded. Riders donned 28 tooth sprockets for this climb, and it was necessary!

A group of about 20 riders went clear in front of the rest, under some accelerations from Daryl Impey (MTN Qhubeka) who was comfortably taking points from Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (Rapha Condor - Sharp) in the King of the Mountains competition.

The front riders wound their way down a tricky decent and then up another winding climb on the old Knysna rd towards Saasveld, and this is where even the yellow jersey, Kristian House tried to escape. After his attempt, Italian, Torosantucci made his bid. He was further down on GC, so there was little chase, and he soloed away. Darren Lill (DCM), and Kevin Reza (Europcar) managed to go clear of the bunch as well, but could not get near the leader, and finished second and third in the stage. Johann Rabie (Bonitas) brought the group home, and the damage that was expected today did not materialise!

A few riders lost some time, but no big contenders could make any head way into House's lead.

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Stage 4 Result 143km:
1 Davide Torosantucci (Ita) d'Angelo & Antenucci - Nippo 3:30:22
2 Kévin Reza (Fra) Team Europcar 0:00:18
3 Darren Lill (RSA) DCM
4 Johann Rabie (RSA) Team Bonitas 0:00:22
5 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) Veranda's Willems - Accent
6 Milan Kadlec (Cze) Czech Republic
7 Giovanni Bernaudeau (Fra) Team Europcar
8 Alex Meenhorst (NZl) Team Differdange - Magic-Sportfood.de
9 Daryl Impey (RSA) MTN Qhubeka
10 William Dugan (USA) Team Type 1 - Sanofi Aventis

General classification after stage 4
1 Kristian House (GBr) Rapha Condor - Sharp 11:18:14
2 Daryl Impey (RSA) MTN Qhubeka 0:02:22
3 Johann Rabie (RSA) Team Bonitas
4 David George (RSA) 360 Life
5 Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) Burgos 2016 - Castilla y León
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

Our team, Toyota Supercycling did not fare so well today. On the ascent of Nature's Valley at the start, Louis Meintjes was caught up in a crash and damaged his bike. He had to ride the spare bike and was to spend the stage in the gruppeto (back group). HB Kruger was also caught in the back along with about 40 riders who struggled to get going on the climb at the start!

Four of us were in the race up front, but on the steep climb, Stefan and I were in the second group over the climb, and on the following descent, a crash occurred around a bend as the guys underestimated it and were gunning it too hard. Stefan went down with a few into the bushes alongside the road. Johann had spent too much the previous day and did not have the legs to follow the pace up the steep climb, and Christiaan was also left a bit short. In that 1.5 km climb, I had a 25 tooth rear sprocket, and could not sit down and pedal, it was just too steep! A real leg breaker!

We may have dropped a few GC positions, but the race tomorrow will be an interesting one with heat and a long distance, 175km, to contend with between Oudtshoorn and Barrydale!

This story from a hot hotel room in Oudtshoorn,

Nic White

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