Race Report - Medscheme Tour de Vino

Report by Sipho Mona, Team Manager: Team GT/Velokhaya/PPA.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

The second Tour de Vino event - partly organized by Velokhaya Events - was held in the scenic town of Franschoek, in the Cape winelands.

Bad weather threatened to hamper proceedings but on the day, more than 200 elite riders braved the elements to compete in the 117km race, which attracted national riders from Team Medscheme and Team Toyota Cyclelab.

Team GT Velokhaya riders made their mark within the first 10km of the race as the riders, wanting to shake things up, launched a number of attacks. The bunch started dwindling with 50km to go to the finish and by the time the riders reached the 20km mark, the bunch had reduced to half. Fortunately, our riders were still represented in the main field.

Relentless attacks were launched with 5km to go and a lot more riders lost contact with the bunch. Our riders had no choice but to hold onto the isolated wheels as teams formed their leadouts. We were disappointed not to make a top 10 position on the day, but a number of lessons were learnt which nevertheless made it worthwhile.