Race Report - Cycle Lab Cape Cobra

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

Sunday, January 17, 2010

The first league race of 2010, which started at a new venue in Tokai, saw a revived number of riders starting the race with over 100 riders in the elite category.

The race started with a neutral zone for about a kilometer until the riders reached the open roads towards the first climb of the day (Boyes Drive). The organizers had introduced a King of the Mountains category which the team was aiming to pocket for themselves. Things started heating up as the bunch descended towards the town of Fish Hoek - heading towards the first points for the KOM - however Songezo Jim out-sprinted everybody to take maximum points at Black Hill.

The race sped towards the second climb of the day (Kommetjie) which saw three riders breakaway from the pack. The team had representation from Wandisile Mahlombe, who was the main protagonist in driving the breakaway, and by the time they reached Scarborough had a 2 minute lead over the chasing pack.

The riders then descended towards Simonstown and on to the steep Red Hill Road. The breakaway group of three were still ahead and Wandisile easily took the 2nd KOM points from the Daikin Gu and Olympic Cycles riders. He then made a solo descent towards Black Hill however the pair caught him on the climb.

The trio was now facing the last climb of the day (Ou Kaapse Weg) but with 10km to go Wandisile was beginning to fade. The team in the main bunch were trying their best at neutralizing the race but were left no choice but to send more reinforcements. Siyabonga Mnqwazi heeded the call and made the jump with two other riders on the climb, catching and passing his teammate in the process. Songezo was also making headway to the break but the gap of 30 seconds was too big to close.

Siya had to settle for 4th , Songezo just peeped a Daikin Gu rider to take 5th and Wandisile came 7th with Luthando Kaka (8th) out-sprinting two Daikin riders (Moolman Welgemoed and David Garrett) to make it four riders from GT Velokhaya in the top ten positions.

A very solid ride from the team. With five riders from the team in a good position to get the overall GC jersey - who is going to take it - as they are all a couple of seconds from clinching it.