Yellow jersey changes hands in cycling race
2008-02-28
THE Neotel Regional Academy of Yorkshire and Rhadsport took part in the Wilde Fruit Juice League in Wellington on Saturday. With Brandon Christians (Neotel Rhadsport) losing his yellow jersey the previous weekend, the leader into the event was Wilco Strydom of the Harmony team. Before the race, Christians was in 2nd position (108 points), 5 points behind Strydom. The race was over a distance of 84km and went to Hermon over the Botmanskloof Climb and back to Wellington. The race for the Senior Scholars started with a fast pace and a number of attacks and counter attacks were launched. Prominent in these attacks were the teams of Neotel and Harmony. A rider that showed some aggressive riding was Clint Hendricks (Neotel Rhadsport). He was always visible in front and launching attacks. He was well assisted by Avery Arendse (Neotel Yorkshire) and Christians. At the 33km mark the riders started with the 6km Botmanskloof climb. It was here that the bunch splintered and Hendricks went over the climb with a 33 seconds lead. At the 45 km mark Hendricks was caught again with Harmony doing all the chasing. Racing was fast and with a wind from the side the Neotel Academy riders started to gutter on their way to the finish in Wellington. This was also a terrain that the Neotel riders know well. Some of the riders dropped and hooked onto the leading bunch again. It was the mission of the Neotel Academy riders to get Christians to the line and score as many points as possible. This was then the job of Hendricks and Arendse to keep Christians fresh for the uphill sprint finish in Wellington. Hendricks set up the sprint for Christians that was on his wheel. With 400 meters to go it was Louis Boonzaaier (Harmony) that got a gap and went over the line for 1st position. Wayne Botha (Tygerberg) got 2nd place and Christians got 3rd place. Arendse and Hendricks got 7th and 11th positions respectively.
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