Rabie shines in Tour de Boland
2009-03-05
TEAM NEOTEL put in a superb performance during Saturday’s fourth and final stage of the Tour de Boland to ensure that their man, Johann Rabie, maintained his lead in the General Classification. The 128 km stage rolled out from the Boland Cricket Stadium and the entire Neotel team was immediately at the front of the squad. The boys in orange were spectacular as the team (consisting of Petrus Loto, Dawid Maree, Hendri Whitehead, Siphiwe Sowela, John Ntuli, James Perry, Nolan Hoffman, Jang Chan Jae and Jang Sun Jae) kept their two key riders, Tiaan Kannemeyer and Johann Rabie, sheltered. Throughout the race, the riders sat at the head of the field and kept a high tempo that discouraged any early attacks from the opposition. Despite strong winds and very undulating terrain, none of the rival teams went on the offensive. As the race hit the final 15 km, the squad headed towards the crest of Du Toit’s Kloof and the team drove the pace hard with Sowela, Perry, Hoffman, Jae and Kannemeyer at the front. Once the climb got underway there was an attack by Dan Craven (Rapha Condor) and a rider from Maties. They were later joined by junior rider Johann van Zyl (Garmin Felt) and the youngster soon pulled clear of the duo. Back in the squad, Neotel’s Kannemeyer put the hammer down and shattered the field, leaving only his team mate Rabie and a select group of riders. The effort from Kannemeyer also led to van Zyl being reeled back with a kilometre to go. But Bjorn Glasner (Kuoto-Indaland) put in a huge attack with a few hundred metres to go. He held on to take the stage, but the superb effort by Kannemeyer was enough to get Rabie home second and capture the 2009 Tour de Boland Title. Kannemeyer took a well-earned third place. Avery Arendse put in a good ride on the final day and was only dropped from the squad during the final stages of the race. Some of the riders from the younger categories, u.10 through to u.16, were also at the various stages and managed to pick up some racing and training tips from the senior guys.
More
News
|
