Exciting racing on the slopes of Paarl Mountain
2011-03-17
THE South African champion, Darren Lill of Team DCM, took the final day’s racing of the Tour de Boland by the horns, throwing down the gauntlet on the slopes of Paarl Mountain to outclass overnight race leader Johann Rabie (Bonitas) and Christoph Sauser (Songo), former World Mountain-bike Champion. The route, up the steep slopes of Paarl Mountain (and the dirt road on the Jan Phillips Mountain Drive), and the sharp turns in the main section in Paarl South, caused immediate trouble to all but the strongest and most agile of mountain climbers. Lill put the hammer down from the very first ascent, and, between him and Sauser, attempted to drive the platoon to pieces, as soon as was humanly possible. With each lap, the number of riders who were able to survive the continuous onslaughts became less, until, on the third lap of the 12km circuit, the remainders were whittled down to some ten. Several attempts were made by riders such as Johan van Zyl (CSA Academy) and Daryl Impey (MTN) to advance themselves into a cushioned lead prior to the murderous ascent. Impey managed to create a seemingly unassailable gap in the penultimate lap, but was roped in rather vigorously by the lead few, when Lill sailed away to secure the King of the Mountain classification. Lill spent the rest of the last two laps in a solo effort to put some distance into the likes of Sauser, the fast-losing overall leader Rabie, van Niekerk, the King of the Mountain overnight, and a flailing Christoph van Heerden, the leader on points overnight. Paarl riders Avery Arendse, Marius September, Brandon Christians, Anton Wynand and Emile Jacobs also took part in this year’s tour. Arendse was part of the Cycling South Africa Cycling Academy, which is an initiative from Cycling SA to create opportunities for promising youngsters and assist with logistics for the cyclists. September and Christians got the opportunity to compete against the top professional riders of South Africa and gain some valuable experience as part of the Le Coq Sportif Western Cape Invitational Team. Jacobs, who is riding for Team Intellibus as a junior, finished 2nd overall behind Oliver Stapleton Cotton and Ivan Perold, a learner of Hugenote High School who ended third in his category. Pieter Grobbelaar of Wellington also took part in this year’s race.
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