Tandem-duo's win upsets
2006-09-28
THE Tandem duo Uwe Schmidt and Robby Rodriques’s win of the Monument to Monument Cycle Tour, which took place on Saturday, has caused an upset amongst the Cape’s top elite cyclists.
Chris Willemse senior, team manager for the elite Team CSC/CVT, says his team was unaware that tandems - which had been given a five-minute head-start in the race - were in contention for the overall top prize.
“If we’d been aware that it was an open race, we definitely would have chased the tandems down.
“Not only did we have enough CSC riders in our team to do so, but the other elite riders would have had an equal interest in catching the tandems in the hope of securing the top prize,” said Willemse.
The first break in Saturday’s fast and fairly flat race was made about 15km into the race when six riders took the lead.
Various subsequent breaks were made as the CSC cyclists battled it out with the Richard Kane and Liberty Life teams.
With less than 25km to the finish line, Team CSC/CVT went on the attack, positioning both its sprinters, Garth Thomas and Abdelbasset Hannachi, for a possible win.
Desperately keen to win in front of his home crowd, Paarl-born Thomas dashed across the finish line ahead of Brinley Hector (Liberty Life) and Abdelbasset Hannachi (Team CSC/CVT), only to be disappointed by the news that the race had already been won by the riders with the fastest time on the day, the Bikemax duo on tandem.
Despite the controversy, the CSC cyclists believe the 82km race is a welcome addition to the Cape’s cycling calendar.
Starting in Paarl, the route took cyclists to the Huguenot Monument in Franschhoek before they turned and headed back in the direction of the Language Monument in Paarl.
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