Great spell in cycling for African wheelers

Froome maintains lead in Tour as Pyrenees, Alps lie ahead for riders

TEAMSouth Africa left their best for last, raking in three more medals at the World Student Games in Gwangju, South Korea, yesterday.

The national squad ended their campaign with a total of five medals (two gold and three bronze), all achieved in athletics.

In the morning session on the 10th day of competition, the men’s half- marathon squad secured bronze in the team event, spearheaded by Thabang Masihlelo who finished eighth in the individual race in 1:07:11.

Defending champion Gladwin Mzazi had a bad day at the office, taking 15th position in 1:09:26, but he did enough to help the team reach the podium.

The women’s half- marathon squad finished fourth in the team competition, led by Thembi Baloyi who was 16th in 1:28:05.

In the evening session on the track, Rynardt van Rensburg put up a strong fight to grab third place in the men’s 800m final in 1:49.30.

Van Rensburg missed out on the silver medal by 0.01sec in a sprint finish against Moroccan Abdelati el Guesse.

Long-jumper Roelf Pienaar carried the SA flag in his specialist event, in the absence of African champion Zarck Visser who withdrew ahead of the qualifying round with a foot unjury.

Pienaar took the early lead with a second-round leap of 7.98m, and while he was overtaken in the latter stages of the competition he held on to reach the podium, earning bronze.

The women's 4x400m quartet – Anneri Ebersohn, Arlene Gowar, Anuscha Nice and Justine Palframan – were the best of the SA relay teams, taking sixth place in their final in 3:46.73.

On the football field, the SA women’s side lost out in a penalty shootout to Ireland, ending the tournament in 14th position.

Sduduzo Dlamini scored in the first half, and captain Refiloe Jane netted a second-half brace to give the South Africans a 3-1 lead with 11 minutes remaining, but the opposition netted two late goals to earn a 3-3 draw. The Irish outfit went on to win 4-2 in the shootout.

AWONDERFUL 10 days for South African and African cycling came to an end yesterday, with MTN-Qhubeka taking the polka dot jersey at the Tour de France and Ashleigh Moolman Pasio securing her best position at the Giro Rosa yet.

MTN-Qhubeka went into the rest day after finishing 20th in the team time trial on the ninth stage, but had the succour that Daniel Teklehaimanot of Eritrea was assured of wearing the King of the Mountains jersey into the second week of the Tour. It was a tough day for the South African-based team, who were always going to struggle in the TTT discipline having brought a team that leant towards climbers to the Tour.

“Edvald Boasson Hagen put in the lion’s share of work over the final sectors of a tough course,” said the team after they had recorded a time of 34 minutes and 11 second over the 28km, an average of 49.1km/h, one minute and 56 seconds behind BMC, the stage winners.

“We finished our team time trial and we didn’t do a superb time but not too far away from the best,” said Jens Zemke, the head of performance at MTN-Qhubeka. “We did expect a bit more, but we must also realise it was the first day this team had ridden together so it was not our main objective to go fast in the team time trial.

“We had a very good first week here in the Tour de France and we are also heading into the mountains now. This is the terrain for our African talents so we can live with our result today, we did our best and we now look forward to the next tough stages.”

Moolman Pasio (Team Bigla) took fifth on the final stage of the Giro Rosa, slipping from third to fourth on general classification. It was the best result by a South African here, after a week in which she had climbed as high as second on GC and been on the podium a handful of times.

“The Giro Rosa was an incredible experience this year,” said Moolman Pasio. “It’s the best Giro I have had so far. Everything was great from the team support to the equipment. It makes all the difference. I did my best every day to stay in contention.

“Today was a really tough day. Mara Abbott was really strong. Of course I’m very disappointed to miss the podium. Fourth is always the hardest place to finish. I’m feeling really motivated in that I have taken a big step up. I think the rest of the season is going to be great and it’s a privilege to have the support of such amazing girls in the team and incredible staff. Overall I am happy.”

MTN-Qhubeka’s Natnael Berhane took fifth overall at the Tour of Austria after the final stage yesterday. Berhane attacked the peloton on the first climb of the day, getting into a six-man break that was brought back on the descent. The Eritrean eventually crossed the line safely in the bunch.

It ended a good and controversial race for MTN-Qhubeka. Gerald Ciolek led the race for a spell, Johann van Zyl won a stage, the team took second place in the team time trial, and Berhane moved up to third overall at one stage. The event was soured by the racial abuse suffered by Berhane by Branislau Samoilau, a Belarusian competitor. The Belarusian apologised and donated a month’s salary to the Qhubeka charity, an apology that was accepted by Berhane.

“I came here with big ambitions and I finished fifth.,” said Berhane. It would have been better to be on the podium. We can be happy with the stage win of Johann but personally I wanted a bit more. It is still my best result this year, I can improve from here.”

Chris Froome, pictured above, stayed firmly on track for the Tour de France title when he retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey after the ninth stage, a 28-kilometre team time trial won by the slimmest of margins by BMC Racing yesterday.

Heading into today’s rest day, Froome has the edge over his main rivals, who were hoping to take advantage of the Briton’s supposed weaknesses in the tricky opening block of racing.

The 2013 champion will now be keen to all but wrap up the race as it goes into the mountains – the Pyrenees in the second week and the Alps in the third.

Yesterday, BMC Racing clocked 32 minutes 15 seconds to beat Sky by one second and Froome now leads American Tejay van Garderen by 12 seconds overall. – Kevin McCallum and Reuters