Impey says he’s up for Challenge
Though he admits he will be vulnerable without the assistance of his Orica-Scott team-mates tomorrow, as he prepares to face an onslaught from full-strength local outfits, South African rider Daryl Impey is eager to add his name to the list of 947 Cycle Challenge winners.
“I would love to win the Cycle Challenge. It’s my home race and very special to me,” Impey, a double World Championships medallist in the team time trial, said this week.
“But as I have found in the past, it can be hard racing by yourself without a team to back you up, and for the local guys this is an important race to win.”
The elite men’s entry list also features last year’s winner, Roadcover rider and former mountainbike specialist Brendon Davids, as well as Team BCX sprinter Nolan Hoffman.
Having won the Tsogo Sun Amashova Cycle Classic for the sixth time in Durban last month, Hoffman was aiming for his maiden Cycle Challenge title, with the former Cape Town Cycle Tour champion looking to become the fifth man to secure a career treble of domestic road classic victories.
Meanwhile, with the women’s race this weekend again holding UCI 1.1 international status, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio will shed her Bigla Pro Cycling jersey as she turns out for an African Mixed team in an attempt to reclaim the Cycle Challenge crown.
A three-time winner of the race, Moolman-Pasio missed last year’s event after breaking her hip in a crash during a time trial contest on the European circuit.
She was set to face a line-up which included Hitec Products rider Charlotte Becker of Germany, who won last year’s race, local veteran Anriette Schoeman (Africa Silk), who won in 2008, and a team representing German-registered outfit Canyon-Sram.