Schoeman, Visser win Timbercity Cycle Tour
PORT Elizabeth’s Anriette Schoeman was once again in fine form, defending her Timbercity Cycle Tour title in Oudtshoorn for the eighth time.
The 104km event, which is also a Cape Town Cycle Tour qualifier, played out in near-perfect conditions on Sunday morning.
The elite women started with the elite men in the A seeding group, and this year a starstudded group of top individual riders made for an interesting race.
Schoeman (Africa Silks Bestmed), Yolande de Villiers (Ultimate Cycling) and Finnie Barnard (CIV) were the main contenders in the women’s race.
On the men’s side, Louis Visser (Dimension Data) took the top spot, followed by Marshall Hendriks (Changing Diabetes) and David Garret (Giant, Cape Town).
The race started at a very high pace and the bunch was broken into smaller groups within the first 7km of the race at the Cango Caves.
Schoeman, Finie Barnard and De Villiers managed to stay with the leading bunch.
The steep 2km climb, about 20km into the race at Schoeman’s Poort, caused the bunch to break up into three groups.
Schoeman, De Villiers and Barnard managed to stay with the leading men. As expected, Visser and Garret attacked 32km into the race on the dreaded 5.5km climb at the foot of the Swartberg Mountain.
This caused the main bunch to split into two groups. Schoeman, De Villiers and Barnard found themselves in the chasing bunch.
Midway up the climb, Schoeman and De Villiers slowly started to open a gap on Barnard.
At the turning point, Visser, Hendriks, Vicus Boshoff (Coimbra) and Garret managed to open a small gap on the chasing bunch.
They were chased hard by Schoeman, Carlu Pienaar, Juan-Paul Gerber, and Lemar Meyer.
Schoeman took the Queen of the Mountains at the Cango Caves with 30km to go. At this stage, it was clear that Visser, Hendriks and Garret would stay away.
Boshoff lost contact with the three leaders, still being pursued by the chasing bunch. De Villier took the sprint prime 5km outside Oudtshoorn at the Crocodile Farm.
It was then Visser who out-sprinted Hendriks in a dramatic breakaway to the finish.
Schoeman and De Villiers were all over the road in the last 1km as they tactically tried to out-manoeuvre each other. Schoeman took the sprint, with De Villiers second.
It was an excellent performance by the two women, who finished seventh and eighth overall among the men.