Jaco Venter delivered a solo charge to the line to win the elite men’s road race title at the 2016 South African National Road Championships in Westville, KwaZulu-Natal, yesterday.
Jaco Venter wins the 170km Elite Men’s road race at the 2016 SA National Road Championships in Westville, KwaZulu-Natal yesterday. Photo: Darren Goddard
Dimension Data’s Venter (29) was in the first breakaway of the day with RoadCover’s Clint Hendricks (25), but this was closed down at the start of the third lap.
The next move consisted of the Dimension Data duo of Songezo Jim (25) and defending champion Jacques Janse van Rensburg (28) and RoadCover’s Kent Main (20) and Calvin Beneke (25). They established a lead of over five minutes by the halfway mark.
Janse van Rensburg and Jim’s relentless pace saw Main pop off the lead group as they continued to drive with Beneke, increasing the gap to over seven minutes.
Louis Meintjes (Lampre Merida) and Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEDGE) charged hard to close the gap over the final 45km and at the start of the final 18-kilometre lap the gap had narrowed to 51 seconds with only Janse van Rensburg and Beneke in the front.
When the race regrouped with 10km to go, Venter attacked and managed to pull a 40-second gap on the peloton.
He crossed the line in 3:58:35, with U23 time-trial champion Stefan de Bod (Dimension Data) second overall and first U23 in 3:58:59.
See the full results at SA National Road Championships.
