Local riders pulled out all the stops at the South African Track Grand Prix and National Series which took place at the Cyril Geoghegan Cycle Track in Durban from August 7 to 9.
Team Telkom’s Nolan Hoffman (right) and Cyclenation’s Jean Spies (left) both achieved goals set ahead of the South African Track Grand Prix (UCI CL2) and National Series. Photo: Supplied
On the opening day Team Telkom drove a solid pace in the Team Pursuit to claim the gold medal by more than five seconds.
Nolan Hoffman, Reynard Butler, David Maree, and Jean Spies (Cyclenation) took the honours ahead of Team Giant (Bernard Esterhuizen, Evan Carstens, Theuns van der Bank, Tim Jenkinson) and Team VWE (Calvin Beneke, Marco Abrahams, Martin van Wyk, Steven van Heerden).
A brave effort by the visiting Team DRC (Ludovic Kabamba Muanba, Divin Nzuzi Manueno, Bebeka Matondo, Fiston Dukwa Bumba) saw them finish in fourth place.
The elimination had spectators enthralled as the elite men took to the track with Maree (Team Telkom) racing a tactical race to take the victory.
He outsmarted his teammate Hoffman in the final stages, while Van Wyk rounded out the podium.
Maroesjka Matthee (Bestmed ASG) was happy with her performance at the South African Track Grand Prix (UCI CL2) and National Series. Photo: Supplied
In the women’s race, Maroesjka Matthee (Team Bestmed ASG) pulled out all the stops to take the victory with Charlene du Preez (Team Clover) finishing second and Jennifer Abbot (Panda) third.
Day two saw the keirin heats and the scratch and sprint events take place.
Hoffman powered to first place in the 15km elite men’s scratch race ahead of Carstens and Spies.
On the third day Elite men’s keirin Winner Spies was happy with his performance and progress after an operation on his shoulder.
“All my objectives were achieved this weekend. My surgery was 13 weeks ago and so I’ve had to build pretty much from scratch to get to where I am now.”
Women’s points race and keirin winner Matthee said she knew three days of racing was going to be tough from the start.
“The last time we raced this much was at the National Track Champs in April, so my form hasn’t been that great fitness-wise. I was mostly scared of the last day, but everything went well in the end.”
View the results here.
