The 947 Cycle Challenge was won by multiple African U23 continental mountain bike champion Brendon Davids in Johannesburg today.
Davids led a breakaway group of three over the finish line to take the victory in 2:15:48.
Eddie van Heerden took second ahead of Telkom’s Morné van Niekerk.
RoadCover’s Jock Tour and Satellite Classic winner Willie Smit brought the bunch home ahead of Telkom’s Cape Town Cycle Tour champion Clint Hendricks.
“I don’t think it has quite sunk in yet. It’s a little bit unexpected, to be quite honest,” said Davids.
“I’ve been concentrating on the mountain bike mainly, but I felt this race kind of suits me with the power climbs.”
Davids got into the significant break of the day, riding away with four others up Jan Smuts Avenue.
He and the young Van Heerden and Van Niekerk managed to avoid a crash in the dip on Jan Smuts near Zoo Lake that took down six riders, including Brad Potgieter (Team Roadcover).
“We came across Nelson Mandela Bridge and there was a small break over there,” said Davids.
“I saw Van Heerden just up the road. I just took a dig, there was a bit of a crosswind and I managed to get a gutter going that made the others suffer. The bunch sat at 50 seconds for a while, then before we knew it we had a gap of two minutes.”
Davids, being a staunch KwaZulu-Natal man, admitted he knew little about the route and relied on advice from a close friend. With just 15km left to go, he put pressure on the others and made the break smaller.
“The group splintered and there were just the three of us left, myself, Morne and Eddie. The cat and mouse games started as we entered Steyn City. This being my first Cycle Challenge, I had no idea what to expect.
“When we came down the descent of Steyn City, I lost about 10 bike lengths. I didn’t know where we were going, what we were doing. I took a dig near the end and came over the top of Eddie for the win.”
Davids said he had always seen himself moving to the road in the future.
“It’s happening a lot quicker now than I thought it would. I expected to get to certain goals on the mountain bike and then move across to the road.
“Next year I will mainly be riding locally, with some international stints in Europe. Then I hope to be moving across to the world tour in a couple of years’ time.”
Riding in Europe is the aim of Van Heerden and Van Niekerk, with the latter having signed for a team in Spain for next season. Van Heerden has signed for Roadcover for 2017, a team he hopes to hone his career with.
