Stefan de Bod avoided any final stage drama to coast to his second overall title in the Bestmed Tour of Good Hope which finished at the Taal Monument outside Paarl today.
After setting the pace during the 82km stage, De Bod gave way to his DiData Continental teammate Italian Matteo Sobrero to take the stage, enabling them to add the green jersey (points) to the yellow.
Their teammate and defending champion, Kent Main, took third spot on the stage, finishing second overall, ahead of ProTouch’s Gustav Basson.
DiData riders Matteo Sobrero (left) and Stefan de Bod celebrate their win on the 82km final stage of the Bestmed Tour of Good Hope, presented by Scicon and the City of Drakenstein, which ended at the Taal Monument near Paarl in the Cape Winelands today. Photo: Robert Ward
Delighted with winning another title in South Africa’s premier stage road race, presented by Scicon and the City of Drakenstein, 2016 champion De Bod said their planning could hardly have worked out better.
“Our first priority was to take the yellow jersey,” he said. “Then we wanted to get a few stage wins [they took four out of five] and, thirdly, we hoped to pick up another jersey.
“So everything went perfectly to plan and it was a great team effort from day one.”
After winning two years ago as a teenager, De Bod said he had been much more relaxed this week.
“Two years ago I was really young but I have learnt so much from my experiences in Europe that this time was not as stressful.”
He added that they had targeted this race as one to win at the start of the year.
“Bestmed put on a really good race and we see it as the biggest tour in South Africa,” said De Bod. “It’s an important one to win.”
Overnight leader Ariane Luthi (Spur) completed a successful week by taking her fourth stage in a row to capture the women’s title after ending fourth last year.
Ariane Luthi crosses the line at the Taal Monument to win the 82km final stage of the Bestmed Tour of Good Hope, presented by Scicon and the City of Drakenstein, which ended near Paarl in the Cape Winelands today. She also took the overall title. Photo: Robert Ward
The Swiss pro, who led by just over three minutes going into the final day, was followed home by Carmen Buchacher, who also took second place overall.
Lucy James took third place in the general classification.
After a breakaway by several riders, Luthi said the peloton reeled them in before the final climb.
“We closed it to about one minute and then at the start of the climb I then put in an attack and only Carmen stayed with me.
“We caught Aurelie Halbwachs and I attacked once more just before the end to get the stage win.”
Having set her sights on the overall title, the five-time Cape Epic winner said she was very happy at holding onto the yellow jersey.
“There are a lot of unknowns in this race in terms of the strength of your competition, so you just have to test the waters on the first day.
“The time-trial win was very important for me because that gave a confidence boost.
“And then to win the queen stage up Du Toits Kloof Pass showed me that I had the legs, compared to some of the others.”
