BCX’s Nolan Hoffman won the 132km first stage of the Tour of Good Hope, which took place in and around Paarl today.
Hoffman won the race in 3:17:15, beating Alfa Bodyworks-Giant’s Rohan du Plooy and DiData’s Italian Luca Mozzato into second and third place respectively.
BCX’s Nolan Hoffman pictured winning stage one of the Tour of Good Hope in Paarl today. Photo: Tour of Good Hope
The race started at a high speed, before Luthando Kaka, Brandon Downes and Rickardo Broxham made a break 35km in.
The three set the pace for large parts of the race and maintained their lead until the 102km mark when the peloton caught up.
A bunch sprint ensued in the last 10km, before BCX riders took control with 4km left. Hoffman then took the spoils in the final dash for the line.
Team dormakaba SA’s Vera Adrian, who hails from Namibia, won the women’s category in 4:01:53, beating Team Spur’s Ariane Lüthi into second. Anneleen Bosma rounded out the podium.
The field stayed together for most of the first half of the race, especially after the strong cross winds had died down.
At around the 80km mark some of the riders threw in some attacks, but it was to no avail as the bunch managed to hold.
Adrian managed to outlast the rest in the final stretch.
Callum Ormiston won the junior men’s category in 3:17:21.
View provisional results below.
Stage one
Men
1. Nolan Hoffman (Team BCX) 3:17:15
2. Rohan du Plooy (Alfa Bodyworks-Giant)
3. Luca Mozzato (DiData)
4. Reynard Butler (ProTouch)
5. Sobrero Matteo (DiData) 3:17:17
6. Shameeg Salie (Randwater-Transnet)
7. Alexendre Mayer (Mauritius) 3:17:18
8. Louis Visser (DiData)
9. Marc Pritzen (Team BCX)
10. Brad Gouveris (Alfa Bodyworks-Giant)
Women
1. Vera Adrian (Team dormakaba SA) 4:01:53
2. Ariane Lüthi (Team Spur) 4:01:55
3. Anneleen Bosma
4. Yzette Oelofse (Bestmed)
5. Carmen Buchacher (dormakaba SA)
6. Carla Oberholzer (Demacon)
7. Liezel Jordaan
8. Aurelie Halbwachs 4:01:56
9. Catherine Colyn 4:01:57
10. Michelle Doman
Veterans men (30-39)
1. Jaco Cronje 3:26:00
2. Jack van Wyk
3. Bennie Viljoen
Veterans men (40-49)
1. Julien van der Pluym 3:27:34
2. Thys Oosthuizen
3. Moolman Welgemoed
Veteran men (50-59)
1. Dirkie Nel 3:45:29
2. Shane Daniel
3. Jose Antunes
Junior men
1. Callum Ormiston 3:17:21
2. Rickardo Broxham 3:17:22
3. Charl Swanepoel 3:17:34
4. Ethan Warrin 3:17:46
5. Tiano da Silva 3:17:54
