After missing out by just one second last year, Myles van Musschenbroek is banking on strong team support to make up for that disappointment in the Bestmed Tour of Good Hope in the Western Cape next week.
Being staged in and around Paarl from Monday to Friday, South Africa’s premier stage road race, presented by Scicon and the City of Drakenstein, presents the ProTouch rider a chance to banish the lingering memory of last year’s final stage.
It was then when he let a 51-second advantage slip from his grip as Kent Main staged an astonishing win on the final climb at the Taal Monument just outside Paarl.
This time he is looking forward to better team support from an outfit which, he said, had much greater depth than previously.
ProTouch’s Myles van Musschenbroek will be looking to rectify last year’s one-second loss when he competes in the Bestmed Tour of Good Hope in and around Paarl from Monday to Friday. Photo: Robert Ward
“We have more than one option this time and a few cards to play which we will discuss as the race goes on. Everyone’s on a good level and we definitely want to go for the win this year.”
He said they had been focused on working as a team, discussing tactics going into each race and having learnt a lot about each other.
The ProTouch star said stages three and four would provide key moments in the race, but he added that there was nothing you could take lightly.
“You really have to pay attention to the whole race,” he said.
“The time-trial is a key stage to see if you can make up seconds and even though it’s shorter, stage five is critical as well.
“Things can change even at the end, as you saw last year.”
In the absence of defending women’s champion Candice Lill, the in-form SA road race champion Carla Oberholzer will be one of the strong contenders for the title.
The Demacon Women’s Team rider, however, will be on her own for the event as her teammates will only be joining her for the Cape Town Cycle Tour on March 11.
With Lill concentrating on next weekend’s World Cup cross-country race in Stellenbosch, Oberholzer said another title contender would by Yzette Oelofse of Team Bestmed.
Carla Oberholzer will hope to build onto her recent successes with another victory at the Tour of Good Hope. Read her preview here.
