Nolan Hoffman was delighted to claim his second major one-day classic victory of the season when he came up trumps in the 106km Amashova Durban Classic yesterday.
The BCX rider beat Alfa Bodyworks-Giant’s Rohan du Plooy to the line, with officeguru racing’s Ryan Harris completing the podium a further 41 seconds back.
Hoffman won the Cape Town Cycle Tour in March and he was glad to tick off yet another major victory, his seventh Amashova and sixth in a row.
Nolan Hoffman was delighted to claim his second major one-day classic victory of the season when he came up trumps in the 106km Amashova Durban Classic yesterday. Photo: The Digital Media Collective
His seven victories surpassed Malcolm Lange’s record of six, but for Hoffman it was not all about that.
“I’m really happy with the way we won the race yesterday. It was really tough and windy,” Hoffman told In the Bunch today.
“I didn’t really go into the race to try to win it for a seventh time – we just wanted to add to it. The team was really strong and they were focused just on winning.
“Everything went perfectly on the day,” he added.
With the wind having been decisive on the day Hoffman said the team used those conditions to their advantage.
“The wind was really strong in the first 25km and there were gusts of crosswinds.
“We just decided to put it in the gutter and a group of 10 riders initially formed [as a result], before two of them suffered punctures and fell back.
“It was a strong display from the team. I’m really proud of how we managed to ride as a unit. It was incredible stuff,” he said, adding that it was usually very unlikely that a breakaway would form that early in a race of this standard.
BCX’s David Maree finished fourth and Steven van Heerden seventh and Hoffman described the scenario as having been “impressive”, because the breakaway managed to stay away until the finish.
“I first thought it [the breakaway] formed too far out, but we managed to stay about a minute ahead the whole way through.
“We had a strong group at the front and we had good co-operation and that’s why we survived. Everything went right.”
Hoffman is now keen to make a clean sweep of all the “big three” events of the year when he tackles the 947 Cycle Challenge on November 18.
“That’s a nice focus goal for me to wrap up this season,” he said.
