Phil Liggett, the “voice of cycling”, and South African national road champion and WorldTour rider, Daryl Impey, will host the Support SA Talent Project Road Cycling Series awards breakfast at The Wanderers Club in Illovo on November 21.
The breakfast will take place after the last event in the series, the 947 Cycle Challenge.
The Road Cycling Series was launched this year to provide a platform for aspiring South African cyclists to receive recognition for their achievements and performances on the local stage.
The series comprises 21 one-day classic events, six multi-stage tours and the SA National Road Championships.
Each race provides an opportunity for the athlete to accumulate points modelled on the UCI points framework. Points are allocated to athletes and teams based on the final results from each event.
Phil Liggett and South African national road champion Daryl Impey (pictured) will host the Support SA Talent Project Road Cycling Series awards breakfast at The Wanderers Club in Illovo on November 21. Photo: ©A.S.O./Alex Broadway
The series is one component of the overall Support SA Talent Project, which aims at providing road cyclists with access to funding and infrastructure to compete at national and international events while also recognising the country’s top riders and teams.
The project is currently tracking over 500 athletes in the junior, under-23 and elite categories for men and women as well as sub-categories such as the best one-day classic and tour riders.
The best-performing men’s and women’s elite teams will also be acknowledged.
Support SA Talent Project co-founder Rebecca Eliot said the event would serve as a fundraiser by selling tables to corporate entities, holding auctions and raffling off and selling cycling memorabilia.
Liggett, who is a patron of the project, and Impey will give presentations about the world of professional cycling, including fascinating insights into some of the prominent WorldTour events around the globe.
“We have a whole range of partnerships coming together to provide solutions for raising funds, specifically to enable selected athletes to represent the national team and participate in UCI and federation events,” Eliot said.
“We’ve opted to focus on solutions rather than jumping on the bandwagon of all the negativity around why these events are currently self-funded. That doesn’t solve the challenge.
“Instead, it creates noise and then businesses and individuals [with an affinity for cycling] who show interest in the sport back down because they don’t want their brands associated with the negativity,” she added.
Eliot said she believed having Liggett and Impey host the breakfast would prove a major drawcard for the first edition of the event.
There would also be an exclusive auction of a signed Richie Ryall artwork featuring Impey, Nicholas Dlamini and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, as well as other South African riders riding in WorldTour teams.
The names of the series winners would also feature on the painting before it was auctioned off, Eliot said.
After 20 events so far, Gustav Basson of ProTouch leads the elite men’s category as well as the Best Tour Rider category, while Carla Oberholzer of Demacon leads in the elite women’s category.
Ryan Harris of officeguru leads the U23 Best Young Rider category.
The next race on the series calendar will be the Satellite Classic next weekend.
View the provisional standings below.
Elite/U23 men (points)
1. Gustav Basson (ProTouch) 366
2. Jayde Julius (ProTouch) 355
3. Clint Hendricks (Bike Aid, formerly BCX) 324
4. Calvin Beneke (AC/DC Luso) 320
5. Nolan Hoffman (BCX) 310
6. Matt Beers (NAD Pro) 306
7. Reynard Butler (ProTouch) 268
8. Gawie Combrinck (NAD Pro) 235
9. Chris Jooste (BCX) 209
10. Nico Bell (NAD Pro) 175
Elite/U23 women (points)
1. Carla Oberholzer (Demacon) 262
2. Kim le Court (Demacon) 220
3. Lynette Burger (Demacon) 183
4. Ariane Luthi (Team Spur) 175
5. Maroesjka Mathee (Ciovita) 130
6. Joanna van de Winkel (Cycle Nation) 126
7. Liezel Jordaan (No team) 85
8. Yzette Oelofse (Bestmed-ASG) 84
9. Sanet Coetzee (Clover) 80
10. Michelle Benson (Cycle Nation) 74
Junior men (points)
1. Ryan Terry (Infinita) 215
2. Jean-Pierre Lloyd (Jaguar) 168
3. Callum Ormiston (Hi-Q) 145
4. Tiano Da Silva (ProTouch) 133
5. Rickardo Broxham (ProTouch) 116
Junior women (points)
1. Tiffany Keep (Silverback) 185
2. Kelsey van Schoor (African Pride) 110
3. Azulde Britz (Positive Sports Solutions) 85
4. Carla Steyn (Valencia) 55
5. Simone Farber (Clover) 40
