Following an injury, Alfa Bodyworks-Giant’s Byron Munton adopted a different approach to preparing for his season this year – and it has worked wonders. He has already racked up two victories.
On the first weekend of January Munton won the Western Cape Road Champs time-trial, while also finishing fifth in the road race.
Alfa Bodyworks-Giant’s Byron Munton (right) pictured with teammate Chris Cronje moments before winning the Stellenbosch Cycle Tour. Photo: Craig Kolesky
Over the past weekend he won the Stellenbosch Cycle Tour, a race he said was “quite special to get under the belt”.
“Everything is starting to fall into place now,” Munton told In the Bunch today.
“I have had a different approach after an injury last year. I had my off season earlier than I normally would have, which meant I started with my base training earlier.
“Now is quite a crucial time as I start with my final prep before the national road champs in Pretoria where I will be joined by my teammate Rainhardt [Marais].”
He said the rest of his team would take part in the 99er Cycle Tour on the same weekend as the Pretoria event.
The Cape Town local crossed the line in the Stellenbosch race with his other teammate, Chris Cronje, while HB Kruger, a recent signing, came home fifth.
“It was a great day for the team,” Munton said. “For this race we knew we had the right riders to cover most of the moves.”
Cronje was the first in the team to make it into the breakaway of several riders, Munton recalled, while he and Marais were covering moves at the head of the bunch.
“After a while guys were starting to bridge over to the break and when the third rider went, I was ready to follow. Rainhardt told me to follow it.”
The team had three riders in the bunch, Kruger, Marais and Brandon Christians, who were all marking and trying to soften any counter-attacks, Munton said.
“Being quite a big bunch, there were solo riders and riders in teams you had to watch out for. But in the break everyone did their best to try to make it work, which helped a lot.”
He said however it was challenging to maintain their gap without going too hard. “Chris and I needed to keep something in reserve for the last 40km.
“The main challenge of the day was with just less than 30km left. Anything can happen from there and I would say the route was still not suited to any type of rider.”
Rohan du Plooy, who last year rode for Alfa Bodyworks-Giant before joining the ProTouch Continental team, was the defending champion.
