Steven van Heerden hopes to find an extra bit of pace to enable him to win the 106km Herald Cycle Tour in Port Elizabeth on Sunday.
Last year Van Heerden finished the race alongside his then BCX teammate Clint Hendricks. But it was Hendricks who took the victory on the line.
Now the two will be in opposition to each other as they ride for completely different set-ups.
Steven van Heerden, pictured here at the Ride for Sight, hopes to find an extra bit of pace to enable him to win the 106km Herald Cycle Tour on Sunday. Photo: Cycle Nation
Hendricks recently signed for ProTouch, having left the German-based Bike Aid which he joined after leaving BCX.
The 25-year-old Van Heerden, meanwhile, rides for the self-managed DNS Sports alongside his long-time friends Nolan Hoffman and David Maree.
They are currently on a quest to secure a title sponsor for their set-up, which they launched after their former outfit, Vandergroup, folded due to lack of sponsorship.
“There’s definitely a bit more pressure on me than last year,” Van Heerden told In the Bunch today.
“Last year Clint and I broke away and so there is some pressure to improve on that. But now he’s on the other side, so I’m expecting a good hard race.”
Van Heerden, Maree and Hoffman, the latter having won the Herald six times before, will hope to make an impression in the next few events to show they still have what it takes, despite not being part of a fully fledged set-up.
The trio took part in the Ride for Sight last weekend, but Hoffman unfortunately suffered a mechanical that put paid to his chances.
The Kempton Park local said he would like to be more competitive on Sunday.
“There is more of a disadvantage with us only being three guys, but I think we handled it quite well [at the Ride for Sight],” said Van Heerden.
“I know ProTouch and TEG Procycling are taking part and they will bring several riders each.
“They have quite a few fast sprinters in their teams so I think they will try keeping it together for a bunch sprint which I feel might play in our favour. We can try racing off them a bit.”
He added that they would see how the race unfolded before making any decisions on who would go for the victory.
“The Herald comes down to a simple thing – if it’s a bunch sprint we’ll go for Nolan, but if a small group of riders go away then hopefully David or I will be in there.
“The three of us know each other’s strengths quite well and we will know how to work it out.”
Van Heerden said the Herald has a fast finish and that if a breakaway occurs it is likely to stay away.
“We’ll have to play our cards nicely and see how it goes,” he said, identifying Hendricks and TEG’s Ryan Harris as posing the biggest threat in the event of a sprint finish.
But Van Heerden, who won the Fast One cycle race last month, said any one of the DNS riders could pull off a victory on the day.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence in the guys and our form is pretty good. We’re preparing for the Cape Town Cycle Tour – the big one – so we want to be ready for that.”
