Ride for Sight regular Josh van Wyk will return to the 116km race, which takes place at the Boksburg City Stadium in Gauteng on Sunday, hoping finally to secure a win.
Josh van Wyk will return to the Ride for Sight, which takes place at the Boksburg City Stadium in Gauteng on Sunday, hoping finally to win. Photo: Owen Lloyd
“I have done the event many times. My first was when I was under-16 and I don’t think I have missed it since then,” said the 21-year-old from Boksburg.
“My best result has been a fourth, which was last year.
“My goal is for team Enza and me to race a well-executed race and hopefully pull off a win.”
Regarding tactics, Van Wyk said obviously Enza would be responsible for some of the early breaks and hopefully they could win from a breakaway situation.
“It is a fast start and it doesn’t have much climbing, so the route suits my track legs a bit better than a hilly race.
“It is easy though to miss a break because of the quick nature of the race, so my team will have to race from the front and be very active in the beginning.”
He felt his form was decent, having recently returned from Cairo, Egypt, where he competed with the national squad and claimed victory in the scratch, team sprint and madison.
“I am looking forward to racing. I’m obviously going to do everything I can to be competitive and hopefully pull off a good position.”
Regarding his future plans, it was recently announced that Van Wyk will potentially form part of the national team for the track world champs in Berlin, Germany, from February 26 to March 1.
“It is a reserve spot for the country though, so for the spot to open and me to go another country will have to pull out.
“So I am very hopeful that the opportunity is there for me to go.”
The Paarl Boxing Day champion, who bettered the 25-mile record that was set in 1985, is also planning to visit America.
“I want to do some UCI events and hopefully also some track world cups later in the year to accumulate enough points for next year’s world champs.”
