Jaco Venter says he had hoped to do well, but was not expecting to win his maiden Tour of Good Hope, which finished at the Taal Monument in Paarl today.
Jaco Venter won his maiden Tour of Good Hope, which finished at the Taal Monument in Paarl today. Photo: Henk Neuhoff
“I wasn’t riding my road bike that much as I was focusing more on mountain biking. But every race you start you want to do well, so I’m happy about winning,” said the former Dimension Data rider, who switched to the MTB discipline recently.
The 33-year-old First Move Sport rider, who rode under the Alfa Bodyworks banner in this five-day tour, won the second-stage time-trial and claimed the overall lead. He managed to hold on to the yellow jersey for the rest of the race.
The first stage was won by Travis Barrett, with Nolan Hoffman taking stage three and Devin Shortt the fourth stage. Frans Claes crossed the line first on the final day.
Venter said the tour was decided after the second stage – the 45km ITT.
“I won it by a margin of 20 seconds only, so the rest of the tour I just had to keep ahead of second on the general classification.
“My teammates protected me every day and I have to thank them for their selfless efforts throughout.”
Venter said today’s final stage was short and fast. He felt the last climb up to the monument was a bit steep for him so he just wanted to stay with Brandon Downes, who was second overall.
“That’s what I did. My teammate Frans attacked at the bottom of the climb and stayed away to win the stage.”
He felt overall that it was a great tour with hard routes and good organisation and he would definitely return.
“This [win] is a confidence-booster as I was mostly a domestique during my career, so it’s a nice feeling to be the leader and to pull it off.
“It’s also good to get some road-racing in before the Cape Town Cycle Tour on Sunday. I have been third there before, so a step or two up would be nice,” said Venter.
