South African professional set-up, Team Enza, has named a line-up that consists of experienced and young riders for the 2021 season. Photo: Facebook Dnsportssa
Team Enza has opted for a mix of youth and experience as it prepares for its assault on the 2021 domestic and international cycling season.
The eight-rider line-up released recently includes several seasoned pros in Nolan Hoffman (35), David Maree (31), Clint Hendricks (29) and Steven van Heerden (27).
Twenty-two-year-old Joshua van Wyk and 18-year-olds Dian Janjetich, Kyle Swanepoel and Keagan van Wyk make up the rest of the squad.
Although the team has not named an official leader, Hoffman has been its marquee rider for many years.
The sprinter from Franschhoek won a silver medal in the scratch race at the UCI World Track Championships as far back as 2012 and is a triple winner of South Africa’s biggest one-day classic, the Cape Town Cycle Tour.
Paarl-born Clint Hendricks has also been a top performer locally and abroad, winning the Cape Town Cycle Tour in 2016 before picking up the bronze medal in the road race at the Commonwealth Games in 2018.
The versatile Maree is a proven winner on the track and road. In 2018, the Joburg rider won what is arguably SA’s toughest one-day race, the Jock Classic, and last year he took the omnium title at both the national and African track champs.
Van Heerden, born and bred in Kempton Park, is another all-rounder of the very highest calibre. The national individual pursuit record holder has a cupboard full of national and African champs medals on the track and has won road races such as the Tour de Windhoek in 2017 and the Tour Durban and Fast One in 2019.
Van Wyk’s crowning achievement to date is probably his victory in the Paarl Boxing Day 25-miler but, like some of his teammates, he has won titles at national and African level on the track.
Maree confirmed that the team had set goals both on the track and road.
“We are primarily a road team, but every one of our riders has been, or still is, active on the track.”
In terms of short-term plans, he said the team would have a busy March.
“Our first major goal is the African Continental Road Championship in Egypt in early March. I believe we have a few riders in the team who will be selected to represent South Africa.”
The following week the riders will head to the SA National Road Championships in Swellendam (March 18 to 21).
Maree confirmed that there was no designated captain.
“As a team with a number of older riders, I would not say we have a specific captain. As most of us are seasoned pros, we take it upon ourselves to take the lead in showing the younger guys how to win bike races.”
