The race organisers have added a fresh dimension to the Takealot Tour of Good Hope this year by opting to hold the time-trial midway through the five-day race next month instead of at the start.<\/p>\n
In recent years the time-trial has taken place on the second day, a Tuesday. However, ASG Events chief executive Erick Oosthuizen confirmed this week that it would now be held on the Wednesday.<\/p>\n
South Africa’s premier road cycle race takes place in the Drakenstein Municipality in the Cape Winelands from Monday March 4 to Friday March 8, covering 490km of clover-leaf racing.<\/p>\n
Starting and finishing each day at the Boland Landbou school just outside Paarl, the race organisers have introduced a number of changes which they believe will present a strong challenge for the riders.<\/p>\n
The only exception to the finish venue is on the 71km last stage when the riders will make the climb to end at the Taal Monument just outside Paarl.<\/p>\n
After two stages of 63.5km and 97.8km, Oosthuizen said the time-trial on Wednesday – it was originally scheduled for the opening day on Monday – would see the cyclists riding a distance of 26.5km.<\/p>\n
“We felt that by holding the time-trial on the Wednesday it would help to keep things interesting,” he said.<\/p>\n
“If a strong rider or team rides a couple of minutes into the rest in the time-trial [on the first day], the race is virtually over.<\/p>\n
“We have a story to tell over five days of racing and this will be one chapter midway through that story.”<\/p>\n
Looking at the rest of the route, Oosthuizen said the riders would experience a slightly flatter profile this year, but he was confident it would still provide a proper examination of the competitors’ credentials.<\/p>\n
“It remains five days of intense rivalry, especially now that the event has UCI 2.2 status, and we still believe the challenge will be there.”<\/p>\n
He outlined a number of changes they had been forced to make this year.<\/p>\n
“The N1 tunnel on Du Toitskloof Pass is undergoing a period of maintenance, with work being done to tunnel number two.<\/p>\n
“We have consulted with the traffic authorities, as well as Sanral, and subsequently ruled out the mountain stage over Du Toitskloof.<\/p>\n
“We have also moved our host venue to the Boland Landbou school. That makes it fairly difficult to include Franschhoek Pass, which has been part of the race for several years.<\/p>\n
“The clover-leaf system has been positively received as the logistics for riders of getting to the start and finish venues have been greatly reduced.<\/p>\n
“Besides the value of starting and finishing in the same location every day, the venue is also secure and spacious for parking.<\/p>\n
“It’s close to all the backroads we want to use, which improves the safety aspect.”<\/p>\n
Oosthuizen said the queen stage on the fourth day would offer a major test for the riders.<\/p>\n
“That covers a total of 149km and takes them over Bainskloof Pass and Bothmaskloof Pass,” he added.<\/p>\n
“We are happy with the route we have put together and don’t think a climber will necessarily win because you will have to have all-round ability to do well.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The race organisers have added a fresh dimension to the Takealot Tour of Good Hope this year by opting to hold the time-trial midway through the five-day race next month instead of at the start. In recent years the time-trial has taken place on the second day, a Tuesday. However, ASG Events chief executive Erick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":58746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3260],"tags":[1743,2237,3807,1919],"class_list":["post-26481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-asg-events","tag-route","tag-takealot","tag-tour-of-good-hope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}