Jason Oosthuizen outduelled fellow teenager Marc Pritzen to win his first major road classic in the 20th edition of the Takealot Berge & Dale cycling race in Krugersdorp on the West Rand today.<\/p>\n
In a two-man breakaway over the final few kilometres in the 108km feature race, the TEG ProCycling rider edged the in-form Pritzen in the sprint for the finish up Krugersdorp hill.<\/p>\n
He crossed the line in 2:29:09, with Pritzen (OfficeGuru Racing) centimetres behind and credited with the same time. Travis Barrett, also of OfficeGuru, completed the podium in 2:29:23.<\/p>\n
As a Krugersdorp resident, the 19-year-old Oosthuizen said it was a special feeling to win a race in his own backyard.<\/p>\n
“I have raced it a couple of times and contended as a junior, but never won the event,” he said. “So this was a really good moment for me and my team.”<\/p>\n
He won the national U23 road title last year, but said this was a major victory for him in the elite category.<\/p>\n
Oosthuizen said the race boiled down to an attack on the Sterkfontein climb after a group of 15 riders had broken away around the 40km mark, creating a gap of two minutes, 15 seconds.<\/p>\n
“But we had a few guys on the front rolling through and we gradually brought them back at the foot of Sterkfontein,” he added.<\/p>\n
“At that stage, Marc Pritzen [the current SA U23 road champion] attacked over the top and five of us – I, Marc, Kent Main, Travis Barrett and Chris Jooste – got away from the bunch.<\/p>\n
“Marc then attacked again and I managed to stay with him as we got a gap on the other three.<\/p>\n
“It was a difficult sprint up Krugersdorp hill because it’s a new one after they flipped the route, but luckily the timing was on my side and I managed to edge home on the line.”<\/p>\n
Faced with a new route, which race organisers ASG Events changed to improve the safety aspect of the event, Oosthuizen said he felt it had been a good challenge.<\/p>\n
“This route is a different ball-game because going through the Cradle [Cradle of Humankind] it is quite hilly and you have to consider your options.<\/p>\n
“You don’t want to miss a big break in the start, but you also don’t want to spend all your pennies and not be able to contend when it comes to the climbs.<\/p>\n
“It definitely provides a different perspective and makes for positive racing because you can’t just sit in the bunch and wait for the sprint – you have to race it.”<\/p>\n
He added that his victory would not have been possible without the support of his team.<\/p>\n
“If you don’t have a team ethic in this sport you won’t make it, so a big shout-out to my teammates for this win.<\/p>\n
“We missed the breakaway about 40km into the race, but even the junior riders came forward to help and it was great to win for them.”<\/p>\n
Oosthuizen said they would now turn their attention to the Takealot Tour of Good Hope in the Cape Winelands from March 4 to 8 before tackling the Cape Town Cycle Tour on March 10.<\/p>\n
On a good day for the Oosthuizens, Jason’s father, Thys, won the 40-49 category in a time of 2:37:41.<\/p>\n
In the women’s race, Demacon MaxWax claimed their first podium spot of the year when Carla Oberholzer successfully defended her title, holding off Johanna van de Winkel (Cycle Nation) in a sprint finish.<\/p>\n
She crossed the line in 2:57:16, with Van de Winkel five seconds off the pace. Oberholzer’s teammate Kim le Court completed the podium in 2:57:51.<\/p>\n
After a breakaway by Le Court at the Sterkfontein climb, Oberholzer said she and Van de Winkel were able to close the gap before going head-to-head in the final stretch.<\/p>\n
“Jo was really strong today and almost caught me unawares on the last uphill sprint,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I had to work extremely hard to come over to her for the win, but in the end it was a phenomenal team effort that got me home.<\/p>\n
“After going up Sterkies [Sterkfontein] you think there is time to recover, but there isn’t really because basically you have to pedal all the way and the uphill finish makes for interesting racing.<\/p>\n
“I love this route, which I prefer to the old one as it makes it a race which offers something for the climbers.”<\/p>\n
After her team dominated women’s cycling in South Africa last year, Oberholzer said it was “amazing to win a race again”.<\/p>\n
“We have not had the best start to the year and the morale was a little bit low, but we always said we just need to keep our heads up.<\/p>\n
“Our goal will always be to win whenever we compete and that goal has not changed. Today we rallied as a team and it’s good to be back on the top podium spot.”<\/p>\n
Results
\n108km
\nElite men
\n1 Jason Oosthuizen 2:29:09
\n2 Marc Pritzen 2:29:09
\n3 Travis Barrett 2:29:23
\n4 Kent Main 2:29:24
\n5 Chris Jooste 2:29:31<\/p>\n
Junior men<\/p>\n
1 Travis Stedman 2:29:51
\n2 Tiano da Silva 2:30:28
\n3 Dian Fritz 2:30:54<\/p>\n
Veteran men (30-39)<\/p>\n
1 Adolph Krige 2:38:31
\n2 Richard Baxter 2:38:31
\n3 Werner Roux 2:38:33<\/p>\n
Veteran men (40-49)<\/p>\n
1 Thys Oosthuizen 2:37:41
\n2 David Labuschagne 2:37:42
\n3 Johan van Rooyen 2:38:35<\/p>\n
Veteran men (50-59)<\/p>\n
1 Samuel de Swardt 2:48:21
\n2 Graeme Cronje 2:48:26
\n3 Grant de Ridder 2:48:27<\/p>\n
Elite women<\/p>\n
1 Carla Oberholzer 2:57:16
\n2 Joanna van de Winkel 2:57:21
\n3 Kim le Court 2:57:51
\n4 Sanet Coetzee 2:58:31
\n5 Kelsey van Schoor 2:58:32<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jason Oosthuizen outduelled fellow teenager Marc Pritzen to win his first major road classic in the 20th edition of the Takealot Berge & Dale cycling race in Krugersdorp on the West Rand today. In a two-man breakaway over the final few kilometres in the 108km feature race, the TEG ProCycling rider edged the in-form Pritzen […]<\/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":[1743,3791,2205,3176,30],"class_list":["post-26569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-asg-events","tag-berge-dale","tag-carla-oberholzer","tag-jason-oosthuizen","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26569","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=26569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}