{"id":18380,"date":"2016-04-10T12:25:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-10T11:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2016\/04\/10\/potgieter-sprints-to-emperors-title-r4538\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T08:26:16","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T08:26:16","slug":"potgieter-sprints-to-emperors-title-r4538","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/potgieter-sprints-to-emperors-title-r4538\/","title":{"rendered":"Potgieter sprints to Emperors title"},"content":{"rendered":"

Team RoadCover\u2019s Bradley Potgieter underlined his sprinting prowess when he surged to victory in the 98km Emperors Palace Classic road race in Johannesburg on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Potgieter, who stepped into the role after the team\u2019s first-choice sprinter and Cape Town Cycle Tour champion Clint Hendricks fell ill in the build-up to the race, outsprinted Team Telkom\u2019s Reynard Butler and Nolan Hoffman in the dash to the finish.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-53172300-1460291213.jpg\"<\/a>Team RoadCover\u2019s Bradley Potgieter sprints to victory in the 98km Emperors Palace Classic road race in Johannesburg today. Photo: Yolanda van der Stoep<\/span><\/p>\n

Having shown good form in the Mpumalanga Cycle Tour this year where he ended on the podium in the first three stages, Potgieter, who grew up in Maritzburg but now lives in Johannesburg, said he was happy to take on the sprinter\u2019s role.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old paid tribute to a superb team effort from Hendricks, Kent Main, Stuart Fitzpatrick and Gustav Basson, who nursed him home in 2:07:50.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have put a lot of hard work into my sprinting after returning from a stint in Europe last year,\u201d said Potgieter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was happy to take on the responsibility and am happy with the balance I have in my life at the moment.<\/p>\n

Although he races professionally, he has taken a part-time job at a cycling firm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel I have managed to get a nice balance between my riding and my work. And a happy rider is a strong rider.\u201d<\/p>\n

Potgieter said everyone had been nervous going into the race, especially as they had not raced since last month\u2019s Cape Town Cycle Tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have very good communications in our team and I sat back with Stuart and Clint at the beginning, while we gave Kent and Gustav free rein to see what happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a few moves, but on this flat and fast route nothing came to much.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout halfway through we communicated again and knew it would come down to a sprint, so we worked together in the closing stages.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kicked about 900m out and around the 500m mark I felt I had the legs to go for the victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been training hard for this and after taking the lead in the sprint I slacked off a bit, kept an eye on the shadows behind me and then kicked on to take the win when they were closing in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\"ccs-62657-0-68761000-1460291206.jpg\"<\/a>Africa Silks-Bestmed\u2019s Anriette Schoeman celebrates victory in the 98km Emperors Palace Classic road race in Johannesburg today. Photo: Yolanda van der Stoep<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

The women\u2019s race went Africa Silks-Bestmed\u2019s Anriette Schoeman, who hails from Port Elizabeth, in 2:32:24. She charged home in another sprint finish to beat the Team TimeFreight duo of Lise Oliver and Vera Adrian.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only arrived in Johannesburg yesterday and have not raced since the Cape Town Cycle Tour so it was a case of just finding out how my form is,\u201d said Schoeman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of attacking and I rode off the other teams\u2019 tactics before it ended in a sprint finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cLise went early and I followed her and we managed to make a gap on the rest. I sat on her for a while and then made my move for the win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team Telkom\u2019s Morn\u00e9 van Niekerk won the elite men\u2019s race in the second leg of the ProTouch Cycling Club National Criterium Series which took place alongside the feature event and is supported by Liberty.<\/p>\n

Potgieter placed second with ProTouch\u2019s JC Nel completing the podium.<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s crit was won by Adrian followed by Clover\u2019s Carla Oberholzer and Pretoria Manufacturers\u2019 Michelle Benson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Team RoadCover\u2019s Bradley Potgieter underlined his sprinting prowess when he surged to victory in the 98km Emperors Palace Classic road race in Johannesburg on Sunday. Potgieter, who stepped into the role after the team\u2019s first-choice sprinter and Cape Town Cycle Tour champion Clint Hendricks fell ill in the build-up to the race, outsprinted Team Telkom\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43393,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2364,1457,1832],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-18380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-bradley-potgieter","tag-emperors-palace-classic","tag-team-roadcover"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18380"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=18380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}