{"id":18651,"date":"2016-02-26T12:40:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T12:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2016\/02\/26\/tour-of-good-hope-set-for-scintillating-climax-r4228\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T08:38:35","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T08:38:35","slug":"tour-of-good-hope-set-for-scintillating-climax-r4228","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/tour-of-good-hope-set-for-scintillating-climax-r4228\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour of Good Hope set for scintillating climax"},"content":{"rendered":"

While stage one of the five-day Bestmed Tour of Good Hope on Monday will have the feel of a one-day classic, the first meaningful leader should emerge after the following day\u2019s 37km individual time-trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expect the revised opening stage to be a tactical affair,\u201d said former pro rider and cycling analyst Johnny Koen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new route is a blessing in disguise for the sprinters, so brace yourself for a classic gallop to the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koen said the real pattern of the race \u2013 which is based at La Paris Estate outside Paarl this year \u2013 would however emerge after the second stage, where he expected the likes of Team Telkom\u2019s HB Kruger and Morn\u00e9 van Niekerk and ProTouch\u2019s JC Nel to be in the hunt for yellow.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-2-0-01197200-1456502915.jpeg\"<\/a>HB Kruger, who will be riding in the colours of Team Telkom this year, won the final stage of last year\u2019s Bestmed Tour of Good Hope at the Taal Monument above Paarl. Photo: Team Telkom<\/span><\/p>\n

In the corresponding stage last year, Nel took the overall lead after placing second before relinquishing it the next day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is certainly a long time-trial for a tour of this length,\u201d said Koen.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the very least, it will dictate the pattern of the event. But I expect it to determine the meat of the eventual top-ten among the men and women.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s race, he believed Spur-Specialized teammates Annika Langvad and Ariane Kleinhans, Time Freight\u2019s Lise Olivier and former British road champion Sharon Laws were most likely to rise to the top in South Africa\u2019s richest time-trial, courtesy of sponsors Buffet Olives.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then it is all to play for in the mountain top finishes on days three and five,\u201d said Koen, who was looking forward to a humdinger in the women\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

Taking control of the tour early on came with its own perils, he warned. \u201cIt will certainly provide the new leader\u2019s team with an enormous workload in the remaining three days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apart from the much talked about time-trial, this year\u2019s Tour of Good Hope, which is presented by Rudy Project, includes several mountain passes and two mountain top finishes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough these finishes are imperative to give climbers their shot at the overall title by way of balancing out the result of the TT, it has in the past not had the ultimate effect,\u201d said Koen.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years ago in the women\u2019s race Lise came closest when she flew up Franschhoek Pass on the final stage with Ariane only managing to hold on by a handful of seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koen said the way mountainous stages played out was often dependent on the overall situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe GC contenders are usually content to let lower placed riders go on long breakaways to neutralise the race. This often leads to nail-biting finishes as the early aggressors are hunted down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen it comes down to whether the leaders will have enough in reserve on the final ascent to attack, defend or simply to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he expected the same four in the women\u2019s race to dominate throughout, Koen picked Kruger (fifth last year), Nel (second last year) and RoadCover\u2019s Bradley Potgieter to stand on the overall men\u2019s podium after 522km of racing.<\/p>\n

Visit www.tourofgoodhope.co.za or find the race on Facebook and Twitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While stage one of the five-day Bestmed Tour of Good Hope on Monday will have the feel of a one-day classic, the first meaningful leader should emerge after the following day\u2019s 37km individual time-trial. \u201cI expect the revised opening stage to be a tactical affair,\u201d said former pro rider and cycling analyst Johnny Koen. \u201cThe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":44278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[450],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-18651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-tour-of-good-hope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18651","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=18651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18651"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=18651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}