{"id":19625,"date":"2015-07-17T18:45:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-17T17:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2015\/07\/17\/smit-time-trials-to-first-yellow-jersey-at-jock-tour-r3086\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T14:20:52","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T14:20:52","slug":"smit-time-trials-to-first-yellow-jersey-at-jock-tour-r3086","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/smit-time-trials-to-first-yellow-jersey-at-jock-tour-r3086\/","title":{"rendered":"Smit time-trials to first yellow jersey at Jock Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nelspruit local Willie Smit gritted his teeth into a punishing headwind to post the fastest time in the 27km individual time-trial that opened the inaugural Bestmed Jock Tour, presented by ASG, in Mpumalanga on Friday.<\/p>\n

Smit clocked 57:03 in the hilly test between his hometown and the top of Kaapsehoop to give Team EuropcarSA the yellow jersey by almost 50 seconds.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-59039100-1437158827.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Willie Smit of Team EuropcarSA won the 27km individual time-trial on the opening stage of the inaugural Bestmed Jock Tour near Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, on Friday. Photo: Rika Joubert\/Cyclenation<\/span><\/p>\n

Another Nelspruit native, Nico Bell of RECM, was second quickest on the day in 57:51.<\/p>\n

Stefan de Bod rounded out the podium for MTN-Qhubeka in 58:18.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Jock is one of the hardest tours in South Africa, so just to finish the race is going to be tough,\u201d said Smit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really worked hard, so for me to push through and get the stage win, I\u2019m really happy for me and the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said a strategic bike change around the halfway mark had given him the edge on the route, which featured a total ascent of 1 200m.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the headwind, I didn\u2019t want to spend a lot of time on the time-trial bike on the climb.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost about 15 seconds with the changeover but I definitely benefited from my decision in the last three kilometres.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old said riding a successful time-trial was all about marginal gains.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy main focus was just to sit there and grind and not stand at all because every time you stand, you lose a second or two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smit said his result had given his team a boost but that anything could happen over the two remaining road stages.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ll necessarily go for the stage wins because we need to defend the jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said his local knowledge was counterbalanced by the fact that he was a bigger rider, who found the Lowveld climbs heavy going.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the 140km second stage takes riders from Mbombela Stadium through White River and Sabie before returning to Nelspruit via Long Tom Pass.<\/p>\n

Follow the tour on @jockcycle<\/a>, Facebook or www.thejock.co.za<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nelspruit local Willie Smit gritted his teeth into a punishing headwind to post the fastest time in the 27km individual time-trial that opened the inaugural Bestmed Jock Tour, presented by ASG, in Mpumalanga on Friday. Smit clocked 57:03 in the hilly test between his hometown and the top of Kaapsehoop to give Team EuropcarSA the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":56583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[960,961,396],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-19625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-bestmed-jock-tour","tag-jock-tour","tag-willie-smit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19625","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=19625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19625"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=19625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}