![\"ccs-62657-0-60324800-1428850453.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-60324800-1428850453.jpg\")
<\/a>Bonitas sprinter Herman Fouch\u00e9 celebrates his second victory in the Emperors Palace Classic road race in Kempton Park, Johannesburg, on Sunday. \/\/ Photo: Yolanda van der Stoep.<\/span>\n<\/div>\nFouch\u00e9, who last won the event six years ago, was given a textbook lead-out by his Bonitas teammates to power ahead on the kind of long finishing drag that has become his signature.<\/p>\n
He blazed into the finish near the casino resort to claim the 102km victory in 2:18:25, a single second ahead of Europcar SA\u2019s Ryan Gibbons, with Tyler Day of Westvaal Pro Cycling a further second back.<\/p>\n
The Boksburg native said he was delighted to have notched up his second win of the season after taking the opening stage of the Bestmed Tour de Boland last month.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s taken me a while to get back to winning this race again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy to have pulled off the win \u2013 the team did a superb job of delivering me to the line.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old said the racing got off to a chilly but flying start in near perfect conditions on the relatively flat out-and-back course.<\/p>\n
A flurry of attacks soon started on the Rondebult Road but were quickly neutralised by the hard-driving peloton.<\/p>\n
This pattern was repeated as they headed out on the loop towards Heidelberg and Springs, and back past Carnival City, with no significant breakaways able to take shape.<\/p>\n
In the closing kilometres, the bunch came alive again as the teams jostled to get their fast men to the front for the inevitable mass sprint.<\/p>\n
The tight control that rivals Westvaal and Europcar SA had exercised over the bunch proved to have been a tactical error as they passed through Fouch\u00e9\u2019s home turf on the way to the finish.<\/p>\n
In the end, it was the combination of his local knowledge and uphill power that secured line honours.<\/p>\n
In the women\u2019s race, Cherise Stander took the win for RECM.<\/p>\n She was chased to the line by Lynette Burger of Activate-Demacon, with Clover\u2019s Charlene du Preez just off the pace.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had a few ups and downs this year but I\u2019m very happy that it\u2019s coming together for me now on road and mountain bike,\u201d said Stander, who finished second in a USN MTB Cup series race on Saturday.<\/p>\n She said a seven-rider break had formed early on in the road race and stayed together for most of the way.<\/p>\n \u201cToday the women took it upon themselves to do their own racing and launch their own attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n Stander said the pace had been extremely fast, in keeping with the current high standard of women\u2019s racing.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very excited to see where women\u2019s racing is going in South Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n Later in the day, the Emperors Palace Circuit Spectacular criterium race saw the country\u2019s top sprinters set a blistering pace through the grounds of the resort.<\/p>\n Westvaal speedster Ryan Felgate blitzed through the laps to take victory in the half-hour crit.<\/p>\n Former national road champ Christoff van Heerden of Kitchen Bar, who won Saturday\u2019s Emperors Palace Mountain Bike Classic, stayed on his wheel to claim the runner-up spot.<\/p>\n Junior rider Alex Parsons kept pace with his elite counterparts to round out the podium for Team Giant.<\/p>\n For more information visit www.facebook.com\/emperorsclassic<\/a> or follow @emperorsclassic<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Herman Fouch\u00e9 enjoyed a taste of hometown glory when he ousted the top sprinters in the elite bunch to take his second win at the Emperors Palace Classic road race in Johannesburg on Sunday. Bonitas sprinter Herman Fouch\u00e9 celebrates his second victory in the Emperors Palace Classic road race in Kempton Park, Johannesburg, on Sunday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":48771,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3696,1457,4087],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-20195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-cherise-stander","tag-emperors-palace-classic","tag-herman-fouche"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20195","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=20195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20195"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=20195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Cherise Stander of RECM (left) and Herman Fouch\u00e9 of Bonitas were the winners in the women\u2019s and men\u2019s race respectively at the Emperors Palace Classic in Johannesburg on Sunday. \/\/ Photo: Yolanda van der Stoep<\/span><\/p>\n