Tasol-GT rider David Maree held his nerve in a three-man sprint to win the Emperors Palace Classic, presented by ASG, in Johannesburg on Sunday to keep his team\u2019s hopes for survival alive.<\/p>\n
Maree, whose squad\u2019s title sponsorship expires at the end of the month, crossed the line first in 2:13:26, just a split-second clear of Bonitas\u2019s Chris Jennings, with Westvaal-BMC\u2019s Shaun-Nick Bester a further second back.<\/p>\n
According to Maree, the win was a much-needed one, especially ahead of their potential swansong at the Mzansi Tour, which starts on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Tasol-GT rider David Maree signals his delight with his win at the Emperors Palace Classic, presented by ASG, in Johannesburg on Sunday. Photo: Peter Morey<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe really needed this one for the team\u2019s confidence and to show everyone that we\u2019re not giving up. We\u2019ll keep fighting and keep believing in our dream.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bryanston resident, who also podiumed in the Fast One in January, said the racing started at a furious pace on the fairly flat 104km course.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one was giving anyone room to manoeuvre and the bunch didn\u2019t let any moves slip away. It was definitely one of the harder ones this season.\u201d<\/p>\n A group of eight riders \u2013 with top teams Bonitas, Westvaal-BMC and Tasol-GT all represented \u2013 broke away from the peloton about 30km into the race.<\/p>\n \u201cWe actually thought we would stay away but the MTN-Qhubeka feeder team chased us down and closed the gap with 40km to go.\u201d<\/p>\n They then rode together until the closing 10km, when the final selection of five riders went clear.<\/p>\n Jennings launched the first of two attacks with two kilometres remaining, which saw the leaders shed an MTN-Qhubeka and ASG rider, leaving the eventual podium finishers to battle it out for position. <\/p>\n \u201cChris attacked again with about a kilometre to go, so I let Shaun-Nick close the gap for me and then I had a huge sprint to the finish.\u201d<\/p>\n Describing himself as \u201can opportunistic sprinter\u201d, the 23-year-old said the final uphill drag to the line had played right into his hands.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause I am one of the lighter riders, an uphill sprint like that is really suited to my ability.\u201d<\/p>\n The women\u2019s race also ended in a photo finish with relative newcomer Odelle Joubert, riding in the colours of Complete Cyclist, taking her first major title in 2:33:32.<\/p>\n Pre-race favourite An-Li Kachelhoffer of ASG Boxit and Marissa Stander of EOH Demacon were second and third respectively.<\/p>\n Odelle Joubert (left) of Complete Cyclist shows her delight at winning the women\u2019s race at the Emperors Palace Classic, presented by ASG, in Johannesburg on Sunday. Photo: Peter Morey<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n After the feature race, newly crowned national junior pursuit champion Morn\u00e9 van Niekerk stole the show in the exciting kermesse on the casino\u2019s rooftop.<\/p>\n Van Niekerk won the nail biting \u201cdevil-takes-the-hindmost\u201d elimination race ahead of Westvaal-BMC\u2019s Donovan Lubbe, with the ASG junior team\u2019s Ryan Felgate rounding out the podium.<\/p>\n Allan Britnell and Nicci Grobler won the men\u2019s and women\u2019s sections of the 40km Mountain Bike Classic on Saturday.<\/p>\n Team bizhub-FCF\u2019s Nicci Grobler en route to winning the Emperors Palace Mountain Bike Classic, presented by ASG, in Johannesburg on Saturday. Photo: Peter Morey<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n For more info, find the race on Facebook or follow @emperorsclassic.<\/p>\n RESULTS:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Emperors Palace Classic Road Race (104km)<\/strong><\/p>\n Men:<\/strong><\/p>\n Women:<\/strong><\/p>\n Emperors Palace Mountain Bike Classic (40km)<\/strong><\/p>\n Men:<\/strong><\/p>\n Women:<\/strong><\/p>\n Tasol-GT rider David Maree held his nerve in a three-man sprint to win the Emperors Palace Classic, presented by ASG, in Johannesburg on Sunday to keep his team\u2019s hopes for survival alive. Maree, whose squad\u2019s title sponsorship expires at the end of the month, crossed the line first in 2:13:26, just a split-second clear of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-21919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21919","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21919"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=21919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}