Marc Pritzen taking the win in 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nFormer National Road Race Champion and elder statesman of South African road cycling Jaco Venter will also be lining up on the start line, as well as the experienced Jacques Janse van Rensburg, another former South African road champ and one-time Grand Tour rider. Both will be contenders on the day due to their intimate knowledge of road racing at the highest level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Team DMS riders Kent Main and Gustav Basson will be among the \u201cyouth league\u201d hoping to keep the seasoned riders at bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Main is in good form after finishing fifth on the GC at the Tour of Rwanda this February and winning the recent Tour Du Cap. While he\u2019s only finished in the Cycle Tour top 20 in the past (often having worked hard for teammate winners) he believes he has recovered well this week from the Tour du Cap efforts. \u201cI have done my utmost to be in great shape for this weekend,\u201d he says. \u201cWe are expecting a good positive race and the team has been brilliant last week so we are expecting a great result on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Basson is a relative newcomer to the Cape Town Cycle Tour with only three finishes but he\u2019s had a prolific start to 2023 and will certainly be a name to watch on race day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy best Cycle Tour result is 10th,\u201d he says, \u201cbut my preparations have been going well. I have done as many races as I could \u2013 a mix of mountain bike and road races \u2013 and I\u2019ve had a few podiums this season. The sensations are good and I feel ready for this Sunday and I feel a good result is in reach for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hoping to turn back time, or at the very least, keep the youngsters in their place, will be the likes of Hoffman, Venter and Dusty Day. Hoffman is a highly skilled sprinter who is always in contention if the race comes down to a sprint. On race day he\u2019ll be ably supported by his five-member Aluwani team, who will help set him up if he’s in contention for the sprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Day is another battle-hardened Cycle Tour campaigner, often working hard for teammates as a lead-out man. His focus these days is long-distance races and gravel racing, but every year he puts in the effort for a tilt at the Cycle Tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always a gamble,\u201d Day says of the Cape Town Cycle Tour race tactics. \u201cThe bunch can be fairly nervy, just a massive horde and some riders who aren\u2019t necessarily accustomed to the intensity of racing or riders you don\u2019t always ride with \u2013 but that makes it exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marc Pritzen, The defending champion will be pulsating in pink this year, riding for the EF Education\u2013Nippo Development Team. Following his win last year, Pritzen expressed surprise at how frequently the Cape Town Cycle Tour resulted in a bunch sprint, given the challenging climbs along the route. However, he rode a strategic race in 2022 and capitalised on the inclement weather to secure a victory. He stated that he wouldn’t place extra pressure on himself as defending champion in 2023 and would take things as they come, acknowledging that racing is unpredictable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Outsiders for the title include mountain biker Gert Heyns, the ever-popular HB Kruger, triathlon star Richard Murray and INEOS Grenadiers rider Cameron Wurf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heyns has enjoyed an excellent mountain bike career but is starting to spend more time on the road, finishing third at this year\u2019s National Road Race Championships in Oudtshoorn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve completed a few social Cycle Tours over the years but only really did two editions in the elite batch,\u201d says Heyns. \u201cThe first was the year the race got called off after a few kilometres and the second one was last year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heyns adds that feels as though he\u2019s been missing out on something by not putting more effort into the Cape Town Cycle Tour. \u201cIt\u2019s a race that really intrigues me and gets me excited as it’s a different challenge than what I am used to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kruger, always a contender, and a third-place finisher by mere seconds in 2022, might be a real dark horse in 2023 due to a recent appendectomy. He\u2019s been charting his recovery on social media over the last few weeks, but a place on the podium would be a real, though not unwelcome, surprise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The elite men\u2019s race at this year\u2019s Cape Town Cycle Tour will come down to youth versus experience. The challengers in the field range from 37-year-old Nolan Hoffman, a four-time winner, to 23-year-old Marc Pritzen, the 2022 Cycle Tour champion and rising star on the global cycling scene. Former National Road Race Champion and elder […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":61809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[81,82],"featured_location":[337],"class_list":["post-61808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-cape-town-cycle-tour","tag-ctct","featured_location-top-row"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61808","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=61808"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61813,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61808\/revisions\/61813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61808"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=61808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/03\/VNP1009-1024x682.jpg\" "\\"\\"")