{"id":71563,"date":"2025-03-09T14:24:27","date_gmt":"2025-03-09T12:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/?p=71563"},"modified":"2025-03-12T08:12:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T06:12:51","slug":"elite-women-grunewald-stuns-with-a-successful-long-range-attack-at-the-cape-town-cycle-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/elite-women-grunewald-stuns-with-a-successful-long-range-attack-at-the-cape-town-cycle-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Elite Women: Gr\u00fcnewald Stuns with a Successful Long-Range Attack at the Cape Town Cycle Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The elite women\u2019s race at the Cape Town Cycle Tour tends to follow a similar pattern, but Pia Gr\u00fcnewald turned the 2025 edition on its head. The LKT Team Woman time triallist put her strengths against the clock to great use as she launched a speculative attack on the foothills of Smitswinkel, just 25 kilometres into the 78 kilometre women\u2019s course. The chase behind failed to organise until Chapman\u2019s Peak Drive, and with a 3-minute advantage going into the final 27 kilometres, she had only to maintain her pace to win, ahead of a S\u2019annara Grove lead final chase group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Near perfect conditions greeted the 122-rider strong elite women\u2019s field. The pre-dawn sky was overcast but temperatures were warm and hardly a breath of wind blew across the gentle swells rolling into False Bay. From the start on Main Road in Fish Hoek the women, and under 17 boys, would contest the final two-thirds of the full, 109 kilometre, route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The standard format for the women\u2019s race is a combative but surging approach, with attacks being closed down before the field thins out on Chapman\u2019s Peak Drive and the final selection is made by the speed of the top riders and the steepness of Suikerbossie. This year it was entirely different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Chris Hitchcock | CTCTT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Early attacks went and were brought back until Seana Littbarski-Gray accelerated rapidly, leaving Simon\u2019s Town. The group had to work hard to bring the German-born, New Zealander from LKT Team, back. As they closed, Gr\u00fcnewald counter-attacked and only Janine Schneider was initially able to follow. The peloton was happy to let the German gain time on the Smitswinkel ascent and by the summit she had a 21 second advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The peloton appeared unhurried, however, and Grove would later confess that they did not know there was a rider up the road. \u201cWithout radios the first time I knew there was a break was at the foot of Chappies, when my team car came up and told me,\u201d the South African Champion confessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Chris Hitchcock | CTCTT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult,\u201d Vera Looser explained. \u201cS\u2019annara [Grove], Hayley [Preen], Tiffany [Keep] and myself are all in the same situation and we\u2019re a similar type of rider. Without teams there is only so much we can do. We can all climb, and we can all sprint a bit, so the teams don\u2019t necessarily want to work with us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lull in the chase behind allowed Gr\u00fcnewald to keep pushing the pace and extending her advantage. She went through Scarbrough and passed the bulk of the U17 Boy\u2019s field, who had started 5 minutes ahead. With the commissaires keeping the women\u2019s race leader out of the convoy she gained no benefit from catching the group ahead, but showed great composure to not be thrown off her rhythm either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With 32 kilometres remaining Gr\u00fcnewald started the Chapman\u2019s Peak climb with a 3 minute lead. Behind the women had heard not only that there was a rider up the road but also what her advantage was. Hayley Preen and Tiffany Keep did their utmost to reduce the deficit, but the lone leader was too powerful to cede her lead easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going over the summit and 10 kilometres later, at the foot of Suikerbossie, the gap was only reduced by 30 seconds. Another 10 kilometres later, coming through Camps Bay Gr\u00fcnewald still had a 90 second buffer. \u201cLKT rode really well,\u201d Keep praised. \u201cIt\u2019s frustrating to be on the receiving end of team tactics like that, but that\u2019s racing. They disrupted the chase and worked to set up their sprinter for the race for second. I think I\u2019ll have to bring my DAS-Hutchinson team next year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the closing kilometres Gr\u00fcnewald could savour the victory. \u201cWith 20 kilometres to go, when my team car told me I had 2 minutes and 30 I knew I had it,\u201d she smiled. \u201cThe rule of 1 minute per 10 kilometres, so I knew it was safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is only my second race of the season, and my first victory!\u201d Gr\u00fcnewald stated. \u201cIt\u2019s been a great trip out to South Africa with the team and to seal it with a victory is very special. It\u2019s very unexpected though. We were here to work for Nele Laing, but when I got away, I thought I just needed to keep pushing. The first time the team car could come up, they told me to just keep going, and that\u2019s exactly what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gr\u00fcnewald\u2019s winning time was 2 hours, 5 minutes and 18 seconds. Grove led the chase group home 1 minute and 31 seconds later, pipping Littbarski-Gray for silver. Looser and Kelsey van Schoor completed the top five places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2025 Cape Town Cycle Tour Elite Women\u2019s Results<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Pia Grunewald: LKT Team Woman (2:05:18)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. S\u2019Annara Grove: O\u2019Shea (2:06:49 | +1:31)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Seana Littbarski-Gray: LKT Team Woman (2:06:50 | +1:32)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Vera Looser: Efficient Infiniti Insure (2:06:50 | +1:32)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Kelsey van Schoor: Pirtek (2:06:50 | +1:32)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    For the full results from the 2025 Cape Town Cycle Tour click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The elite women\u2019s race at the Cape Town Cycle Tour tends to follow a similar pattern, but Pia Gr\u00fcnewald turned the 2025 edition on its head. The LKT Team Woman time triallist put her strengths against the clock to great use as she launched a speculative attack on the foothills of Smitswinkel, just 25 kilometres […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":71564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[81],"featured_location":[338],"class_list":["post-71563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-cape-town-cycle-tour","featured_location-bottom-row"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71563","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=71563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71568,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71563\/revisions\/71568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71563"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=71563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}