134 riders from seventeen teams are ready to shine in this year’s Tour of South Africa. No warm-up sprinter stage today, we immediately start this Tour with a hilly parcours. Except for the uphill finish the second part of the stage isn’t too hard though, so we could very well be seeing a (reduced) bunch sprint. Let’s see who goes in the attack and tries to win the first KoM-jersey.
Belevics wants to show his team has ambition here, even though they only brought six riders, and is the first to attack! Only two riders following the Carlsberg rider, those are Eenkhoorn and Tizza.
Home rider Main also trying to reach the head of the race now, Wallays and Zielinski decide to follow the Project: Africa rider.
The two trios quickly get together, which gives us six leaders with 150 km to the finish line. Parra Bustamente and Kämna tried to escape in the peloton as well, but Cisse denies them to do so. Centovalli clearly choosing the Moscon card.
Zielinski is the fastest at the first intermediate. The real battle in the leading group about to start soon now, as the first KoM is only 6 km further down the road.
The South African fans now cheering loudly and ordering some extra beer, as Main wins the first KoM-sprint on a hill of fourth category! The other points go to Wallays and Eenkhoorn. The peloton now at 5’45”, still 125 km to go.
Who is doing the work in the peloton, you ask? Several teams actually: Minions, Campari, Mapei, Duolingo, Valio, Centovalli, Sauber, Strava and Xero.
Three out of four KoM’s today are of fourth category. The riders are now on the Sohla, which is a mountain of third category, 11.6 km at an average gradient of 3.6%. 1.5 km to go on the Sohla and Tizza attacks!
Zielinski comes out of the Italian’s wheel and comfortably wins the sprint against Main and Wallays. Strong effort again by the South African, who comes one step closer to conquering the KoM-jersey. Exactly 100 km left as the peloton crosses the summit 4’30” later.
In a close sprint, Zielinski beats Main and Tizza in the penultimate KoM-sprint of the day! The South African still one point ahead of the Europcar rider, so the battle for the jersey will be decided on the final KoM-categorized hill in 8 km! The peloton now only 2’15” behind anymore, mainly due to the work of Xero, Campari and Centovalli!
1.5 km to go on the Lekokoaneng, Main has been setting a high pace since the beginning of the mountain that is 4 km long, and now attacks from the front!
The South African breaks down, so Zielinski seemed to be on his way to the polka-dot jersey. The pole also in difficulties near the end of the mountain as Eenkhoorn overtook him, but he just managed to stay ahead of the Andorra riders, so Zielinski will be wearing the first South African polka-dots tomorrow! 65 km to the finish line, the whole peloton at 2’30”.
Glanbia came here for the TTT, and definitely not for the GC. Both Ford and Frame now dropped from the peloton, no other riders being dropped so far.
Bad luck for Eenkhoorn! 37 km to go and just before the second and last intermediate sprint, and the Dutch Nordstrom riders suffers a puncture! The breakaway now reduced to five riders, as in the peloton Janse van Rensburg also has a flat tyre!
Zielinski will have a lot of prize money to share with his teammates, as he also wins that second intermediate sprint. A peloton of 116 riders crossing this line 1’30” laters, as we see some domestiques and time trialists already dropping out. Biggest name not there is the unlucky Janse van Rensburg. Eenkhoorn still in no one’s land, one minute ahead of the peloton.
Exactly 25 km to go for our five leaders, as the peloton is now only 40” behind thanks to the efforts of Minions and Strava. Only 90 riders left in the peloton now, with the biggest names dropping Hirschlein and Carretero Millan.
Mapei now bringing the peloton ten seconds closer to the breakaway, as they enter the last 20 km with a gap of 30”!
Villella making it six at the front again as he attacks and closes the gap to the five leaders in no time! 17.5 km to go, and an interesting move by the Nordstrom rider!
Selander does his job as a domestique tremendously and closes the gap quickly. Thiery now setting the pace with 16 km to go, and we see a small gap opening up behind the 27th rider!
The Strava guys missed the right boat, and it was Felline himself who had to close the gap. He did so quickly though, and as there are 13.5 km to the finish line, the peloton is split in two! The most important names in the second peloton are Haga, Goh, Min, Costa, Molard, Diaz, Faiers, Grmay, Saggiorato, Dieteren and Parra Bustamente.
10 km to go as nobody of the 46 riders in the first peloton is really setting the pace right now. The second group is at a minute, they might still make it back.
Thiery and Kanerva decide to work together and lead the first group into the last 5 km, while the second group is now at 1’20”! We’re getting close to the final hill now!
Meurisse was tipped as an outsider, but he won’t be winning the stage! The Belgian now working, in what we assume is in service of Houle! 3.5 km to the finish line! The Strava boys now also at the head of the peloton!
Exactly 2 km to go as Meurisse leads the group onto the final hill of the day! 1.6 km at 4.8%! Claeys, Robov, Debesay and a bit further Moscon are the best positioned puncheurs now!
Robov being brought by König as Claeys take the inside of the corner with 1.5 km to go! Three Project: Africa’s domestiques and Fiedler blocking the way of the other puncheurs!
Claeys in the lead with 1.2 km to go, the two Adastra riders just behind him! Meurisse still near the head of the race, while Moscon is not really gaining places now! Buchmann now appearing in the centre with Borges in his wheel!
Claeys still leads the way under the flamme rouge, but it’s another Minion who seems to be feeling really good, as Selander is actually gaining ground on his leader and is now in third place! Seibeb around fifth while Juul-Jensen comes into the top-10 now!
800 meters to go and two Minions leading the race! Ssabagwanya behind teammate Seibeb, while Houle and Di Maggio now also try to win some places! Meurisse impressive, as he comes back to third!
Back to reality for Selander, as he breaks down now! His leader Claeys on the other hand has an interesting gap over the others while entering the final 500 flat meters! Can the Belgian make up for a weak GP Cyclistes by winning the first stage of the Tour of South Africa?!
Doesn’t seem like it, as Debesay gets launched by Meurisse and overtakes the Belgian with 300 meters to go! Another Xero rider doing well, as Houle is now in fourth! Borges also a decent sprinter and now in third, can he still win it?
Last 100 meters and even though the Portuguese comes a bit closer, the positions are still the same! Gautier leading the battle for fifth against Juul-Jensen!
A great day for African cycling once again, as Debesay is the surprising winner of the first stage of the Tour of South Africa! Also a great day for Xero Racing, as Houle finishes third behind Borges!
Gautier then manages to finish fourth ahead of a disappointed Claeys and the first CT rider, Juul-Jensen. The other places in the top-10 go to Di Maggio (7th), Robov (8th), Haas (9th) and Moscon (10th). 35 riders finish in the same time, the two Sauber leaders were dropped just before the finish line and lose time.
