Franschhoek resident Nolan Hoffman won the Cape Town Cycle Tour in spectacular fashion on Sunday.
Hoffman out-sprinted Sam Gaze and Reynard Butler, to win his third title in a time of 2:37:30.
Hoffman and his team rode a textbook bunch sprint, which saw him appearing out of the group in perfect fashion to deny Gaze – who won his first elite UCI Mountain Bike World Cup race the previous day and took the Cape Town Cycle Tour MTB Challenge title the week before – what would’ve been a unique hat trick.
“The team was incredible today,” Hoffman commented after the finish. “This has been our biggest objective for the year and going away with the win was just incredible. The boys rode out of their skins and I’m just really pleased how it all played out,” he said.
The women’s race saw a pioneering first when they started in Glencairn to have a 76 kilometre race. This ensured a clear run all the way to the finish and it was epic.
In the end, Kim le Court took the bunch sprint, ahead of Namibia’s Vera Adrian and track star Maroesjka Matthee.
“Wow, such an emotional day,” Le Court, who hails from Mauritius, said after the finish. “This is the one race that everyone wants to win. I’ve had a year of podiums and it’s great to finally stand on the top step,” she said.
Le Court couldn’t say enough about how good it was for the women to have their own race, and how positive it was for the team tactics and racing.
“My teammate, Lynette Burger, was in the break from the start and that was exactly as we had planned,” she said.
“The other teams and riders worked hard to bring that break back and then from there the sprint played out almost exactly as we had planned,” she said. “I’m so happy and I think we showed that we deserved to have our own race.”
The women’s podium saw three different nationalities, while there was one Kiwi on the men’s podium alongside the two South Africans.
