The World Cycling Centre Africa p/b MTN Qhubeka Team gained valueble confidence from their performances in last week’s Clover Tour, ahead of their participation in the Tour of Rio in Brazil.
The race did however not start off as planned.Whilst in the final stage winning break, Getachew Yohannis experienced a hunger knock or what cyclists like to refer to as “bonking” and lost almost 4 minutes to stage winner Paul van Zweel from Europcar and Dylan Girdlestone of Westvaal BMC.
Although the Stage 2 Time Trial, which was mostly downhill, did not suit the Ethiopian climber ideally, he managed to minimise his time losses and seemed to have recovered well from his woes in Stage 1.
During Stage 3, the team placed Bonaventure Uwiziyemana and Davit Haile in the break away. Unfortunately Haile suffered a mechanical problem and needed a bike change which left Bonaventure alone in the front group. He managed to finish 4th from the initial break of 10 riders, whilst Yohannis, who was now aiming for a podium spot, came in 5th and gained time on all his GC rivals.
Stage 4A was a tactical race, with none of the GC riders willing to spend to much energy before the 7.3km Hillclimb TT to the top of Kowyn’s pass later that afternoon. Yohannis delivered a superb performance in the hillclimb, climbing his way to 2nd in the stage, a mere 15 seconds behind Girdlestone of BMC Westvaal who won the stage. This also placed Yohannis in 3rd place on GC. Impressively, the MTN Feeder Team’s Getachew Yohannis, Meron Amanuel and Ryan Gibbons finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively in the hillclimb.
The team again place Bonaventure Uwiziyemana and Davit Haile in the break away group of 10 riders during stage 5. With 40km remaining, Haile attacked and Bonaventure crossed over to him. The two team mates worked well together, building their lead up to 2min30secs with the peloton chasing. The two MTN riders crossed the line together taking 1st and 2nd place whilst Ryan Gibbons won the bunch sprint to give the team a clean sweep of the final stage podium. Getachew Yohannis finished 3rd on GC.
well done guys