With the Amashova being one of 'the' classics to win, we always see a good number of competitive riders showing up, this year was no different with even a current 35-39 Grand Fondo World champ in the bunch. The normal danger people were there, Complete Cyclist, Northcliff, Token and quite a few other teams were represented, not forgetting all the local strong men. The VA field was smaller than other years, with a notable size difference to the VB bunch lining up on the opposite lane. The chatter on the line was nervous. A lot of the guys had toured down and was sharing their exploits of the previous few days cycling. As the start gun fired you could feel a calmness in the bunch, no surges and no attacks, it felt strange. The first attack came from Dana Coetzee, halfway up fox hill, with no one really interested n chasing, he kept a good lead up the climb, but as soon as the roads flattened out the pace picked up and he was reeled in. A few more attacks followed, but nothing really sticking, no one was willing to let anyone go, but no unnecessary energy was to be wasted with keeping the pace high. The next succesfull break thet got away was One solo Northcliff rider, Martin, that was shortly after joined by one TOKEN rider, Jacques Greeff. The finally snapped the elastic through Camperdown and build a good lead heading into Inchanga. With the hills looming the bunch became nervous and the pace picked up, a fierce pace was set on Inchanga, reeling in the two leaders on the downhill towards Bothas Hill. The pressure was kept on the front leaving only about 20 riders up front heading to Hllcrest. On the drag towards the M13 off ramp Jacques (TOKEN) opened a gap again and was Joined by Pieter Avenant riding in the colors of Clover. The pushed hard on the M13 opening a good gap, but the bunch was sniffing the finish already and decided that the pace has to rise again, catching the front two just after Fields Hill. Some of the riders shed on Bothas hill worked hard on the M13 and got back too the front group at this stage, creating a sizable group as the bunch headed towards 45th cutting. It is here that Martin Hillerman (Local) saw his chance and went of the front. The bunch was hesitant, leaving Martin hanging in front. As the bunch went through Tollgate another rider, Pierre Knoetze, joined Martin up front, making the bunch work extra hard to close the gap. Heading into the finish straight, the bunch was passing some elite riders, leaving the catch extremely late. With the smell of victory in their faces, Martin and Pierre was passed with 50m to go. If that wasnt exciting enough, the current World Champ took the line honors with a Photo Finish from Matthys Koekemoer (TOKEN), with Mike Hewan (Complete Cyclist) rounding out the podium. Well done to Deno Van Heerden (Bluff Meat Supply - Performance Bikefit), Matthys Koekemoer (TOKENwheelsSA) and Mike Hewan (Complete Cyclist) with their respective podiums and thank you to all the guys for making this another competitive and fun race. Photos from www.cyclenation.co.za
