Platt and Huber hang on to the Yellow Zebra Leader Jersey after Stage 3

[Matt]

Mountains surround the town of Tulbagh and stage three offered a tour of the basin, with a figure of eight which traversed the vineyards and farmlands, skirting these mountains. By now riders should have been used to starting with a climb. This 400-meter climb over 15 kilometers, with a short warm up, was rather gentle on the legs. This was followed by three kilometers of sweeping single-track, finishing off with a section through popular forest. This was a pleasant day, with lots of ups and downs interspersed with flowing single-track sections. The day was more gentle, the soil was softer, the vegetation more lush and the hills shorter. When riders heard the finish line and smelt the race village, their odometer only read 55 kilometers, so they needed to keep pedaling. The second part of the figure of eight was shorter, but included the same amount of climbing as the first one. Dr Evil and the route-design team showed their true colours after water points three: a 1,5-kilometer climb on a steep farm road, followed by a short descent and three more short but sharp climbs on rough surface, before it was finally (almost) all downhill and back to the fields of Saronsberg Wine Estate.

 

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