The Rhodes University Cycling Club took part in the 2009 University Sports South Africa (USSA) Cycling Championships, which were held at Nelson Mandela Metroplotain University in Port Elizabeth.
The Rhodes University Cycling Club took part in the 2009 University Sports South Africa (USSA) Cycling Championships, which were held at Nelson Mandela Metroplotain University in Port Elizabeth.
This is the first time that Rhodes has been represented at the USSA cycling champs.Rhodes Cycling Club captain Devin Cripwell said, “It was an awesome experience for those of us who went, and we certainly learnt a lot from Rhodes’ first representation at an USSA event”.
The Rhodes team was made up of Jono Davy, Glen Midgely (mountain bike), Alex Joiner, Lee Stack, Nick Gaertner and Devin Cripwell (road).Cripwell said that Gaertner pulled out of the event due to having bronchitis shortly before the event.
The road champs was held over three days of cycling with five stages. Stage one was a time trial held over a tough 15km out and back route with rolling hills along the way, finishing with a climb up to the line. Cripwell said the Rhodes members “did all we could to just get our heads down and give it everything”. Time trial winner was Conrad Viljoen NMMU in 21 minutes 55 seconds. The Rhodes results at the time trial were 37. Alex Joiner 25:13:41. Lee Stack 25:29:44. Devin Cripwell 25:33.
Stage two was an 80km road race on a flat, fast circuit, completing four laps. Cripwell said the race started with the front group recording up to 50km/h “and holding that for the first few kilometres”, and that the bunch stayed together for the first lap before a small group broke away on the second lap. The second lap also saw Cripwell retire from the race after mechanical problems.
Stack and Joiner stayed with the main group until the last lap. With 2km to go, Joiner saw his chance and went out in front on his own. Unfortunately the experience of the pack paid off and they slowly reeled him in, setting up the sprint finish which was won by Pieter Henning of Tuks in 2:00:49. Stack did very well to hold his own in a fast finish, coming 11th with a time of 2:01:05.
The third stage took place on the second day covering 130km over a 32.5km loop. The route had a number of fast descents with cyclists reaching 85km/h at times. There were also two tough, long climbs in quick succession towards the end of the lap. Cripwell, who was now team manager and riding along the route in the support vehicles, said the bunch stayed together for the first lap, before the attacks started.
A good sprint before the finish saw Pieter Henning of Tuks winning in 3:50:35. Stack finished 26th in 4:07:47 and Joiner 40th in 4:14:48.The fourth stage was an uphill climb. Riders started individually, 30 seconds apart, and both Joiners and Stack rode well, passing a few cyclists along the way.
Overall race leader, Arno Viljoen (Stellenbosch/Garmin DCM Chrome MTB team) showed his class, blowing the opposition away, by winning in 8 minutes 44 seconds. Joiner finished 26th and Stack 27th, both recording the same time of 10 minutes 32 seconds. The final stage was to cover a 1.5km circuit in a hour. The main group were averaging just under 40km/h along the route.
The high speed quickly caused a split in the group, leaving Joiner and Stack in the second bunch, which could not match the speed of the main group, being lapped with about 15 minutes to go. Sean Leach of VAAL-NWU made the most of a high speed crash on the last lap to sneak away and take the win. Joiner finished 42nd and Stack 45th. Overall USSA Cyling champ was Arno Viljoen, in a total combined time of 7:24:20. Stack finished 28th in 7:47:39 and Joiner 35th in 7:54:30.
The Sunday preceding the road tour saw the mountain bike event event being held at Woodridge School. A tough 6.5 singletrack loop was only made harder by the early morning rain. In a precursor to his road success, Arno Viljoen (Maties/Garmin DCM Chrome) tore the field to shreds, lapping an average of 7 minutes faster than the winning lap times from last month’s EP Champs, which were held in dry conditions.
The two Rhodes cyclists, Glen Midgely and Jono Davy and both battled with punctures and a few crashes, but went on to finish 13th and 15th respectively.
