Giro del Capo (Tour of the Cape)
Team: Fensome, Forner, Kearsley, Pares, Reddlapalli, Chris Hoy.
A team that should, in all honesty, dominate. A very weak startfield around here, largely only including the best South African riders - in Barloworld - and Jelle Vanendert, a Belgian who rides for Chocolade Jacques.
Prologue, 7 km ITT, Paarl
Reddlapalli set a top time early on. No one really challenged.
Stage result:
1 Manjunath Reddlapalli TEAM CASSON DAIRY 9'55
2 Diego Caccia BARLOWORLD + 5
3 James Lewis Perry BARLOWORLD + 6
4 Martin Riska TEAM SWIAG TEKA + 9
5 Jelle Vanendert CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN + 10
12 David Pares TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 16
31 Chris Hoy TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 25
34 Alex Fensome TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 27
48 David Kearsley TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 32
74 Josh Forner TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 41
Stage One, Paarl - Tokara, 129 km
A gravel road climb finish, which hampers
Fensome the least.
Pares joined the breakaway, a 11-man monster, and earned some intermediate points and seconds, but Chocolade Jacques set up a huge pace on the 8 km second-climb to set off literally everyone. It had six riders up front with 4 km to go of the climb. Only
Forner and
Fensome managed to follow, and by the top the situation was:
11-man group with Pares
Chocolade Jacques + Forner & Fensome @ 2'56
Peloton 1 with Barloworld and Wiesenhof riders, + Reddlapalli @ 4'08
Peloton 2 with Caccia (Barloworld) and Kearsley @ 5'18
Look at all those red/whites...
Chocolade Jacques continued to pull away on the flat against disorganised groups behind, while our two leaders were thankfully tagging along. So, however, was Chocolade Jacques' leader, Jelle Vanendert, who didn't have to share any work with his dedicated team-mates.
By the top of the second-to-last-climb, and 30 km remaining, the Pares group had been eaten and left. The situation was now as follows:
Stubbe, Vanendert, Pauwels (Chocolade Jacques),
Forner, Fensome
Various remnants of the breakaway (Pares @ 1'32)
The two earlier pelotons, now merged, @ 4'32
Forner knew he'd be weakened on the gravel road, and banked everything on attack 10 km before the finish. The Belgians were worn out with effort, and Vanendert wanted to save himself for the final climb, leaving
Forner with a precarious 40 second lead with 5 km to go. As expected, though, the gravel got too tough for
Forner and Vanendert stole the victory on the line.
Stage result:
1 Jelle Vanendert CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN 3h19'28
2 Josh Forner TEAM CASSON DAIRY s.t.
3 Alex Fensome TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 10
4 Tom Stubbe CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN + 50
5 Serge Pauwels CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
23 David Pares TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 4'23
24 Manjunath Reddlapalli TEAM CASSON DAIRY s.t.
36 David Kearsley TEAM CASSON DAIRY s.t.
83 Chris Hoy TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 9'56
General classification:
1 Jelle Vanendert CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN 3h29'13
2 Alex Fensome TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 39
3 Josh Forner TEAM CASSON DAIRY s.t.
4 Serge Pauwels CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN + 1'14
5 Tom Stubbe CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN + 1'20
8 Manjunath Reddlapalli TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 4'37
12 David Pares TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 4'47
48 David Kearsley TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 5'09
73 Chris Hoy TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 10'31
Points classification:
1 Jelle Vanendert CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN 37
2 Manjunath Reddlapalli TEAM CASSON DAIRY 25
3 Josh Forner TEAM CASSON DAIRY 20
8 Alex Fensome TEAM CASSON DAIRY 16
11 David Pares TEAM CASSON DAIRY 10
Mountains classification:
1 Josh Forner TEAM CASSON DAIRY 18
2 Alex Fensome TEAM CASSON DAIRY 14
3 Jelle Vanendert CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN 14
Team classification:
1 CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN 10h30'33"
2 TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 2'54
3 TEAM SWIAG TEKA + 10'27
Stage Two, Stellenbosch
A moderately difficult circuit, with two hills in the 20 km lap to be done six times.
Kearsley, then
Reddlapalli went into breaks, as we wanted to put pressure on Chocolade Jacques so they worked themselves out again; four laps into the race Vanendert simply pushed away with a couple of Barloworld guys, and Casson Dairy desperately clung on with
Forner and
Fensome.
Forner never gained quite the impressive Langkawi form, and was set off despite a good effort, but
Fensome realised something had to be done when the group caught
Kearsley's small group, and when Vanendert attacked, the Zimbabwean countered. He then sped from his wheel, and as they passed the top and gained mountain points at the penultimate top, Fensome had a good minute.
This lead was easily held stable through the final kilometres; the first breakaway was gathered in by the peloton, who still lost four minutes, while Forner rallied to third place.
Stage result:
1 Alex Fensome TEAM CASSON DAIRY 3h13'15
2 Jelle Vanendert CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN + 1'07
3 Josh Forner TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 1'48
4 John-Lee Augustyn BARLOWORLD + 2'26
5 Dimitri Claeys DAVITAMON - WIN FOR LIFE - JONG VLAANDEREN + 3'56
7 Manjunath Reddlapalli TEAM CASSON DAIRY s.t.
41 David Pares TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 10'13
56 David Kearsley TEAM CASSON DAIRY s.t.
84 Chris Hoy TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 22'11
General classification:
1 Alex Fensome TEAM CASSON DAIRY 6h42'47
2 Jelle Vanendert CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN + 36
3 Josh Forner TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 2'00
4 Serge Pauwels CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN + 4'51
5 Tom Stubbe CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN + 4'57
9 Manjunath Reddlapalli TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 8'14
Points classification:
1 Jelle Vanendert CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN 57
2 Alex Fensome TEAM CASSON DAIRY 41
3 Josh Forner TEAM CASSON DAIRY 36
4 Manjunath Reddlapalli TEAM CASSON DAIRY 34
Mountain classification:
1 Simon Kelly MURPHY & GUNN - NEWLYN - M.DONNELLY - SEAN KELLY 30
2 Alex Fensome TEAM CASSON DAIRY 24
3 Jelle Vanendert CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN 18
With another time trial, double the length, Fensome will look to gain some time in Bloemendaal tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Weber will be added to the team soonish.