By Emile Fouche
As there has not been any local racing since the Tour Durban which was at the start of May, I think all local cyclists were looking forward to some racing when the Toti69er took place on the 11th of July.
The Mr Price Vets team was represented by Werner Moolman, Mark Davel, Gwyn Pine, Norvyn Pitout and myself. Some of the other teams and riders present at the start line of the 84km event were House of Paint, Fego Cafe, Burry Stander and Peter-Lee Jefferies.
The race started fast and aggressive from the word go. As the bunch climbed out of Amanzimtoti House of Paint attacked and a split happened containing Dean Edwards, Dusty Day, Jason Bakke, Richard Baxter, Burry Stander, Jonty Tivers (Mr Price Junior), Mat Goetsch, Peter Lee Jefferies, Kelvin Beneke, Werner and myself. Jonty had a hard time keeping up with his junior gears and dropped back to the bunch. Werner and I managed to stay with them up to the climb going past Scottburgh. Both Werner and I got dropped from the leading group there, I just didn’t have the legs and Werner was still recovering from the flu. Werner and I tried to chase them down for a while but their pace was just too fast for us. From there Werner and I just rolled through until the main bunch caught us at the turnaround mark.
The overall and elite podium positions were being fought out by the guys in the break, Mat was still with them so that sorted him out for 1st in the 30s category, but 2nd and 3rd was still undecided. From the turnaround mark the bunch more or less stayed together, with us taking a turn in the front every now and again. Nothing too exciting was happening except for a couple of accelerations here and there. In the last 10 km the pace went up drastically with Fego Cafee making it hard in the front of the bunch. I burnt my matches when I was in the break and just could not get myself to the front, but was happy that I could see Mark close to the front that definitely had a chance for a podium position when it comes to a sprint finish. Unfortunately Mark punctured in the final kilometres to the finish line. Not I or Norvyn were in a position to contest the sprint so our chances for a podium pretty much went out of the Window there.
The sprint was won by Deno van Heerden with Rowan Tyler right on his wheel. So it was an all Fego Cafe podium in the 30s category which was a great result for them.
Well done to Gwyn who got a 3rd in the 40s category.
Burry Stander outsprinted Dean Edwards to win the race overall.
Once again the Toti69er was a great event.
