Midvaal Tour Stage 5 by Emile Fouche - 19 June 2011

After three days and four stages of freezing cold mornings, hard racing and suffering we lined up for the 5th and final stage of the Mid Vaal Vets Tour. Andrew Reeves and Sean Merredew were the highest placed Mr Price team members on the overall GC, with Andrew being 1 minute and 26 seconds behind the yellow jersey rider, Julius Cobbett, from Cycle Nation. There were only five riders left who was in actual contention for the tour win, that being Julius Cobbett (Cycle Nation 7:00:15), Jimmy le Roux (7:00:27), Craig Harvey (7:00:56), Andrew (Mr Price 7:01:40) and Sean (Mr Price 07:02:31). The next best rider on GC was almost 10 minutes behind which would be an impossible task to get to the yellow jersey. Mr Price was on the back-foot, but we sure as hell were going to fight for it!

The race started with an easy cruise with a lot of chitchat as if nobody was actually in the mood to race hard. After probably almost 10km of this, Andrew decided that was enough of the snail speed ride and went to the front upping the pace. Gwyn Pine (Mr Price) took over from him and the racing was on. It was a flat course and the bunch pretty much stayed together with Mr Price and Cycle Nation controlling the front of the race. We were heading for the Hotspot at 30km and you could feel the vibe in the group change for those important points. Sean pulled off next to the road and I assumed it was a mechanical or puncture (Only later we found out it was a mechanical of a different sort). The sprint for the line was on and Julius took it with Andrew in second. Jorge Faria (Cycle Nation) attacked just after the Hotspot as we turned right on the R42. I rode across to him and we rolled through to create the first break of the day. At some stage we were a minute up the road, but the bunch reigned us in near the 50km mark and the KOM was just ahead. I was glad to see Sean is back in the bunch. Sean gave Andrew a great lead out for the KOM, but Julius was greedy (Like another Julius I’ve read about) and outsprinted Andrew for the Polka Dot points. The bunch stayed together until we turned right onto Karee Road. Sean came up next to me and told me we need to start attacking to try and split the bunch up. Andrew put in an attack, got caught and then Sean attacked. When Sean got caught Andrew attacked again with Craig Harvey (Cycle Nation) on his wheel but for some reason Craig was not keen to roll through. As they got caught I found some energy and launched an attack. My companion from the earlier break, Jorge Faria, followed with Pieter Swemmer (Cyclelab) on his wheel. The three of us rolled through and opened a gap. I was feeling pretty good, but I wasn’t sure this break was supposed to work. In the last 4km I decided to slow the break down and stopped rolling through. If we got caught, Andrew and Sean would be there to finish the race off. If we did not get caught, I was hoping to have the fresher legs in the trio.


Meanwhile, Gwyn and Werner had orders to chase the break down. We got caught with just over a kilometre left and the sprint was on. Unfortunately Sean got boxed in and had to start his sprint early. He overtook Julius, but Julius had another kick for the line. Julius won the stage and tour for Cycle Nation, with the Mr Price boys, Sean and Andrew rolling over the line in 2nd and 3rd.

The Mr Price team did not win the tour, but we never stopped fighting and came back home with two yellow jerseys, two stage wins, two second places, one third and plenty of Spar Vouchers for our team piggy bank!


Photos by www.cyclenation.co.za