Midvaal Vets Tour Stage 3 by Werner Venter - 18 June 2011

Stage 3 of the 2011 Midvaal Tour started out as very cold and windy Saturday morning, June 18th. The 30+ race started at 9 am with our team mate Andrew Reeves in yellow after 2 stages with a slender lead of 6 seconds over Julius Cobbet (Cyclenation). The day’s stage saw us doing 3 laps of 30km each with hotspots at the start/finish of each lap with time bonuses awarded at each hotspot. We knew that we would have to get Andrew to the line to try and take the hotspots or prevent Cyclenation from claiming the hotspots.



From the gun we worked hard with Gwyn Pine, Emile Fouche, Mike Viljoen and myself(all Mr Price) pacing at the front. As we approached the first hotspot, all the main contenders kicked and opened a gap on the main peleton.Unfortunately for our team, only Sean Merredew and Andrew Reeves were in the break with Craig Harvey , Julius Cobbet(Cyclenation) and Jimmy le Roux.

Once the break went we were happy to sit up and not chase the break-in hindsight probably a bad decision as we left our two main contenders to fend for themselves-a decision that ultimately cost us the yellow jersey.


Up front the racing was very hard. Eventually Jimmy le Roux and Julius Cobbet broke away and rode to the finish where Jimmy won the stage. Sean and Andrew had to work very hard to chase the two riders down, but with no help from Craig Harvey, they spent themselves and with 1 km to go, Craig kicked and opened up a gap on Sean and Andrew to which they could not respond. Craig went on to take third place. Sean and Andrew came across the line in 4th and 5th place.

Gwyn, Emile and myself rolled in a few minutes back with the main peloton.


A very disappointing day for our team to loose the yellow jersey, but valuable lessons was learned.


Photos by www.cyclenation.co.za