Burry Stander took a small 10-second lead into the final leg of the Pick n Pay Argus Giro del Capo cycle tour on Friday.
In Thursday’s third and penultimate leg in Paarl, the Team Specialized rider lost a sprint finish to Hanco Kachelhoffer.
The Medscheme cyclist clocked 4hr 28min 2sec for the 171-kilometre ride.
Stander will tackle today’s traditional Signal Hill time trial of 5.5km with a 10sec cushion over Kachelhoffer with David George (SAfindit.co.za) and Kevin Evans (MTN-Energade) 14 and 15sec back respectively.
The Beijing Olympics mountain biker is going to have his work cut out. Evans is the current SA time trial champion while George boasts the fastest time to date on the Signal Hill time trial with a 12min 30sec best.
Stander was quick to credit his teammates for the fact that he still wears the leader’s pink jersey.
“Christoph Sauser, Craig Paul and Ben-Melt Swanepoel have made it all possible,” said the 22-year-old.”They worked really hard and only the MTN guys worked with us to get the breakaways back.”
And the KZN rider is not writing off his chances on the Signal Hill climb. “The climb will suit me and I’m not the worst time trial rider. I was fourth in this year’s SA champs but I’m going to have to get moving. Ten seconds isn’t much of a lead.”
Article Source: http://www.sascoc.co.za/
