Cycling teams from around the country are gearing up for action as the Daily Dispatch Cycle Tour and Mountain Bike Challenge is just two days away from lifting off.
Teams from Cape Town and Port Elizabeth will be turning out to compete in the race on Sunday and are set to headline, while a number of local teams will also be out in force.
“We are expecting a number of pro teams from various parts of the province and country to enter this year’s Dispatch Cycle Tour and Mountain Bike Challenge event and we anticipate some great competition between our local cycling talent and pro teams from out of town,” said Daily Dispatch marketing manager Ryan Megaw.
“We are thrilled to have had such a great response from the pro teams, which really goes a long way in affirming our event as a premium cycling event for the city and province.”
The two main teams to look out for on Sunday will be the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University team from PE and the Giant team from Cape Town.
Although the Giant team has not fully confirmed that they will be taking part yet, team manager Hannes van der Walt said that they were 90% certain of coming down to compete.
The NMMU team has always done well in the Dispatch Cycle Tour and riders from the team have won three of the last four events, so they will certainly be a massive challenger as always.
Local cycling teams will however be eager to challenge for top placings in their home race and will be going all out on the day.
The main East London teams who will be aiming to make their mark will be the Com Office Biogen Team, the Solarwise team and team Tribal who will all have cyclists out on the road on Sunday.
With entries for the race still open until Saturday however late entries should not be discounted and could see a surprise entry or two come into the mix.
“I don’t see why we won’t get a few late entries from some cyclists who could be in contention for the race,” said road race organiser Antoinette Harding.
It will be important for the teams to be in top form on race day as they will be tasked with protecting their main challengers and setting them up to attack in the later stages of the race.
Also this year sees a new section added to the route for the first time which will be a bit of a change for competitors used to the previous Dispatch Cycle routes.
“We do have a slight change in the route from previous Dispatch Cycle events where we won’t be heading towards King any more but cyclists will make a turn towards Gonubie and will turn back at the Gonubie bridge,” explained Harding.
“The teams will really need to work together on the way out to make sure their guys are in the best positions to attack on the way back because that will be when the strongest cyclists separate themselves from the rest.”
The weekend of cycling action kicks off with the Mountain Bike Challenge on Saturday with the Cycle Tour then following on Sunday morning.