It was yet another victorious weekend for the MTN Qhubeka cycling team with Arran Brown winning the 101km Rand Water Race for Victory. David Maree (Tasol GT) and Janni Tewelde (UCI Continental Centre) were second and third respectively.
The women's podium was topped by Team MTN Qhubeka's Sarah Chemaly and Lise Olivier, with Marissa van der Merwe (USN) in third. It was a great team effort from MTN-Qhubeka that secured the victory for Brown "On Wednesday we did a team training ride of the route. We knew I had to get over the climb in the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve 20 - 30 seconds behind the leaders. After the climb there is 30km to the finish. The plan was to get me to the top of the climb with as many team-mates as possible," said Brown. Dennis van Niekerk and Dylan Girdlestone were to police the break over the top with the leaders but the rest of the team stayed with Brown to make sure he got could get back to the leaders on the flat sections after the climb.
"Bonitas didn't have sprinter so they attacked on the climb as we expected. Bradley Potgieter, Petrus Lotto, and Martin Wesemann stayed with me and together we paced back to the leaders as fast as possible, we knew we would have to make an immediate team effort to regroup with Dylan and Dennis upfront."
According to Brown it was a team time trial with seven of his team-mates in the front group of 18 riders. "The guys kept the pace high and this meant I could save myself for the finish. With 1.5km to go Bradley attacked. He got a big gap and it looked like he would hold off the chase to win, but then Hanco Kachelhoffer (Bonitas) sent two of his team-mates to the front to bring Bradley back with only 600m to go. Then with 450m to go I launched an attack. I got a big gap and with only 80m left I knew I had the win so I eased up and enjoyed the moment."
For Brown, this race and the build-up to the race, once again shows the commitment of his team-mates and the professional attitude of the entire team.
"We are doing our homework before every race like true professionals and it is paying off. Douglas Ryder and Carol Austin have been working really hard behind the scenes and the morale of our team is at a real high right now. We really want to get to Europe and become a competitive European team in the near future."
Brown not only praised his team-mates afterwards, but also gave credit to team-manager Ian Wilson and team-mechanic Mike. "They did a great job today and made a big difference to the team with their positive contribution and hard work."
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