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Potgieter wins the Sungardens Carousel classic
Bradley Potgieter won the Sungardens Carousel cycling classic over 150km on Monday after outsprinting Hanco Kachelhoffer and Pieter Seyffret at the finish.
The race started and finished at the Carousel Casino and was raced over a flat course.
As one of the big races on the calender, it attracted all the big teams and the elite field amounted to around 80 riders.
The road at the start of the race was marked by potholes and poor road surface, but it did not stop the early attacks and after 30km Shaun Ward and Jason Bakke had opened a gap of about 30sec.
That break though was short lived as the bunch hauled them in again very quickly.
The real racing started just before the halfway mark as a group of 20 riders broke away. In that breakaway were all the big names such as Malcolm Lange, Ian MacDonald, Johan Rabie, Kachelhoffer, Arron Brown, Potgieter, Jeremy Maartens, Shaun Ward, Tiaan Kannemeyer, and Seyffret.
At about the 80km mark some riders started to peal off and Kachelhoffer punctured on the long stretch back to the Carousel.
He was able to get back to the bunch with 30km to go and there were no changes in the lead pack with 15km to go.
Potgieter, Seyffret and Kagelhoffer were able to get away from the lead bunch and with 3km to go were able to open a 44s gap and the sprint would be decided between them.
Potgieter, having the strongest legs on the day, crossed the line in 3:22,12 with Kachelhoffer and Seyffrets awarded the same time.
As was the case in 2009 though, the finish line was a shambles with backmarkers of the 70km fun riders finishing in the same straight as the elite riders.
There was a huge uproar about the finish area in 2009 as it poses a serious danger should there be a big bunch sprint.
Added to the problem is the timing mats are only spread over a
lane and a half of the road which further congests the situation
and had there been a big bunch sprint, a huge pile up could very
well have been on the cards.
