Rabie wins stage, takes Tour de Boland lead
Johann Rabie, runner-up at the inaugural Cell C Tour of South Africa two weeks ago, won a drama-filled Stage 3 of the Le Coq Sportif Tour de Boland on Thursday to take over the race leader’s Yellow Jersey and extend his lead in the points competition.
The Team Bonitas stage-race specialist, who turned 24 on Tuesday, dashed clear of four other riders that had formed a small breakaway group with him in the final kilometres of the stage, which had to be detoured when a fire on the slopes of DuToitskloof, the second significant climb of the day, made racing on the planned route unsafe.
But despite the route being shortened to 120km from the original 167km, the racing action was fierce. Rabie clocked a winning time of three hours, 19 minutes and 42 seconds, with South African champion Darren Lill (DCM) second and last year's South African Junior champion, Louis Meintjes (Toyota Supercycling Academy), filling the final podium place. Overnight leader, Christoff van Heerden (MTN Qhubeka) was sixth, five seconds down.
Rabie’s win gave him a 10-second time bonus, which puts him into a nine-second lead over Van Heerden and 10 seconds over Lill with Friday’s final stage remaining.
News of the fire forced the race commissaire to stop the stage early on while the organisers and authorities discussed an alternative. It was decided to follow an out-and-back route between Paarl and Villiersdorp, sending the riders over Franschhoek Pass twice.
Shortly after the halfway turn at Villiersdorp, Clinton Barrow (DCM) set off on solo break that lasted almost 20km before he was reeled in by the pack as it enthusiastically tackled the return ascent of Franschhoek Pass. After the climb, a group of 16 riders formed at the front.
In the group were four riders from Team Bonitas; three each from MTN Qhubeka and DCM with the rest being sole representatives of other teams. The group represented most of the teams in the race, so wasn’t in danger of being caught.
As the group approached the finish in cloud-shrouded Paarl, the strong crosswinds began to take their toll, splintering the pack and leaving just six riders in the front with five kilometres remaining: Rabie, Van Heerden, Lill, Meintjes, Stefan Ihlenfeldt (CTM) and Switzerland’s former double mountain bike world champion, Christoph Sauser (Songo.info).
With 1.5km to go, Rabie put in a big attack and he was able to work up enough of a gap on his rivals to maintain that lead to the finish line. After finishing second on Stages 1 and 2, Rabie said he was taking no chances with a classic sprint finish.
“I attacked then because I was more interested in gaining time for the General Classification rather than the stage win,” he explained afterwards.
“This race is very close with just a few seconds between the top guys. I knew that if I could get a small gap, I could take the Yellow Jersey. The stage win was obviously a goal too and the 10-second time bonus is certainly a big help.”
Friday’s final stage is a short, but menacing 63.7km circuit race through Paarl. Menacing in that a 2.8km section of the route takes the riders on a rough gravel road, virtually guaranteed to result in mechanical problems or crashes.
“There has been some talk of maybe changing it. I hope they do,” said Rabie. “It would be such a pity to lose the tour because of a mechanical problem on that road. It’s very rough and even rocky in places, not something anyone is actually looking forward to.”
STAGE 3 RESULTS - MEN
1 Johann Rabie (Bonitas) 3hr 19min 42sec
2 Darren Lill (DCM)
3 Louis Meintjes (Toyota Supercycling Academy)
4 Stefan Ihlenfeldt (CTM)
5 Christoph Sauser (Songo.info) all same time
OVERALL STANDINGS - MEN
1 Johann Rabie (Bonitas) 10hr 21min 57sec
2 Christoff van Heerden (MTN Qhubeka) @ 9sec
3 Darren Lill (DCM) @ 10sec
4 Christoph Sauser (Songo.info) @ 20sec
5 Jan Oelerich (TTR) @ 28sec