2020 South African Road Champs Wrap-Up
The 2020 SA Road Champs signed off at the Swadini Forever Resort, in Mpumalanga, with wins for Impey, Moolman Pasio, Janse van Rensburg, Visser and Gibbons.
Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio left the 2020 SA Road Champs, held at the Swadini Forever Resort, in Mpumalanga, with her reign as national champion in both the road race and time trial unchallenged. The men’s road race, though, saw a new winner as defending champion Daryl Impey was forced to settle for second place after defending his TT title earlier on in the week.
It was Team NTT’s Ryan Gibbons who ended the Mitchelton Scott rider’s reign, after finishing second in the 2019 road champs, in a tight sprint finish (but only after ProTouch rider Bradley Potgieter had been caught after a race-long break just 500m from the finish), with Jayde Julius (ProTouch) third. In the U23 race, 21-year-old Louis Visser beat Jean-Pierre Lloyd and Brad Gouveris by the smallest of margins, in the same bunch finish as the Elites.
The Individual Time Trial titles went to Impey – his ninth, and eight on the trot – and Byron Munton took home the U23 gold. Silver and bronze went to Stefan de Bod and Kent Main (Elite), and Marc Pritzen and Jean-Pierre Lloyd in the U23s. The national criterium championship was won by Brad Gouveris, from Brendan van Eeden and Chris Jooste.
The women’s titles were hard-fought, even if the results sheet looks all-too-familiar with Ashleigh Moolman Pasio retaining both Elite road champs and time trial titles. After a powerful display in the TT – finishing a minute clear of Carla Oberholzer, with U23 champ Frances Janse van Rensburg in third, Moolman-Pasio had to rely on some race craft and an out-of-character bunch sprint win to beat Carla Oberholzer and regular sprinter Maroesjka Matthee into the minor placings. Janse van Rensburg added road-race gold to her U23 TT title, getting the better of Haylee Preen and Kelsey van Schoor in the same bunch finish.
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