Seeding Series Hits The Hills At Telkom Satellite Classic

Press Release : Release Centre

Arran Brown and Jennie Stenerhag claimed sprint victories at last weekend’s MTN Amashovashova Cycle Classic, which shot them to the top of the rankings in the Alpha Pharm Seeding Series. But with climbs in the latter half of the race thrown into the mix at the next round of the Series, there’s every chance their leadership will be strongly challenged.

On Saturday, the country’s top professionals will tackle the Telkom Satellite Classic near Pretoria, which doubles as Round 9 of the 13-event series, the most prestigious cycling series in Southern Africa. It’s a 107km dash around the Hartebeespoort area which includes the tough 4km haul up Hekpoort with around 20km of the race remaining.

Team Medscheme will give Brown all the backup he needs to retain the Series leader’s jersey, but with a long, menacing drag leading up to the final downhill kilometre, he’ll have to bring his best climbing legs in order to put himself in contention for the win. Expect his teammate, Hanko Kachelhoffer, a powerful climber that’s in good form, to feature prominently.

South African champion, James Ball (House of Paint) and Nolan Hoffman (Neotel) are currently second and third respectively in the Series, but the terrain of Sunday’s event could well see them lose ground to joint third-placed Christoff van Heerden (MTN Energade), a very strong allrounder that’s eager to give his team a seemingly overdue local race victory.

Stenerhag, the current Swedish national champion racing in the colours of Alpha Pharm, will once again be outnumbered by the top South African teams like Toyota Supercycling, MTN Energade and Nashua Telecoms.

But she’s shown true grit in being able to hold her own and in the process, helping raise the standard of South African women’s racing. Anriette Schoeman (Nashua Telecoms) will be out to reclaim the Series leader’s jersey, but on Sunday, both she and Stenerhag will be wary of third-placed Ashleigh Moolman (Toyota Supercyling) and fourth-placed Marissa van der Merwe (MTN Energade), who are both strong climbers.

With a 30-point lead over Schoeman and more than 100 points over Moolman and Van der Merwe, Stenerhag has a fairly solid grip on the Series lead. But she’ll need everything to go her way at the scenic Highveld race in order to retain that lead as the Series enters what should be a dramatic final few weeks.