Maartens Wins, Schoeman Clings To Series Lead

Race Report : Release Centre

Jeremy Maartens of the House of Paint professional cycling team found it more appropriate than ironic when he broke his long victory drought in a desert, at the Kumba Iron Ore Classic in Upington at the weekend.

The 30-year-old Maartens, who in July began to refocus on his racing career after having not won a major race this year, charged to a dramatic victory in 2 hours 24 minutes 28 seconds after riding away from three of the country’s top sprinters in the final 8km of the 105km race. Christoff van Heerden (MTN Energade) finished second, half-a-minute later, with Nolan Hoffman (Neotel) getting the better of Arran Brown (Medscheme) to snap up the final podium place.

In the women’s event, Swedish national champion, Jennie Stenerhag (Alpha Pharm), grabbed her third major South African race win of the year, edging out archrival Anriette Schoeman (Nashua Telecoms) in the dash for the finish line. Jade Roberts (Nashua Telecoms) was third.

The Northern Cape’s largest race attracted virtually all of the country’s leading professional teams because it doubled as Round 7 of the prestigious Alpha Pharm Seeding Series, the country’s highest profile professional road racing series.

The men’s race was fast from the start with the House of Paint team of Series leader and current South African champion, James Ball, trying to force a split into the moderate head/crosswind to give Ball a shot at a podium place in order to hold onto his Series leader’s jersey.

But with sprint aces Van Heerden Hoffman and Brown in the mix, it was always going to be big ask of Ball, especially on a course well suited to a sprint finish.

After the peloton turned as a single pack at halfway, the attacks started to come. First Medscheme’s Nic White attacked, followed by MTN Energade’s Kevin Evans. This created a perfect springboard for a counter-attack by Brown who was joined by Hoffman, Van Heerden and Maartens.

The quartet represented the four biggest teams in the race and quickly built up a healthy lead. Maartens was ordered by his team to sit on the back of the break as Ball had missed the move and the House of Paint team were trying to bring it back.

“Then as we hit the last 15 kays, Arran (Brown) started skipping turns and not too long after that I heard from my team car that Medscheme were starting to chase, which seemed to worry Christoff (van Heerden), who immediately attacked,” explained Maartens. “Arran responded and Nolan (Hoffman) tried to but couldn’t. Twelve years of racing experience gave me the sense to make the most of the indecision and I attacked them with 8km to go.”

Maartens put his head down and time-trialled through the final kilometres intent on snatching the victory from the sprinters. Having trimmed down a total of 6kg of body weight since July, he was well equipped to reel off the kilometres powerfully and was elated when he reached the finish to grab a much-wanted victory.

“I haven’t won much lately, but since July I’ve been training so much smarter and it’s really paying off. So I was shouting with joy when I took the win. It was a very important moment for me personally and a great way to show my team that I’ve still got a lot left in me.”

By securing the 50 points for the win, Maartens prevented Ball’s rivals from getting too close to him allowing Ball to hold a 22-point Series lead with six races remaining.

In the Alpha Pharm Seeding Series women’s division, Stenerhag moved to within five points of leader Schoeman. The pair have traded the leader’s jersey since February, but will be wary of the expected late charge for the title by Ashleigh Moolman (Toyota Supercycling) and Marissa van der Merwe (MTN Energade), currently third and fourth respectively, and neither of whom raced the Upington round.

Round 8 of the Alpha Pharm Seeding Series is the Amashova in KwaZulu-Natal on 18 October.

Kumba Iron Ore Classic, 105km