Team Medscheme Continue Their Roll Of Wins
With MTN Zoo Lake Criterium

Race Report : Advendurance Media

“It seems the more I train the luckier I get.”

That is how Gary Player one of the world’s golfing legends was once quoted as saying.

The riders from the Medscheme team took Player’s words to heart before the MTN Zoo Lake Criterium and went to train the course the day before the race. It paid dividends with Arran Brown winning the race, with Malcolm Lange also from Medscheme 2nd and Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg (Toyota Cyclelab) 3rd.

Afterwards Brown said that going to practice the finish of the MTN Zoo Lake Criterium the day before really made the difference.

“I knew exactly what I needed to do and when to do it. For example I knew the wind was going to come from my left hand side and that I needed to sprint to my right and make the sprint long and it worked.”

Moments after Brown’s victory and Lange finishing 2nd there was some unhappiness with the manner the Medscheme riders ensured their victory citing the use of foul tactics.

The reason for this was that during the final sprint Hanco Kachelhoffer (Medscheme) who was doing all the hard work in the last two kilometers to set up his teammates victory bumped into Christoff van Heerden (MTN-Energade) that led to Van Heerden losing his rhythm and not being able to contest the sprint anymore.

Doug Ryder, MTN-Energade team owner, was really upset about what he referred to as Medscheme’s dirty riding.

“I don’t know why they had to revert to such tactics. They have won enough races this year. One thing is for sure is that my riders will never resort to such tactics to win races.”

According to Ryder he can’t say whether or not Van Heerden would have won if the incident did not happen.

“All I know that Christoff was the third wheel coming through the last corner and we all know that he is no fly by night rider. He is one of South Africa’s stronger sprinters. I am sure that he would have managed to get in between Arran and Malcolm ensuring a 2nd place if he was not switched by Hanco. But due to the incident he finished nowhere.”

Kachelhoffer afterwards apologized to Van Heerden.

“I told Christoff that I was doing the lead-out for Arran and Malcolm. When it started to matter they shouted to me to go to my left which I did. The mistake I might have made was that I kept looking to my right at my teammates. I did not realize that Christoff was on my outside and so we connected. I really had no intention of taking Christoff out of the race.”

As far as the actual racing is concerned Nolan Hoffman (Neotel) who was considered to be one of the pre-race favorites had bad luck. His bicycle’s chain broke during the 2nd lap forcing him to withdrew.

The rest of the race was a typical criterium with lots of attack and counter attacks all happening at high speed.

In what should not be a surprise it was Kevin Evans (MTN), the mountain biker, who made every one sweat in the last few laps when he attacked. It took some doing from the rest of the riders to catch him again.

Brown was full of praise for the work his teammates has done to set up his victory.

“With about 3 kilometers to go my teammates were already setting up a train for me and Malcolm. Hanco was awesome over the last 1.5 kilometers.  On the last climb he made the racing so hard that for a moment I lost his wheel. I had to get out of my saddle to catch up with him again that meant that I ‘creamed’ the last corner. Actually things were really hectic because you had guys like Jamie Ball (House of Paint) and Christoff trying to get into the action.

“I took my final sprint long just like we practiced, with Malcolm on my wheel of course. We (Medscheme) are actually lucky to have two sprinters. Myself who could make the sprint long and hard and Malcolm who is really fast. That means in most races we have two chances to win. If I fail Malcolm is on my wheel to finish off what we started.”

Brown was full of praise for Lange afterwards.

“By winning today I proved to Malcolm that all the hard work he has put into me to help me become a better sprinter is starting to work. Malcolm is one of those riders who is not scared to share his secrets on how to win sprints.”

As to the incident between Kachelhoffer and Van Heerden Brown said that as far as he is concerned that is exciting.

“The final sprint in a big race should be chaotic in dangerous with nothing guaranteed until you cross the finish line. That is how the sprints in the European tours and one day Classics are.”

Medscheme has now won the last eight races they have competed in.

After the criterium there was a one lap sprint race which Hoffman won convincingly for team Neotel