After seven days of joy and suffering in South Africa Bram Rood and Gerben Mos and Karen Brouwer and Ramses Bekkenk secured a podium spot in Oudtshoorn. Yesterday they rode the queen’s stage finishing on top of the Swartberg Pass. Rood-Mos finished third as an exhausted Karen Brouwer together with Ramses Bekkenk arrived as fourth on the pass in mixed category. Today a short but great stage with a lot of singletrack was on the menu in which both KMC-Fruit to Go duo’s ended on third place and they also secured third place in general classification. Image by Hayds Brown Visual Media
‘Yesterday we had to give all we got towards the finish as the Tsjech duo which we left behind in the climb came back. Today was a really great ride in which we took no risks anymore after we had to let go both leading duo’s.’, stated Mos. For Karen Brouwer and Ramses Bekkenk more or less the same story. Brouwer was out of breath on top of the Swartberg Pass but arrived quite fresh in today’s stage. ‘The stage to the Swartberg Pass was really tough but an afternoon in the chill zone afterwards and a good night of sleep made me feel pretty good today. Happy to be on the podium in this great event and looking forward to race here again.’, stated Brouwer.
In elite men category Alan Hatherley/Matthew Beers took the win before Nico Bell/Gawie Combrinck. Carmen Buchacher and Charles MC Fall were the winners in the mixed categorie and in elite woman category Ariane Luthi and Amy-Beth McDougall took the win.