The 21-year-old Stellenbosch University B.Com student comes from a mountain bike cross-country racing background and only started road racing in June last year. But you’d never have guessed that with the maturity he showed in creating this, his biggest road racing victory so far.
He beat newly crowned South African Elite road race champion, Darren Lill, in the final dash for the finish line, but in the last kilometre left behind the likes of multiple Commonwealth Games medallist David George (Team 360 Life) and multiple South African mountain bike marathon champion, Kevin Evans (Team 360Life).
Kriek acknowledges that he’s neither a pure climber, nor a pure sprinter, but he’s clearly a smart tactician.
“I knew I couldn’t out-climb Darren Lill and David George, so in order to win I had to out-smart them,” he said.
“I rode the last section of the race on an easy training ride yesterday and tried to visualise how it would pan out in the race and how I would respond. I knew that Darren would probably be in the mix and that he would probably attack on the climb up Vissershok, which is about 10km from the finish, and if necessary, attack again on the climb to the finish line. And it happened exactly like I had anticipated.”
Kriek was in a seven-rider lead group when Lill attacked up Vissershok. George, Evans, Carl Pasio (RSAWeb), Edward Greene, Stefen Ihlenfeldt (Cape Town Market) and Kriek worked together and caught Lill with three kilometres remaining. Then, near the base of the final 1km climb to the finish, Lill attacked again with Evans joining him.
“I kept a steady pace behind them because that last climb is a kilometre long and quite tough. I saw the gap wasn’t getting any bigger so dug deep and I caught first Kevin and then Darren on the flatter part with about 500m to go. I attacked, but not with 100 percent effort and then exaggerated a fade. That gave Darren a chance to attack me again, but I was expecting it and caught and attacked him one last time with about 50 metres to go.”
Kriek pipped Lill to the line, clocking a winning time of 02 hours 42 minutes 04 seconds for the hilly 108km race, a popular preparation event for next month’s Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour.
In the women’s race, five-time winner, Anriette Schoeman (Nashua Toyota) rode clear on her own up the final climb to claim a sixth title ahead of Swedish racer Jennie Stenerhag (Newmark Hotels) and veteran Jane Seggie (Reeds Chevrolet).
Reeds Chevrolet Ninety Niner
Cape Town, 108km
Leading results Elite & Under-23 men:
1 Christiaan Kriek (Smith & Associates/Obike Maties/Toyota Supercycling Academy) 2hr42min04sec
2 Darren Lill (DCM) same time
3 Carl Passio (Team RSAWeb) @ 01 sec
4 Stefen Ihlenfeldt (Cape Town Market) @ 06
5 David George (Team 360Life) @ 10
Women:
1 Anriette Schoeman (Nashua Toyota) 02hr53min53sec
2 Jennie Stenerhag (Newmark Hotels) @ 08sec
3 Jane Seggie (Reeds Chevrolet) @ 02:09
