They tried again to win a stage, but had to settle for another second place. Mark Nel and Joris Ryf of JR Racing Powered by Bosch concluded their somewhat experimental 2022 FNB Wines2Whales campaign with a second place overall after a furious-paced final stage into Hermanus. Here’s how it played out…
“It was flat box from the start today! The Rossburg team, who were third on GC, 11 minutes behind us, looked keen to make up some time and set a really quick pace. After struggling again early on because of our bikes’ pedal assist limiters, we managed to catch the Toyota Specialized guys in the singletrack and rode with them for a lot the stage. We all caught and passed the Rossburg guys at about 25km and then it was a dice with Bobby (Behan) and Giniel (De Villiers) for the stage win,” explained Nel.
“All respect to Bobby and Giniel. After we took the lead at Water Point 2 they caught us with about 15km to go and we simply couldn’t match their pace on the open gravel roads. What a great experience this was though. After a chance meeting on a training ride a few years ago, Joris and I ended up racing our hearts out and having fun together as teammates for three days on some incredible trails. We are now friends for life!” grinned Nel.
“I had some trouble in the beginning to stay with the others on a lot of flat, boring roads, but when we reached the singletrack I was able to catch them. Mark had a crash on one of the downhills but he was okay. We were always in contention with the leaders and as I did yesterday, I rode ahead to Water Point 2 where our fast battery change saw us take the lead for a while,” explained Ryf.
“We pushed as hard as we could but when we reached wide open roads the Toyota Specialized guys caught us again. We just couldn’t stay with them there so we just enjoyed the last bit into Hermanus. We are very happy with second place and the whole event was a really nice experience. Even though it had the portage, I would say Stage 1 was my favourite stage,” added Ryf.
Some perspective for those new to this dairy, Ryf (25) is a professional mountain biker and one of the best eBike racers in the world and Nel is 40-year-old father of three with a full-time job. They met a few years ago on a training ride and agreed a couple of weeks ago to do the FNB Wines2Whales Pinotage Racing eBike category as a team. You can read the previous diary entries below.
PINOTAGE EBIKE DIARY: PART 3 – STAGE 2
PINOTAGE EBIKE DIARY: PART 2 – STAGE 1
PINOTAGE EBIKE DIARY: PART 1 – PRE-RACE
