The Clover Tour this year was mainly dominated by Lynette Burger (Toyota CSA) and Anriette Schoeman (Mecer Africa Silks) with Burger winning the Tour and Schoeman dominating the stages.
The 1st stage belonged to Burger when she took 1st place in the 27km time trial, followed by Andrea Steyn (Toyota Cycle Lab) and Pauline Count in the 3rd place. Schoeman struggled in the time trial and managed a 5th place after Leandri du Toit from Toyota CSA.
In stage 2 over Graskop – Hazyview – Sabie – Graskop over a distance of 108,5km the Elite Ladies and u/23’s ladies raced with the Vets 39-40. After 50km only Schoeman and Burger managed to stay with the leading men while the rest of ladies were left behind. They also lost contact with the leading men with 20km to go. In the sprint to the finish Schoeman managed to out sprint Burger to take 1st place. Burger however had a 2min lead over Schoeman gained in the time trial to stay in the Overall lead. Steyn finished in 3rd place.
Stage 3A over 85,9km was four laps of the notorious Gods Window. Again Schoeman and Burger were the only ladies who managed to stay with the men. This time Burger also a renowned sprinter managed to outsprint Schoeman to take the stage with Schoeman taking 2nd place. Burger’s team mate Leandri du Toit finished in the 3rd place.
Stage 3 B was a 7.5km hillclimb time trial up the very steep notorious Koewyns Pass. Schoeman found herself in a very bad starting position with Burger starting one minute behind her. This meant that Burger would be able to chase Schoeman up the climb. For the first 2km Schoeman and Burger went head to head. Then with 3km to go Schoeman started opening a time gap on Burger to win the stage with 50 seconds. Burger finished 2nd and Andrea Steyn took 3rd place.
Stage 4 was over 96km the whole bunch stayed together till 12km to go when the Vets men launched a vicious attack near the summit of Gods Window. Burger lost contact with Schoeman hanging on. Another attack also left Schoeman behind on the summit. This helped Burger to catch her on the descent. At this stage it was clear that a stage win would again be determined by a sprint to the finish. Schoeman outsprinted Burger to take the final stage. Ashleigh Blackwell (Toyota CSA) took 3rd place. Burger who came 2nd took the Overall Tour win with Schoeman overall 2nd and Andrea Steyn overall 3rd.
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