Viljoen beats Tissink in uphill battle in PE

A battle-weary Viljoen eventually got the better of Ironman Raynard Tissink in the final dash to the line after a ding-dong battle over the closing 25km. Viljoen stopped the clock on 2:32:36.

They were followed home five and ten seconds later respectively by their team-mates Mark Murray (Mecer-NMMU) and Welcome Stokwe (Friendly City Cycles).

Young Weslee Todkil (Toyota-Cycle Lab) finally delivered when it mattered most to edge out Ronnie Scheffer (Mecer-NMMU) for a superb fifth place, a mere 1:45 behind.

Michael O'Halloran (Walmer Club), Antal Meiswinkel (Toyota-Cycle Lab), Luthando Fatyi (Friendly City Cycles) and Stephen Pugh (Toyota-Cycle Lab) rounded out the top 10.

After obliterating the field on the final two of seven climbs, Viljoen and Tissink set about tearing each other apart over the final flat stretch. It was clear that Tissink wanted to get rid of Viljoen before the sprint, but the latter responded valiantly to all of his attacks.

“Raynard was awesome today, but I knew I would have the edge in the sprint,” Viljoen said afterwards. “It was an important race for me and my team and it was up to the others to take us on - and they did.”

The first serious action came after 20km when Roger Pheiffer (Walmer Club), Jade Muller (Mecer-NMMU), Jimmy Baillie (PE Invitation), Stephen Pugh (Toyota-Cycle Lab) and Andrew Young (Masters & Ladies) slipped into a move just before the second big climb, aptly named The Wall.

They acted as a springboard for Murray, who attacked as soon as the peloton hit the climb. Viljoen was quick to follow the move and they soon caught and passed the breakaways, leaving them out in front with 65km to go and five huge climbs on the horizon.

They climbed the next four climbs side by side, building a maximum advantage of about one minute at the halfway mark at the Van Stadens River Mouth resort. They were however slowly being reeled in by the bunch, which had re-organised itself to some degree.

Tissink, who was happy to sit in the peloton until then, turned up the wick on the next two climbs and only Stokwe, a former South African development rider who has been showing glimpses of his former self recently, was able to stick with him.

At this point the two leaders' advantage was down to less than 30 seconds and they decided to sit up and wait, setting the scene for a two against two battle to the finish. Stokwe and Murray were however severed on the final climb, which left Viljoen and Tissink in front.