Stage 2 of Cell Tour of SA cancelled

Stage 2 — 163km — Montecasino via Soweto to Montecasino

Stage 2 of the Cell C Tour of South Africa was neutralised due to traffic concerns on the road. The race started off well, leaving Montecasino in the north of Johannesburg towards Soweto. Attacks were fast and furious with Johan van Zyl (Toyota CSA), Christiaan Kriek (Toyota CSA), Aaran Brown (MTN-Qhubeka), and David Maree (Tasol-GT) the first to get a small gap on the peloton. As their attack was brought back, UCI African Continental rider Natnael Berhene Teweldemedhin was next to go off the front until Ian Mcleod (DCM) and Daryl Impey (MTN-Qhubeka) went after the first King of the Mountains and caught him. Mcleod won the KOM from Impey.

Approaching Dobsonville, mountain biker Kevin Evans (360 life) and former Cervelo Test Team stagiaire Daniel Teclehhaimonot Girmazion (UCI Africa Continental) tried to go clear to soak up the crowd support in the township. However, they were also brought back. As the race passed the Soccer City — venue of the finals of the Soccer World Cup — there was some nervy moments for Team DCM as their leader Darren Lill went down. The current South African road champion only lost some skin on his leg though and shortly rejoined the race.

Forty kilometres into the race the breakaway of the day was finally established when Christopher Jennings (Burgos 2016), Johan van Zyl (Toyota CSA) and Clint Hendriks (Tasol-GT) reached a gap of 1:38. Approaching the finishing circuit in Sandton, the race suddenly came to a halt. Race organisers explained there were too many motorists on the route with not enough traffic police to clear things. After a five minute break and two more stops, the race got under way again when the breakaway was allowed to get their 1:38 head start. However, there was more traffic on the finishing circuit in Sandton and the race commission decided to neutralise the stage. The peloton rolled to the finish with disappointed fans along the route wondering what was going on.

Kristian House (Rapha Condor-Sharp) will remain in the race lead going into stage three as all the points and time for today’s stage was forfeited.