It was a long time in the making, but at long last Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg (MTN-Energade) managed to do what many people expected the youngster to do.  On Sunday, 28 February, he won one of the major one-day classics, the Carnival City Macsteel Road Race over 132km on the East Rand.

“It is a huge relief that my first really big victory is out of the way. The past two years have been somewhat frustrating.  I got close to winning a few times, but in the end things did not work out quite the way I wanted them to do,” the 21 year-old Janse van Rensburg said on Sunday.

According to Janse van Rensburg, he got away in a break with about 20 other riders. Luckily for him, there were three riders from the House of Paints team and three from the DCM team with him.

“The riders of the two teams were just intent on racing each other. If one of the DCM riders tried to get away in a break, a House of Paint rider would counter and vice versa when a DCM rider attacked. It was actually quite absurd.

“I got the idea that they were going out of their way to ensure that the race would not finish in a bunch sprint. It also seemed that, because House of Paints and DCM had the numbers, they did not worry about the rest of us.  This suited me to a tee because all I had to do was to make sure that I rode in front and out of trouble.

“A few kilometres from the finish, there were only eight of us left. The deciding moment came when Michael Pepper (House of Paints) attacked with five kilometres to go. I realised that it would be a mistake not to follow him because he was getting away. So I joined him.

“The nearer we got to the finish, the more nervous I became. In the end I decided to put everything at stake and take a long sprint. There was a chance that I could end up being merely the lead-out man for the rest of the riders. Luckily my legs held up and I managed to win.”

Janse van Rensburg’s winning time was 3 hours 2 minutes and 3 seconds. Pepper finished 2nd and Dusty Day (also House of Paints) was 3rd.

Janse van Rensburg is certainly in good form at the moment. Nine days ago he won the SA u.23 individual time-trial. He was also 3rd in the SA u.23 road race.

His next big goal will be to win a stage or two in the Giro del Capo Cycling Tour in the Western Cape.

Sunday was actually a good day for the MTN-Energade team, because they also made a clean sweep in the women’s race.

Robyn de Groot won the women’s race over 103 kilometres in 2 hours 44 minutes and 58 seconds. Lylanie Lourens (MTN-Energade) was 2nd and Marissa van der Merwe (MTN-Energade) 3rd.

It was a classic scenario of a pre-race plan that worked out to the letter. It was decided beforehand that De Groot should win the race.

She proved quite early on during the race that her team-mates’ confidence in her riding abilities was justified when she won the first hot spot prime.

“After winning the first hot spot, I decided not to contest the second one, because it was too close to the finishing line and I did not want to waste energy unnecessarily.”