The 23rd Dis-Chem Ride for Sight, sub-sponsored by Marcus Rohrer Spirulina, took place in Boksburg on Sunday, 13th February 2011 in exceptionally fine but hot weather.
The 116km event (a seeding event for the Cape Argus Pick and Pay Cycle Tour 2012) was the main feature of the day. The Elite and Under 23 event featuring some of South Africa’s top cyclists, started in sizzling style with an exceptionally fast first half of the race. The start of the race was unfortunately marred with 15 cyclists in the peloton going down early. About 40kms out, four cyclists - James Perry, Daryl Impy, Ian McLeod and Luthando Kaka - managed to break away from the bunch and secure a 30 second lead. The peloton closed in fast and caught them on the big hills of Suikerbosrand. Ian McLeod successfully managed another break-away, taking four other riders with him - Christoff Van Heerden, Waylan Wilcock, Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg and Daryl Impy. The MTN Team worked in perfect unison, cycling hard to keep the attackers at bay to protect their team mate Christoff Van Heerden. Their teamwork paid off and they successfully defended their lead to get van Heerden into the perfect position for the fast sprint finish, resulting in an MTN clean sweep. The results were: 1st Christoff van Heerden in a time of 02:29:50 which is a good 8 minutes better than his winning time last year. Ian McLeod was second with Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg third.
The ladies event was won by Cherise Taylor for the third time, clipping almost 10 minutes off Jenny Stenerhag’s time of last year. The Vets 30+ was won by Jacques Fullard, with Robert Quinn second and Andrew Reeves third. The Juniors title was won by James John Fourie, with Wesley Eslick and Kevin Patten coming in second and third.
The race was run under the new Cycling South Africa categories which resulted in a much more competitive group for the Ladies, Vets 30+ and Juniors.
The Men’s Elite Team prize went to MTN and the Ladies 116km Team prize went to Nashua Toyota. The Under 16 Boys prize on the 62km route went to Wilmar Jansen van Rensburg and the Under 16 Girls event was won by Michelle Benson.
Van Heerden thanked the organisers of the event, one of his favourites “not only for the excellent organisations but for the cause behind the race” – fighting blindness.
More than 4300 cyclists took to the roads of Ekurhuleni to raise money for retinal blinding conditions. The Ekurhuleni Metro hosted the event with excellent emergency and traffic services.
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