Stedman sprint steals aQuellé Tour Durban title

Travis Stedman used his lethal finish sprint combined with the experience gained from riding on the professional circuit in Europe to claim a narrow victory over defending champion Josh Rheeders and local Scott Blount at the 110km aQuellé Tour Durban cycle race on Sunday.

The three riders formed the race-deciding break with just over 20 kilometres to go, and then held off the remainder of the original breakaway, including recently crowned national champion Daniyal Matthews, until their final sprint.

Rheeders (Luso ACDC Pro Cycling Team) put up a brave defence of his title, but his finishing sprint was no match for the top speed of Stedman (Toyota Specialized) who was easing up as he crossed the line with his arms raised in celebration. Blount (Leigh's Cycle Centre) was never really in contention once the two speedsters applied the power and he quickly settled for the bottom step of the podium.

"I tried to break up the team guys on the way up the Mdloti climb on the first lap, and we got it down to about 10 guys," said Stedman. "And then on the last lap I did the same thing and only two guys could follow.

"In the end I managed to pull it off in the sprint, so I'm really happy with that," said the former Joburg 94.7 and former South African champion. "It was the first win on the road for me with my new Toyota Specialized team, which is cool, so I am very happy."

Rheeders tried his best to keep the title he won last year in a group sprint, but admitted Stedman was the best on the day.

"I came to defend my title and I took second, so I can't be too unhappy with that," said the 2024 winner. "I just didn't have the legs againt Travis in the sprint."

"Travis split things up on the first Mdloti Climb. We then tried to split it again on the way up to Umhlanga on the second lap, and we lost a few off the group. But then Travis absolutely nuked it on the last lap toward Mdloti and I was the only one who could follow him … he was flying.

"We caught Scott, who had gone up the road earlier in anticipation of that attack, and we just rolled it back to the finish. Daniyal was trying to get back on but he just couldn't make it against three of us."

In the women's race, defending champion Joanna van de Winkel admitted she is not as competitive this year, but was still able to notch up her fourth victory in the road race. While her win over Linda Potts and Kadence Ribbink was relatively easy, it was not without some late drama.

"I have not been training as much this year as in the past, and when some of the men's elite riders went away on the first lap I thought it was a bit early, so I was not positioned right and ended up in the second group," said the diminutive star. "It was a nice group and we paced hard and I was able to contribute with some pulls in the front, but when we came to the sprint there was a crash and I went into somebody who had fallen."

"I was the only women in the group and I could have hung back, but I am too competitive and wanted to sprint the guys and so I got caught up in the crash," she added with a laugh.

Van de Winkel had to walk her damaged bike across the line with a bloodied arm and torn shirt and shorts.

Leading Results

Men

1 Travis Stedman 2:36:17

2 Josh Rheeders 2:36:18

3 Scott Blount 2:36:22

4 Daniyal Matthews 2:37:15

5 David Shelly 2:40:07

6 Matome Machaba 2:40:07

7 James Andrew Swart 2:43:42

8 Butiki Ndebele 2:43:46

9 Reece Van Straaten 2:43:46

10 Geoffrey Richards 2:43:47

Women

1 Joanna Van De Winkel 2:46:49

2 Linda Potts 2:55:25

3 Kadence Ribbink 2:55:27

4 Angelique Moller 2:55:33

5 Kristy Herridge 2:55:35

6 Paula Hertzberger 3:00:40

7 Nadine Nunes 3:01:30

8 Maruschka Van Rooyen 3:07:03

9 Jo-Anne Callaghan 3:11:58

10 Nadia Lombaaard 3:11:58