Kent Main won the 46th edition of the men’s race of the 2024 Cape Town Cycle Tour in the Mother City on Sunday morning.
Main slipped off the front of a select group, inside the final five kilometres and time trialled to the line.
The men’s race started with bang. The pace was frenetic with Jaco van Dyk making the first attempted breakaway. Once the Honeycomb Pro Cycling rider was caught, a group of six launched clear.
They were driven down the Blue Route by Theuns van der Bank, with Brad Scott, Dan Loubser and Luke Moir also helping extend the gap. Despite having a teammate in the break, Honeycomb recognised the danger posed by the men at the front and worked to bring the leaders back.
The peloton never made the catch. Honeycomb’s pace shredded the field and only a select, reduced group, were able to reel in the leaders, who themselves had been whittled down to just Loubser and Moir by the time they reached Scarborough.
The duo at the front were eventually caught approaching the final significant climb of the race by Alan Hatherly, Kent Main, Marc Pritzen, Jaedon Terlouw, Charlie Aldridge, Jaco Venter and Alex Miller.
As the catch was made the pace increased and Loubser and Terlouw were unable to follow on the steepest pitches of Suikerbossie.
This left a group of Hatherly, Main, Pritzen, Terlouw, Aldridge, Venter, Miller, and Moir to fight it out for victory. A tactical battle played out over the next few kilometres until Main ghosted off the front.
Once clear Main put his head down and charged for Green Point. Only within the final 400 metres could he relax and soak up the emotions. With a double armed salute, he crossed the line.
“I’ve got goosebumps,” Main grinned.
“It’s amazing! It was an amazing race. It was super hard right from the beginning, but I think how tough it was actually worked in our favour. It’s amazing to have won it!”
Behind Main the chase group fought out a messy sprint for second, which British mountain biker Aldridge won ahead of his Cannondale Factory Racing teammate Hatherly. Venter was fourth, with Moir completing the top five ahead of Prizen and Miller.
Cape Town Cycle Tour