Student 24/7 Apr 2014 | Page 20

SA NEWS The Mzansi Cycle Tour Annette Willemse After a grueling 201 km, the longest stage of the Mzansi Tour, cyclists took a welcome break at the Vaal Triangle Campus of the North-West University (NWU Vaal) after the third stage of this internationally recognised cycling race. The spoils of the day went to Herman Fouche of the Bonitas Pro Cycling team, who won a dramatic bunch sprint to claim victory. Fouche beat Austrian, Jan Sokol (Synergy Baku team) and Nolan Hoffman (Abantu team) on the penultimate day of the five-day Mzansi Tour, which ended on Saturday in Midrand. A hearty NWU Vaal congratulations Apart from hosting the prize giving event for the third stage of the race, a representative of the Vaal Triangle Campus Management – Mr Herman Steyn (Director: Finance), also had the privilege to share the stage with some of the winners. It was Steyn’s duty to hand over the Points Jersey – which is awarded to the rider with the most accumulated points at the end of each stage. This jersey is known 20 - Student 24/7 as the Echelon Events Points Classification jersey. More about the Mzansi Tour The Mzansi (a Zulu word meaning ‘the South’), is the only UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale)-graded road cycling race in South Africa. The aim of the event is to create a fair contest to showcase the strongest riders and smartest teams; an event at which the next generation of young riders – South African and international – and sponsors and fans, can participate. The tour comprises of four stages of 140km; 159km; 201km and 79.5km respectively.