South African Elites - Mooloolaba World Cup 2008 Race Report
April 29th, 2008 by Erhard
The Mooloolaba World Cup was hotly contested with athletes like Javier Gomez, Brad Kahlefeldt, Bevan Docherty, Tim Don among the men and Vanessa Fernandes, Emma Snowsill, Laura Bennett, and Felicty Abraham lining up in the woman’s field.
Representing SA woman was Mari Rabi and Kate Roberts, with Erhard Wolfaardt, Kent Horner and Hendrik de Villiers rounded out the men’s team.
Being the opening World Cup race of the season, and a Beijing Qualifier race, the tension was heavy, and the pressure was on for all.
The Elite Women’s race started 11:05, with a beach start. The swim was led by Laura Bennett (USA) in 20:26, with Mari Rabie and Kate Roberts having excellent swims, exiting in 12th and 15th respectively. Mari managed a brilliant ride, as she showed her strength, cycling with the best in the sport. Kate Roberts was firmly riding in the 1st of the two chasing packs. The pace on the bike was on, although slightly slowing towards the end, as the athletes rested their running legs. The run once again proved a battle between Snowsill and Vernandes, with Snowsill edging ahead late on the 3rd lap, adding another win to her impressive resume. Mari finished 26th with a very gutsy performance, and Kate ended up in good 36th position.
The stellar Men’s field lined up for their start at 13:40. The surf literally turned washing machine as the men dolphin dived and thrashed for position to the first buoy. Colin Jenkins (CAN) led the men out the water in 18:46; Kent Horner had an awesome swim, exiting in 10th place. Hendrik followed close behind with Erhard a little further back than expected.
Once again the technical section proved to be treacherous, and after avoiding two crashes, Kent unfortunately slashed the sidewall of his tire, ending his race early. An understandably disappointed Kent joined SA support team, Carol Austin and Andrew van Rensburg, on the course to cheer on his team mates.
Hendrik was firmly set in the front pack, while the chase pack, including Erhard managed to bridge up late on the 2nd lap, to form a big 50+ peloton of athletes.
Despite several breakaway attempts it soon became apparent that the race would once again be won on the run. World number one, Javier Gomez (ESP) took top honors in 1:49:50 with a blistering run of 30:30 on the hilly route. Brad Kahlefeldt (AUS) took second, and Tim Don (UK) 3rd. Hendrik de Villiers managed a 31:31 run split, as he finishe in 16th place. Erhard Wolfaardt finished 44th in 1:53:29. In view of his stellar race performance in the African Championships a couple of weeks ago, where he finished just 10seconds behind Hendrik, he was disappointed.
