{"id":19233,"date":"2013-04-15T05:08:09","date_gmt":"2013-04-15T03:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/tasol-gt-stay-alive-with-marees-emperors-win\/"},"modified":"2013-04-15T05:08:09","modified_gmt":"2013-04-15T03:08:09","slug":"tasol-gt-stay-alive-with-marees-emperors-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/tasol-gt-stay-alive-with-marees-emperors-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Tasol-GT stay alive with Maree\u2019s Emperors win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t    <a href=\"http:\/\/mysport24.co.za\/tasol-gt-stays-alive-with-marees-emperors-win\/david-maree-lr\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2754\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2754\" alt=\"Tasol-GT rider David Maree signals his delight with his win at the Emperors Palace Classic, presented by ASG, in Johannesburg on Sunday. Photo: Peter Morey\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/6cb91_David-Maree-LR.jpg\" width=\"278\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tasol-GT rider David Maree signals his delight with his win at the Emperors Palace Classic, presented by ASG, in Johannesburg on Sunday. Photo: Peter Morey<\/p>\n<p>Tasol-GT rider David Maree held his nerve in a three-man sprint to win the Emperors Palace Classic, presented by ASG, in Johannesburg on Sunday to keep his team\u2019s hopes for survival alive.<\/p>\n<p>Maree, whose squad\u2019s title sponsorship expires at the end of the month, crossed the line first in 2:13:26, just a split-second clear of Bonitas\u2019s Chris Jennings, with Westvaal-BMC\u2019s Shaun-Nick Bester a further second back.<\/p>\n<p>According to Maree, the win was a much-needed one, especially ahead of their potential swansong at the Mzansi Tour, which starts on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe really needed this one for the team\u2019s confidence and to show everyone that we\u2019re not giving up. We\u2019ll keep fighting and keep believing in our dream.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Bryanston resident, who also podiumed in the Fast One in January, said the racing started at a furious pace on the fairly flat 104km course.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one was giving anyone room to manoeuvre and the bunch didn\u2019t let any moves slip away. It was definitely one of the harder ones this season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A group of eight riders \u2013 with top teams Bonitas, Westvaal-BMC and Tasol-GT all represented \u2013 broke away from the peloton about 30km into the race.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe actually thought we would stay away but the MTN-Qhubeka feeder team chased us down and closed the gap with 40km to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They then rode together until the closing 10km, when the final selection of five riders went clear.<\/p>\n<p>Jennings launched the first of two attacks with two kilometres remaining, which saw the leaders shed an MTN-Qhubeka and ASG rider, leaving the eventual podium finishers to battle it out for position.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChris attacked again with about a kilometre to go, so I let Shaun-Nick close the gap for me and then I had a huge sprint to the finish.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Describing himself as \u201can opportunistic sprinter\u201d, the 23-year-old said the final uphill drag to the line had played right into his hands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause I am one of the lighter riders, an uphill sprint like that is really suited to my ability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The women\u2019s race also ended in a photo finish with relative newcomer Odelle Joubert, riding in the colours of Complete Cyclist, taking her first major title in 2:33:32.<\/p>\n<p>Pre-race favourite An-Li Kachelhoffer of ASG Boxit and Marissa Stander of EOH Demacon were second and third respectively.<\/p>\n<p>After the feature race, newly crowned national junior pursuit champion Morn\u00e9 van Niekerk stole the show in the exciting kermesse on the casino\u2019s rooftop.<\/p>\n<p>Van Niekerk won the nail biting \u201cdevil-takes-the-hindmost\u201d elimination race ahead of Westvaal-BMC\u2019s Donovan Lubbe, with the ASG junior team\u2019s Ryan Felgate rounding out the podium.<\/p>\n<p>Allan Britnell and Nicci Grobler won the men\u2019s and women\u2019s sections of the 40km Mountain Bike Classic on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>For more info, find the race on Facebook or follow @emperorsclassic.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RESULTS:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Emperors Palace Classic Road Race (104km)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Men:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. David Maree (Tasol-GT) 2:13:25<br \/>\n2. Chris Jennings (Bonitas) 2:13:26<br \/>\n3. Shaun-Nick Bester (Westvaal-BMC) 2:13:27<br \/>\n4. Neil MacDonald (FedGroup-Itec Connect) 2:13:36<br \/>\n5. Nolan Hoffman (Tasol-GT) 2:13:36<\/p>\n<p><strong>Women:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. Odelle Joubert (Complete Cyclist) 2:33:32<br \/>\n2. An-Li Kachelhoffer (ASG Boxit) 2:33:32<br \/>\n3. Marissa Stander (EOH Demacon) 2:33:32<br \/>\n4. Lise Olivier 2:33:32<br \/>\n5. Charlotte van der Merwe 2:33:32<\/p>\n<p>Emperors Palace Mountain Bike Classic (40km)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Men:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. Allan Britnell 1:43:21<br \/>\n2. Jean-Pierre Joubert 1:47:29<br \/>\n3. Jacques Lloyd 1:49:07<\/p>\n<p><strong>Women:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. Nicci Grobler 1:49:27<br \/>\n2. Victoria Myburgh 1:57:22<br \/>\n3. Nadia Packham 1:58:09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tasol-GT rider David Maree signals his delight with his win at the Emperors Palace Classic, presented by ASG, in Johannesburg on Sunday. Photo: Peter Morey Tasol-GT rider David Maree held his nerve in a three-man sprint to win the Emperors Palace Classic, presented by ASG, in Johannesburg on Sunday to keep his team\u2019s hopes for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[3258,830,885],"class_list":{"0":"post-19233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-mysport","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-sport","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}