{"id":20766,"date":"2013-06-28T17:11:09","date_gmt":"2013-06-28T15:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/smit-completes-hat-trick-in-wet-port-elizabeth\/"},"modified":"2013-06-28T17:11:09","modified_gmt":"2013-06-28T15:11:09","slug":"smit-completes-hat-trick-in-wet-port-elizabeth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/smit-completes-hat-trick-in-wet-port-elizabeth\/","title":{"rendered":"Smit completes hat-trick in wet Port Elizabeth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

The University of Pretoria\u2019s Willie Smit completed a hat-trick of stage wins to retain the yellow jersey on day two of the Bestmed USSA cycle tour in in a cold and rainy Port Elizabeth<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Smit added the 120km queen stage \u2013 and the day\u2019s sprint prime \u2013 to his tally after claiming the 83km opening road stage and 15km individual time-trial at the national student championships on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The Team Bonitas pro went clear of a four-man lead group in the closing kilometres to take a convincing win in 3:17:51 for an overall time of 5:46:53.<\/p>\n

Hans-Werner Heuer of Stellenbosch University claimed the runner-up spot in 3:19:32. He was chased to the line by Shukuma-NMMU<\/a>\u2019s Marinus Prinsloo, who finished five seconds back.<\/p>\n

Heuer and Prinsloo occupy the same positions in the general classification with aggregate times of 5:50:54 and 5:51:11 respectively.<\/p>\n

Prinsloo also put on a powerhouse climbing display to take both King of the Mountain hotspots.<\/p>\n

The host institution, which last won the event in 2008, now leads the team classification.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a team, we\u2019re very happy today,\u201d said Prinsloo.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur main goal for the tour is to get a podium in the team classification. The individual positions are a bonus for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overnight leader Smit started conservatively in the wet conditions as his team paced hard upfront.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t do a lot of work seeing as I have the yellow jersey \u2013 all I had to do was defend it. My team did a brilliant job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, 40km into the race, the first of two demanding laps started.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told them to make it as hard as possible on the second lap when we hit the big 5K Hill climb and there was a small break that went on the climb. I think it was about 70km into the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

This effectively split the race into the lead group of four riders, which also included Adriaan Louw of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, and a chasing bunch of 12.<\/p>\n

As the freezing conditions and fatigue began to take their toll on the leaders, Smit, a second-year law student, launched his final attack on Marine Drive 15km from the finish at the NMMU<\/a> South Campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was a good time to ride away, so I did. When it\u2019s this cold you have to eat and drink enough; today\u2019s race was as much about nutrition as it was fitness.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s race, the University of Cape Town<\/a>\u2019s Sarah Chemaly made a daring solo breakaway to win the 90km stage in 3:07:10 and move into the overall lead (5:24:57).<\/p>\n

Tuks\u2019s Elmarie de Wet took second on the day in 3:16:10, four seconds ahead of Ashleigh Blackwell from Stellenbosch University.<\/p>\n

Overnight leader Kelley Hess of UCT drops to second in the general classification (5:32:30), while Blackwell rounds out the overall podium (5:33:15).<\/p>\n

The three-day tour wraps up today with a 2.4km hill climb in the morning followed by a criterium in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

\"Willie<\/a><\/p>\n

Willie Smit (left) leads the four-man breakaway group during the third stage of the Bestmed USSA student cycle tour in Port Elizabeth<\/a> on Thursday. Photo: Coetzee Gouws\/Full Stop Communications<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The University of Pretoria\u2019s Willie Smit completed a hat-trick of stage wins to retain the yellow jersey on day two of the Bestmed USSA cycle tour in in a cold and rainy Port Elizabeth on Thursday. Smit added the 120km queen stage \u2013 and the day\u2019s sprint prime \u2013 to his tally after claiming the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"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":[1289,5],"class_list":{"0":"post-20766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-mype","8":"tag-port-elizabeth-2","9":"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\/20766","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20766\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}