Hi everyone!
Hopefully I can keep it short this time, but please allow me to give you a short report on the season we had as an Elite team.
Being our first full season starting in September and ending this past weekend with the Argus, we are very excited to be able to give you a good report.
Our season marked the entry of Christopher Esch and Paul-Dean Rorich to the team joining Leonardo van Onselen (C), Lance Muller and Ryan Kemp.
Spring 2011
Our first race was the Orbit Tour de Worcester where the team worked hard to get Leo in a breakaway group. Team tactics sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t, but this time it was favourable for the Brothers. Leo went to the line with two other riders and with a remarkable sprint secured the first ever win for the Brothers!
The team also opted for experience and entered some of the bigger up country races like the Engen Series and Amashova. The highlights of these were the Amashova where 3 of the Elites managed to place within the top 20, and this being the third biggest race in the country!
The league had more to offer with the West Coast Express race, where it came down to a bunch sprint due to the flatter route. Again Leo lead the pack to claim the Brothers second win!
Then there was WP Champs and Die Burger where Lance showed himself as someone to be reckoned with in the Western Cape by getting silver at the champs and placing fourth in the Western Cape’s second biggest provincial race The Burger!
The Coronation Double Century was one of the highlight of the 2011 year with the Elite team placing third overall on the day, only to be contested later by another Cape Town team. Don’t worry, we will be back bigger and better!
Summer 2012
The summer of 2012 started off well with the team focusing on the overall team competition. The first podium came when Lance very cleverly saved himself in the Tour de PPA to go with an attack in the last 10km. Only two riders got away and Lance made sure he secured an excellent second place for his team!
In the Bouchaert Soenen race Chris went in a breakaway of four very early in the day. After a long day in the heat only three riders went for the line with Chris taking top honours! Another win for the team!
Other highlights are the 4th place of Ryan in the Medallion Tour de Stellenbosch and the combination of 5th and 8th in the very hilly Roller Coaster.
To top this the team managed to place third in the overall team competition, getting the first ever team podium!
Sponsors
Without our sponsors this would not have been possible.
Chris and Mari Brothers! Thank you for your amazing support and the great sponor you are to us. We truly appreciate it and look forward to many more seasons like the last.
A big thank you to Jay Osborne for being our manager, getting up at 04:00 on racedays to drive support and also supplying our FOCUS race machines. One Sunday morning he even left a long awaited Valentines weekend with his wife to come to the race. (With her permission off-course) Much appreciated Jay!
Thanks!
We so sincerely want to give thanks to our families, friends and followers! This has been a long and hard season where those closest to us were often the first to be neglected when training and racing were given first priority. We hope the above results give you an idea of the sacrifices that had to be made for the fruit to be harvested.
We love you, we love cycling and thank you everyone for your amazing support
Also a thank you to our God who has (and are) blessed us above expectation!
The TEAM! (Leo, Kempie, Lance, Esch, PD)
Awesome boeties. Well done, wish you all the best for future success and many, many, many more victories.