South African Champ Lill wins on Helshoogte

Image 1 of 11

Darren Lill (DCM) ended South Africa's drought of stage wins in its inaugural national Tour when he won the queen stage of the Cell C Tour of South Africa in Stellenbosch. The South African Road Champion put in a formidable attack, which no one could follow, at the start of the final Heelshoogte climb, then soloed to the finish.

Asked how it all unfolded he said, "My teammate Ian McLeod did a great job in keeping the pace high, I saw everyone was tired when we got to the final climb, and I was still good, so I decided to jump."

Kristian House (Rapha Condor-Sharp) finished safely in the chasing group, going into tomorrow's final 104km stage. The former British National road champion knows tomorrow's parade through Paarl should end in a bunch sprint and barring any bad luck, he should win the overall race. "Tomorrow is all about staying out of trouble and fingers crossed I'll be on the podium."

The peloton had to negotiate four categorised climbs for the day. The biggest one, Franschoek pass, coming after 90 kms of racing. Former US Postal rider David George (306 Life) put in an attack as soon as the ascent started, and crossed the top of the mountain with a 50-second advantage. However, he was reeled in with 20km to go, by a whittled down bunch exiting the town of Franschoek. Riders kept trying to attack off the front but MTN-Qhubeka, just as they did previous day, set a blistering pace.

Lill decided to counter attack a move from Chris Jennings (Burgos 2016), and immediately opened up a sizeable lead between him and the peloton. Jaco Venter (Veranda's Willems-Accent) tried to bridge the gap but Lill, a Cape Town born rider, was adamant at getting victory on home turf. Johann Rabie (Team Bonitas) out sprinted the chasing group for second, with Venter finishing third.

Rapha Condor-Sharp manager John Herety said, "We played a dangerous game today, relying on the South African teams to chase each other but, it worked out exactly as we planned."

Tomorrow's last stage will see the riders take on a flat 11km circuit in Paarl to conclude the race.

Full Results