Christian Pfannberger (Barloworld) takes the victory in South Africa (Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Team Barloworld got their 2008 Giro del Capo campaign off to a flying start by winning the first stage, through Christian Pfannberger. The Austrian went solo in the end and preceded his team captain and strong sprinter, Robert Hunter, who won the sprint of a breakaway that formed after 60 kilometres of racing.
Barloworld took lessons from Quick Step's dominating performance in Sunday's Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and placed the whole team in the break that developed at the category one climb at Bains Kloof, going straight into a headwind. The break stayed away and Pfannberger left the break to get a solo victory. Daryl Impey made the result almost perfect for Barloworld, only narrowly missing out on third place to Hanco Kackelhoffer (House of Paints).
Hunter received the King of the Mountains jersey. Pfannberger has now a one-minute lead in the overall and is wearing the pink leader's jersey. Naturally, Barloworld also leads the teams classification.
Claudio Corti, Team Barloworld manager said, "I am very happy with the team's performance today. The wind played a huge factor and the team showed their good condition by working together to control the breakaway and attack. Despite the wind and strong competition from the other cyclists, Pfannberger showed very impressive form on both the hills and flats and he and the rest of the team are very motivated to do well at the Giro, in the home country of our sponsor."
The Giro del Capo still runs until March 8. Full results of the first stage are here.
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