Motivated Ward 2nd at Krematart

9 June 2009

Konica Minolta's Shaun Ward secured himself 2nd overall in the 4 stage Krematart Tour held in the Limpopo Province on the weekend. The race has proved to be an attractive race on the SA Calendar over recent years as it is one of the few races on the domestic road calendar which allows riders to race in a number of stages during the course of a single day.

The main protagonists in the Krematart tour were both the Konica Minolta and Team MTN, however with the big names watching each other in stage one, it was a Toyota rider who was able to slip clear and win King of the Mountain Classification.

With 40kms to go in stage one, a group of 6 riders rode clear from the bunch, in the group was Dennis Van Niekerk (Konica Minolta) Shaun Ward (Konica Minolta), Christoff Van Heerden (MTN), Bradley Potgieter (MTN), Jaco Ferreira, a Toyota rider. The stage came down to a sprint between the 6 riders Christoff from MTN winning the stage and Dennis from Konica taking 2nd position.

Stage 2 - A flat but windy stage was won by Ian McLeod from MTN. There was a bit of confusion leading up to the finish with 250m to go, as there was a sharp right hand bend. Ian took the corner first and beat Konica Minolta's Shaun Ward to the line.

Stage 3 - Proved to be a tough windy stage which included a lot of rolling climbs. The stage was hard from the outset, with 20km to go it was only Dennis and Shaun from Konica Minolta together with the 4 MTN riders were left.

MTN put in some big attacks against the outnumbered Konica Minolta pair. Dennis blew with 5kms to go leaving Konica Minolta's Shaun to fight against the 4 from MTN. Despite the constant attacks, MTN were unable to ride Shaun off and Shaun still secured 2nd overall on the stage to Ian McLeod from MTN.

Stage 4 -proved to be the easiest stage of the race. Ian McLeod just out sprinting Shaun Ward to take the Tour victory for MTN with Shaun Ward taking a hard fought 2nd for Konica Minolta team.

Final Results Krematart Tour
1st Ian Mcloud (MTN)
2nd Shaun Ward (Konica Minolta) at 9sec
3rd Jay Thompson (MTN)