Well, it's been a long cycing season for the Maputo cyclists and the final race of the Copa calendar took place a few days ago, on the 12th of December. This race was to be the decider as the points race for the GC was as close as ever. In the end Miguel Teixeira managed the win on the day, but didn't put enough distance between himself and the GC leader (Me!), and so the final standings are as such:
1st place - Mario Traversi
2nd place - Miguel Teixeira
3rd place - Imran Akuji
Full standings are available at copaciclismo
The "Classica da EN1", in reality was being raced for the first time. At 135km it was going to be a long hard slog, and though the weather was overcast (a good thing, as it wouldn't get too hot) there was quite a southerly breeze blowing, which meant the return leg of the race would be into a headwind. The race progressed fairly fast with a few desultarory attacks, and some strong pulling by Matt and Patrick, with a few others also taking turns at the front. The return saw the average speed plummet with fewer willing to pull at the front, and the main contenders keeping well out of the wind. On leaving Manhiça, around two thirds into the race Kinha touched a wheel and was then rear-ended by Miguel, who went flying over his bike and landed badly. On Carlos' prompting the peloton stopped to give the riders a chance to rejoin, but Miguel's derailleur had snapped in the fall and Kinha kindly gave him his bike, so as to keep the GC fight alive. The riders set off again with attacks becoming more frequent as we neared the finish. An almost decisive attack by Miguel with 10km to go almost caught the peloton by surprise but he didn't get far up the hill before he was reeled in by Mario, and slowly the remaining peloton rejoined the front group. The next big attack came on the last long hill into Marracuene. Steep (4%) and long (1km) it allows strong climbers to make a break, and Miguel, closely shadowed by Mario, escaped up the hill while the peloton struggled behind. Miguel weaved and dived trying to shake off Mario, who was having none of it. Both riders went into the red but at the crest they were still glued together and backed off the pace, trying to outsmart the other into sprinting ahead. However Gustavo had managed a quick climb and broke up the party by quickly sprinting past, but neither rider was prepared to lead out and so Gustavo made his way towards the finish. Then Carlos swept past at warp speed and Miguel quickly latched onto his wheel while Mario got caught off guard and scrambled to catch up. Both passed Carlos and the Gustavo and pounded the pedals to the rising long straight finish, but Miguel had opened the gap and managed to hold it all the way to the finish line. Time difference was a mere 9 seconds in the end.
The final points difference was equally slim, with Mario ahead by just 0.56 points to claim the Copa Ciclismo. However the KOM was firmly in his grasp at 71 points to Miguel's 54 and Imran's 52.
I'd just like to say a big thank-you to all the cyclists who participated in this year's Copa Ciclismo. The Cup drew many new cyclists, as well as older cyclists who've just not joined the races before, and this made for a more exciting and challenging competition. We've lost riders (Mario Sauder left for Germany) but we've gained new ones such as Miguel, Kinha, Matt and Patrick and we hope many more will join. We managed to stage 20 events, compared to 15 last year, and some were quite well attended, notwithstading this year's longer events (which are in preparation of the African Games that will take place in September 2011 in Maputo). Some of the Copa cyclists will go on to represent their country at the African Games and we wish them the best of luck and success in their cycling.
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