Tour Durban: Team Enza sends the big guns to KwaZulu-Natal

With less than two weeks to go to the upcoming Tour Durban, defending men’s champion’s Team Enza committed to sending their strongest possible team down to the KwaZulu-Natal East Coast for the road race on Sunday 28 November.

Team Enza have had a busy schedule and that will continue through to the end of the year as they look to build on their recent success at the Cape Town Cycle Tour with another dash to Cape Town for the Double Century before jetting into eThekwini for the Tour Durban the next day.

The racing squad sent by Team Enza for the 28 November Tour Durban will consist of David Maree, Clint Hendricks, multiple-times champion Nolan Hoffman and the current defending champion Steven van Heerden.

Hoffman continues to wind back the years and won his fourth Cape Town Cycle Tour last month while continuing to race at the highest level regularly.

Team Enza gear up for Tour Durban

Maree says heading to Durban for the aQuellé Tour Durban was a very simple decision for the team.

“A number of us spent a lot of time racing in Durban and became very comfortable there and loved racing the Tour Durban,” Maree said. “We always saw ourselves as Durban boys and just loved racing there so we didn’t hesitate when making the decision to enter the Tour Durban.

“It’s always been one of the bigger races in South African with good coverage and support for the local elite teams so we are looking forward to coming back.”

Heading into the 2021 edition of the race, the team’s plans look well established and their tactics will be geared towards a decisive end sprint.

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“We think that an end sprint will give us the best chance of winning the race because we have a strong team of sprinters so we need to try and make sure that we ride a race that will get us to the line.

“The other teams will know that we are looking for that end sprint so they will be hoping to avoid that which will make for an exciting race for sure.

“There are going to be a quite a few elite teams on the line and everyone has been training really hard through a busy period of racing so it should be a really exciting race,” Maree added.

This year’s event will see a race specifically for the elite riders to prevent them from sharing a road with the recreational riders. The race will be contested over 101km which is different to previous years, however for Maree and the team they are relishing whatever the route might be.

“The route has always been a really big part of why we come down and race the Tour Durban and we are expecting it to be really exciting even with the changes that we are expecting.

“We love travelling down to Durban and for Clint and I to be flying up from Cape Town the day before after we race shows the importance of the Tour Durban for us as a team,” he explained.

More information can be found at www.tourdurban.co.za.

Issued by Gameplan Media and adapted for the South African.