The Leg Tester – Roma to Malealea
The second day of Lesotho Sky 2018 was a real mountain trek over 85km of dirt roads and mountain passes from Roma to Malealea, totalling 2 200m elevation. The leaders stayed together until 10km after the second waterpoint. At the 70km mark the route took riders to face one of their toughest challenges yet: a gruelling hike-a-bike. This was followed by a patch of grassland terrain that sapped the last bit of energy. It is here that the UCI team from South Africa took the race by the scruff of the neck.
French riders Allard Basile and Remy Bourdon of Team Rebloch Power lost some time at the hike-a-bike section and were unable to make up the gap from there. South African duo Reinhard Zellhuber and Andrew Hill took the win and secured the overall leading position. The battle between these two is going to become interesting over the coming days.
Tumelo Makae and Phetetso Monese of Alliance Insurance grabbed the 3rd place overall, with team Standard Lesotho Bank coming in at fourth place 19 minutes later.
The day was marked by a godsend of a tailwind that took some of the poison out of the sting. The highlight of the route was dropping down into the Valley of Desolation, a remote place that few tourists get to experience.
Result summary
UCI Teams:
1st: Team Garrun-Tib Insurance – Reinhard Zellhuber and Andrew Hill – 4:01:56
2nd: Team Rebloch Power – Allard Basile and Remy Bourdon – 4:02:36
3rd: Team Alliance Insurance – Tumelo Makae and Phetetso Monese – 4:40:70
4th: Team Standard Lesotho Bank – Malefetsane Lesofe and Katleho Manasi – 4:59:53
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