With a historical dominance of the women’s road race at the aQuellé Tour Durban, Sandton City Cycle Nation are back in 2023 hoping to continue their dominance and show support for an important event on their team calendar over the weekend of 13-14 May.

This year’s Tour Durban has taken a shift to mass participation and moved away from an elite race; however, this hasn’t shaken the desire of team founder Lincoln King to have a team on the start line.

“This race is like a home fixture for us and it’s an importance race for the team,” King said. “I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve won the women’s race but this year in the absence of an official race, we’ll use it as a training day and a chance to get in some high-tempo racing.

“It’s an event that is close to our hearts and this year we’ll have the defending champion Joanne van de Winkel, Bridget Theunissen and Lisa Bone racing on Sunday.

“Joanne and Bridget will also race the MTB race on Saturday.”

Van de Winkel has an impressive record at the Tour Durban and the Hillcrest resident will also be taking on a race that has now become her home event. Theunissen also resides in the Upper Highway area so they will be very familiar with the conditions that are expected this weekend.

For King, it’s important that he can get his younger riders racing with the likes of Van de Winkel.

“We’re trying to bring down the average age of the team and at 40 Joanne could almost be Bridget’s mum,” he laughed.

“It’s very important for us that we are mixing that experience with the youth and giving the youngsters the chance to learn from someone as experienced as Joanne.

“With that said, Joanne is going to race hard and will stick with the top men for as long as possible because that desire and the ability are still there.”

For the race it’s a great testament to have an elite team on the start line despite the lack of an official racing category and King explains that the event is more than just a race.

“The prestige of the Tour Durban will always be there for us, and the team definitely has the want and desire to race there so it was an easy decision.

“We also want to support the event and its sponsors because we know it went through a tough time in the last few years and we want to thank them for keeping the Tour Durban going.”