"While we are registered as an amateur team, we race like professionals," quipped Michael Andersson at Maiden's Cove, a lush and idyllic corner of Cape Town's affluent Atlantic Seaboard.
The setting was March 1995 in the finish area of the Argus Cycle Tour (now known as Cape Town Cycle Tour), a little over one hundred kilometres encompassing the Cape Peninsula. Andersson, a lanky Scandinavian, had launched an ominous attack halfway up the final climb of Suikerbossie before out-sprinting his breakaway companions to take the title of both Argus and Giro del Capo champion. It was yet another dominant performance by the Swede and his Team Wirsbo-Isostar team, wrapping up a near demolition job of the South African stage racing scene of early nineteen-ninety-five.
The world seemed a much bigger place twenty years ago. The internet was non-existent and mobile phones were in their infancy. South Africa had emerged as the Rainbow Nation only a year previously and Kitch Christie and Francois Pienaar were busy rallying their troops ahead of a home World Cup only months later. In two-wheeled terms, professional cycling in South Africa was experiencing the twilight of the "golden era", with Willie Engelbrecht and Andrew McClean reaching the end of their careers and forming an uneasy alliance under the Peaceforce Securities banner. In fact, a closer look that particular team roster makes interesting reading: Engelbrecht, McClean, the late Fransie Kruger (who passed away around that time) combined with two of the brightest young prospects of the time, Port Elizabeth's Blayne Wickner and Cape Town's Douglas Ryder. Add in Englishman Keith Reynolds, a prolific winner on the UK scene who had found love in the Mother City, and Team Peaceforce Security looked to make a serious impact on the Rapport Toer and Giro del Capo of that year.
Rapport Toer 1995 was centred in around the Lowveld region. With it's high altitude and even higher climbs, that year's edition promised to favour the climbers, the lighter weights with lung capacities par excellence. Local hopes were high and Peaceforce as well as the South African National Team were expected to feature prominently. With memories of the German domination of the previous two years fresh in the local psyche, such foreign invasion/dominance could not possibly happen again, right?
Foreign cyclists visiting and/or training in South Africa was still a novelty. The sight of Moreno Argentin and the late Laurent Fignon training in Cape Town in the early Nineties was almost too surreal to seem true. The sight of the pony tailed and bespectacled "Larry" pedalling effortlessly through Kalk Bay in full Gatorade kit a few Decembers previously was a sight to behold for any local cycling aficionado. But training on the Dark Continent was one thing; getting foreign pro's to compete here was a completely separate entity, not to mention a challenge.
Andersson's Team Wirsbo-Isostar (effectively the Swedish National Team) and a Portuguese professional squad, Sicasal-Acral, made up the intentional contingent of that year with serious GC expectations, although not much was known about them. This was the norm at the time; one never really knew what to expect from visiting cycling teams. An "information scarcity mentality" of sorts, which encouraged mystique and not a little embellishment here and there. That all changed during the Rapport Toer, where the tall Swede was head and shoulders (sic) above the rest, proving that the Nordic riders were in fact the real deal.
The Giro del Capo followed a similar scenario a few weeks later, with Andersson effectively wrapping up the four-day race in the opening time trial around Constantia; not even an errant and erratic taxi driver could stop him, let alone Andrew McLean's bike swap halfway up the Signal Hill time-trial later that week.
"Michael Andersson was a special rider," remembers the evergreen Nic White, early leader of that year's Rapport Toer. "He won the Rapport Toer in dominant fashion, and then went on to win the Giro del Capo and also the Argus - he rode away up Suikerbossie with three Kazakh riders (including a young Alexandre Vinokourov) and then won the sprint!"
Here's the thing though: Michael Andersson was indeed a special rider. Clinically blind in one eye, his trademark grimace and squint was enough strike fear into his opponents, be it in South Africa, Australia or Europe. Popping up in the Giro de Italia later in 1995, his capabilities obviously impressed the visiting Portuguese as he was the only foreigner riding in Sicasal colours. Brave considering the Portuguese pro scene was known as the "Wild West" back then, where foreigners were scarce apart from himself and Cape Town's Mark Blewett.
Part of a generation of "nearly men," Andersson never really seemed to build on his amateur results until much later on, winning a silver medal in the 1999 World Time Trial Championships. But even then he was without a team, with his erstwhile squad folding halfway through that season after a few years spent with Team Telekom and TVM. Already in his early thirties at that stage, he was hardly a bright young prospect for any potential scouts, yet stoic enough to continue training alone in the freezing rain with the Worlds "chrono" in mind. Come to think of it, he was in his late twenties during his African Summer blitz of '95; a bit late to turn pro even then and kudos to him that he actually did so.
Going to ride in Portugal was perhaps Andersson's one and only chance of of integrating the paid ranks after an illustrious amateur career. Not exactly the most fashionable place to ply one's trade in cycling terms but it did provide him a springboard to the mainstream European scene. A orange bike riding amateur in March to finishing the Giro de Italia three months later; quite a rapid - if circuitous - career trajectory some might say.
"He never made it to the top in big teams in Europe," says White of Andersson. "I am not too sure the reasons but his few weeks in SA that year were very special."
Very special indeed.
Note: Header image courtesy of Shawn Benjamin and Ark Images.
