Alejandro Valverde won Liege-Bastgone-Liege yesterday and good for him. The evergreen Spanish rider from Murcia never ceases to astound and is literally 2017's "Mr Ardennes." Media hype is high as the Classics season draws to a close and "Ale Jet" is the central theme.
But what about Catalonia? Yes, another autonomous community in Spain hosted the GP Cuiutat de Terrassa yesterday, a race not highly featured by the mainstream cycling media. But that's OK. You see, Terrassa is part of the U23 calendar, literally the breeding ground for future stars and water carriers. These are "hard-as-hell" races where espoirs pay their dues and do battle with hopes and desires of "making it" into the upper echelons (sic) of the sport. And I'm sure there were a few echelons yesterday, literally speaking of course.
More importantly though, the GP Cuiutat de Terrassa was won by a South African. That's right, one Morne Van Niekerk is at the top of the classement, that lovely French terminology for the results sheet.
It was only last month that I stalked young Morne by video warming down on the rollers next to his "Merc" in car park outside Paarl. The setting was the Tour of Goodhope, a race which saw much to-ing and fro-ing between South Africa's emerging road racing talent, with Kent Main pipping young Myles van Musschenbroek on the very last day. The rest is history: Kent got a contract with DDD's U23 squad, Myles went back to his day job and Morne was looking ahead to Europe with the LEADout initiative. Now resident on the French Team Martigues SC-Drag Bicycles team, Morne remarked to me on that hot Boland day how he was training hard and chasing his dream. Trying to make it happen he said, while soft pedalling anonymously next to his car with impressive souplesse.
Keep making it happen Morne. And Kent, and Myles, and Nicol, and Willie, and Shaun-Nick, and... the list goes on.
South Africans are abroad, And doing good.
