Lange wins in South Africa, Armstrong stays out of trouble

By Agence France Presse

South Africans filled the podium at the Cape Argus cycle tour in South Africa Sunday, as RadioShack’s Lance Armstrong assisted his South African teammate Daryl Impey, who wound up third.

Malcolm Lange (Team Medscheme) outsprinted Christoff van Heerden (MTN Energade) to take the win ahead of Impey.

Armstrong, who had taken a flyer in the last kilometer to try to set up Impey, finished ninth in the 110-kilometer race.

With a strong head wind hampering the riders, the winning time was a relatively slow 2:39:55. All the leading riders were credited with the same time.

Lange has more than 400 career victories and is a three-time South African road champion. He has won the Cape Argus race twice before.

He said Armstrong’s presence “added a lot of stature” to Africa’s biggest mass participation cycling event, which attracted an entry of 35,000.

But Lange said Armstrong under-estimated the force of the wind at the finish.

“Lance tried to go with a kilometer to go but I don’t think he realized how strong the wind blows down here in the Cape. I think their plan was to make me go early but I waited. With about 150 meters to go I knew I had it.”

Lange’s Medscheme team organized a breakaway just over 30km from the finish as the cyclists entered the climb around the scenic Chapman’s Peak drive.

Armstrong and Impey stayed with the lead bunch of 12 riders through to the finish.

Armstrong’s participation ended a week in Cape Town organized primarily to raise funds for a foundation that encourages sport for under-privileged children.

He said before the race that he wanted to “ride with intent” but to “stay out of trouble” in an event in which Impey was his only teammate.

Top Ten:

1 Malcolm Lange (SA) Team Medscheme. 2:39:55
2 Christoff van Heerden (SA) MTN Energade
3 Daryl Impey (SA) Team Radioshack
4 Burry Stander (SA) Team Specialized
5 Rene Hasselbacher (Aut) Team sainfo.co.za
6 Dean Edwards (SA) House of Paint
7 Bjorn Glasner (Ger) Team Kuota
8 Johann Rabie (SA) Team Medscheme
9 Lance Armstrong (US) Team Radioshack
10 Nicholas White (SA)

FILED UNDER: News / Race Report TAGS: Cape Argus / Lance Armstrong