MAKHADO (LOUIS TRICHARDT) - Stage 1 of the Kremetart One-Day Stage Race started on a high note for the Microsoft team when Jeremy Maartens attacked 500m from the R500 Mountain View mountain prime, only 9km into the 53km- long stage to go 200 meters clear of the bunch and lead the 1 200 participants over the Mountain.

Daryl Impey and Malcolm Lange immediately set off to join their team mate, but took Tuks rider Quiten Henegan along for the ride. The three Microsoft riders worked hard to increase the gap on the bunch, with Quiten sitting at the back in the passenger seat. With 10km left to the end of the stage, the four had a minute's lead on the bunch.

It was then that the Microsoft team manager came forward to talk to his members and they immediately set about taking turns at attacking Quiten to get rid of the unwanted passenger. They were so intent on their efforts that they failed to see that the bunch had picked up the pace on the flat road and all four were soon reeled into the bunch and lost forever the chance of taking an early lead over the bunch. The stage ended in a sprint, with junior Daryl Impey taking the honours and donning the Yellow Jersey for Stage 2.

Stage 2 was a flat 48km stretch with a tail wind, so the bunch stayed together for a long time. The only drama in the first 30km was for the race organisers to get the second ChampionChip timing vehicle past the convoy to time the stage finish.

The climb out of the depression at the Saltpans resulted in 12 riders' getting away, including the same three Microsoft riders, Tuks riders Tuis Sebona, Quiten Henegan and Hanco Kachelhoffer with Excel riders Etienne Hairbottle and Reece Swartz thrown into the mix.

This group contested the sprint at Vivo, and Malcolm Lange took the sprint and the Yellow Jersey, with a lead of one second over Excel's Arran Brown.

At the start of Stage 3 at Vivo, 10 riders were within 10 seconds of the Yellow Jersey, so the stage was set for hard racing. The wind had swung 180º during the lunch break and again came from behind. At the top of the 13km-long drag up to Buysdorp, Malcolm Lange again took the sprint for the prime.

The progressively harder climbs as the distance increased saw the bunch reducing in size by attrition, rather than by any successful breakaway. The usual suspects were left, including other hopefuls such as Sean Hope, Douglas Ryder, Bertus Fouché, Etienne van Wyk, and Thaabit Price, but by the tough 1,5km climb up to the finish at Schoemansdal, there was only one man left with the legs to do it. Hanco Kachelhoffer was the man and he was 7 seconds clear of Microsoft's Jeremy Maartens and 10 seconds ahead of the Yellow Jersey of Malcolm Lange.

When Hanco put on the Yellow Jersey at the start of the short 22km Stage 4, Maartens needed to find 9 seconds if he was going to win. With that in mind, he attacked hard at Otto's Hoogte. He was well clear at the R300 prime, only 7km from the finish, and sat down for a hard solo time trial to the finish. Malcolm Lange stayed with Hanco as the interference rider, but he was unable to stop Hanco finishing just four seconds behind Jeremy, to claim overall victory in a total time of 04:03:38. In third place and out of the money was Malcolm Lange, two seconds down on Jeremy.