ProTouch split for double attendance

While a ProTouch five-man team took on the second half of the Tour du Rwanda, another team returned to Asia to take on five stages of the Tour de Taiwan that took place from 1 to 5 March with a total of 684,4km on the cards.

The strong five-man team roster included Jaydé Julius, Reynard Butler, Rohan du Plooy, Calvin Beneke and Callum Ormiston who is under 23 years.

“We have a really solid team for the sprint and climbing stages, I am really looking forward to returning to Asia so that we can begin our 2020 Asia Tour Campaign.

“This will be my first Tour of Taiwan and I am excited to see what our team can do here,” said Rohan, who had a successful season last year in Asia with the team.

ProTouch Continental lined up alongside International Continental and Pro Continental teams that included Burgos BH from Spain and Frenchman Nippo Delko Provence to name just a few.

While one team finished the final stage of Tour du Rwanda in third place, and fourth on General Classification, the other Team started Stage 1 of Tour de Taiwan with a circuit race in downtown Taipei City.

With the stage only 83,2km long, the attacks commenced right from kilometre zero, although ProTouch missed the major break of the day, with 12 riders from 11 teams, they kept their composure and rode a smart race.

With three laps to go, Rohan managed to chase back to the peloton very quickly, and with the peloton reeling in the breakaway with about 1km to go, the team finished fifth and 12th place in the final sprint, and fourth overall in the team classification.

The next stage saw two category 2 climbs, followed by one category 1 climb, commencing right after the only Intermediate sprint at the 50,4km mark.

Stage 3 took the peloton through what is known as the Romantic Route 3 and, is also the Queen’s Stage of the tour.

The race was hard and fast, with a Category 1 climb, which was the main target for many other big teams in the race.