On Friday the 5th of February Charles Keey (Club 100 member, now racing for Blend Properties) travelled to Port Elizabeth to compete in the 25th Edition of the Herald Cycle Tour. The weekend comprised of a 85 Km MTB race on the Saturday in Addo and a 105 Km road race on the Sunday. This would be his first weekend of racing in the new Blend Properties team kit and his first MTB ride of the year.

The 85 Km route took place through some of the Zuurberg National Park with a very technical decent and climb included. The race started at a steady pace with a MTN club 100 rider breaking away to get the first hotspot. On the first 10 km climb Kevin Evans (MTN) started to put the power and and soon it was only Charles and Stuart Marais (Felt) left on his wheel. After putting in another big effort Kevin managed to open a gap on the two followers. At the top of the climb Kevin had open up a 2 min lead. Charles and Stuart went over the top together with Cornelius Muller another 2 min back. Through the horse trail valley Corneluis managed to catch and pass 2nd and 3rd place moving into 2nd. With around 45 KM to the finish the field was spread out and it was a tough solo slog to the line for the racing riders. The demanding course and extreme heat of Addo made this one of the toughest events over its distance. With the end podium results being.

1st Kevin Evans
2nd Corneluis Muller
3rd Charles Keey

For Sundays Road race some of the big upcountry pro teams had travelled to Port Elizabeth. House of Paint, SA U23 National Team and MTN were all present. The race started with a fast pace with the U23's keen to get the racing going. Over the first major climb 4 riders made a move with Kevin Evans, Chris Jennings and 2 House of Paint riders. This stayed away until just after Maitland climb where another move went. With 6 riders in the front with 40 Km to go Charles and Carl Pasio (Cycle Lab) decided they didn't want to be left out of the action and rode across to the break. Although all the teams were well represented in the move there seemed to be no urgency to stay away so after about 30 Km off the front and 10 Km to go most of the chasing bunch caught back up. It was always going to come down to a sprint from then, with numerous attacks trying to go in the last few Km's. Charles, not known for his sprinting ability, tried one last time to get away with a Km to go but feeling the effort from the day before as well as a full House of Paint team on the front resulted in Charles being caught with 400m to go. Eventually it was Jaun van Heerden (MTN) taking the win over Dean Edwards (HOP).

1st Jaun van Heerden
2nd Dean Edwards
3rd Albertus Rust

14th Charles Keey