The weekend festival of cycling in KZN, which culminates in the Mr Price Tour Durban on Sunday, kicks off in Durban on Friday night with a series of exciting kermesse races from 6pm.
 
The juniors, the ladies, the vets, and the elites will all have their turn at entertaining the crowds in 30min races (plus one lap!) which bring the riders into close contact with the fans and allow everyone to see at very close range just how the riders and the teams attempt to use tactics to their advantage.
 
It’s this competitive intimacy  which is at the core of kermesse racing’s huge popularity in Europe, especially when linked to one of the major stage races or one-day classics.
 
The organisers of the Mr Price Tour Durban are offering no less than four kermesse races for the crowd’s pleasure.
 
The kermesse races to be held at the Gateway Theatre of Shopping Boulevard comprise :
 
6,00pm . The junior U19 men
6,30pm.  The women
7,00pm.   The Vet men.
7,30pm.   Elite licenced men and U23 men.
 
All eyes will be on the final kermesse of the evening for the Elites and U23s, which will also give fans a mini-preview of Sunday’s Mr Price Tour Durban.

The Exel team’s Rupert Rheeder is confident about his team’s chances and he is also a rider who is clearly on form at the moment.

With a victory over SA’s biggest current pro winner, Malcolm Lange, at the recent mCubed criterium at Kyalami already under his belt, plus taking the Southern Gauteng individual pursuit title on the Hector Norris Park track just a week ago , it’s clear that the “Red Baron” is not a rider to overlook.

“We’ll have all seven of our riders there, and obviously the half hour long race doesn’t bother me at all, in fact the longer the race the better it suits me; but don’t forget Nolan Hoffman , who is a great sprinter, and  both Alex Galvin and Denis Van Niekerk are in excellent form, so we’ll definitely be looking to take the kermesse as well,” Rheeder finished confidently.

However, with the cream of SA’s elites and U23s also aiming to do that very thing as well, and among them , SA’s long-reigning road “sprint king”, Malcolm Lange, Friday night’s kermesse is certain to ring the curtain up on a superb weekend of cycling in KZN.