Tiaan Kannemeyer and Ryan Cox (both Barloworld-Valsir) served notice on the rest of the SA pro peloton on Friday that they are the form combination  to beat, at least for the early part of the 2005 season.

Kannemeyer grabbed a great victory in the SA time trial championships near Pretoria,  leaving his team mate  and winner of the recent Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia, Ryan Cox, to finish second, 20 seconds adrift of the powerful Kannemeyer, and yet another BW-Valsir rider, defending champion, David George, to finish third, some 13 seconds behind Cox.

It was a very tough course, starting and finishing at the internationally renowned  satellite tracking station at Hartbeeshoek, but for many riders,  the second half of the 40km route was an agony of  climbing a sequence of six testing hills, each seemingly longer and more demanding the previous one.

Surprisingly, it was on the final two climbs that Kannemeyer eased away from Cox, a recognised international climber, to open a gap and ensure that final victory, while defending champion, George, did well to stay in touch with his two duelling team mates.

In the elite women’s time trial Microsoft’s Anke Erlank (33:28) once again asserted her domination to win comfortably from Bionic’s “rooi rocket”,  Ronel Van Wyk (33:53), with Proline’s Alti Pienaar (35:41) in an excellent third spot.