Vodacom Rapport Toer - Cat. 2.4

South Africa, February 11-19, 2000

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Stage 2 - February 13: Cape Town - Signal Hill, 112 km

Steinhauser leads after two stages

The German Gerolsteiner team recaptured the lead in the Rapport Toer in South Africa after today's 124 km stage finished at the top of Signal Hill around the Cape Peninsula. It was the turn of Tobias Steinhauser (Ger) to wear the yellow after he came third in today's stage. He now holds the lead by some 23 seconds over former leader, Alberto Elli (Ita, Telekom).

A somewhat subdued peloton tackled the stage, after yesterday's tought 190 km slog. Nothing happened until the 85 km point when Britain's Max Sciandri (Linda McCartney) attacked on a smallish climb at Hout Bay. He built up over a minutes lead with 30 km to go, but was brought back by the field after another 10 km.

His teammates, Maurizio de Pascale and Pascal Richard then launched a "counter attack", with 10 km to go on the final climb. They were successful in staying away, giving Linda McCartney a 1-2 in the stage after de Pascale won. Steinhauser was third, a further 9 seconds behind, but 27 seconds on front of Elli, who was 9th.

Tomorrow should see a little shake up in the standings, as the riders tackle a 26 km time trial in Mossel Bay.

Results

1 Maurizio de Pascale (Ita) Linda McCartney		3:11.40 
2 Pascal Richard (Swi) Linda McCartney			   0.14
3 Tobias Steinhauser (Ger) Gerolsteiner 		   0.23
4 Marcel Strauss (Swi) Post Swiss			   0.45 
5 Salvatore Comesso (Ita) Saeco Valli&Valli		   0.50 
6 James Perry (RSA) IBM-Lotus					
7 Xavier Jan (Fra) Francaise des Jeux			
8 Volker Ordowski (Ger) Gerolsteiner			
9 Alberto Elli (Ita) Telekom				
10 David George (RSA) ProMix				   1.10

General classification after stage 2:

1 Tobias Steinhauser (Ger) Gerolsteiner 		8.12.18
2 Alberto Elli (Ita) Telekom            		   0.23
3 Salvatore Comesso (Ita) Saeco Valli&Valli		   0.32
4 Volker Ordowski (Ger) Team Gerolsteiner    		   1.32
5 Lars Michaelsen (Den) Francaise des Jeux  		   1.51
6 Christian Wegmann (Ger) Saeco Valli&Valli    		   2.05
7 Nicholas White (RSA) Team HSBC             		   2.08
8 Rudolph Wentzel (RSA) Minolta         		   2.11
9 Kosie Loubser (RSA) IBM-Lotus         		   2.15
10 Danilo Hondo (Ger) Telekom            		   2.44

Points:

1 Tobias Steinhauser (Ger) Gerolsteiner			20 pts
2 Salvatore Comesso (Ita) Saeco Valli&Valli		19  
3 Alberto Elli (Ita) Telekom				18  

Mountains:

1 Salvatore Comesso (Ita) Saeco Valli&Valli		15 pts  
2 Max Sciandri (GBr) Linda McCartney  			14  
3 Nicholas White (RSA) Team HSBC  			10  

Hot Spots

1 Robert Hunter (RSA) ProMix   				18  
2 Olaf Pollack (Ger) Gerolsteiner    			14  
3 Malcolm Lange (RSA) Team HSBC			   	2