MARK ETHERIDGE: Dream comes true for Chris Jooste

This month’s Cape Town Cycle Tour saw a transition from a prince to a king.

Crowned king of the world’s largest individually timed cycle event, it was a feather in the cycling helmet of Prince Albert-born Chris Jooste.

Two years ago the hamlet in the harsh Central Karoo boasted an official population count just shy of 15,000. To put it into perspective, that’s less than half the number of competitors in the Cape Town Cycle Tour this year.

For 27-year-old Jooste, his victory is certainly of royal proportions. “It’s by far the biggest win of my career! I think every young SA road cyclist has a dream to one day win the Cape Town Cycle Tour.

“For so long now it’s also been almost exclusively a sprinters’ race — it must be a decade or so now since a breakaway produced the winner, as it did this year.”

For the Tufo BMC team rider, the race came after a busy build-up, starting with a seven-week training block over the festive season, then provincial champs in mid-January and a six-week spell on the road that took in the national road championships in Oudtshoorn, then a race in Windhoek, Namibia, back to Johannesburg, the Tour de Cap and finally another training block in the Boland and checking out the Cycle Tour route.

“We raced as much as we could,” says Jooste, “because there’s no better training than racing.”

Of the team’s race-day plans, Jooste says they had to think out of the box. “Our team doesn’t have an out-and-out sprinter so we wanted to turn the race on its head and make an impact from early on, especially in a race with so much media exposure.”

Jooste said he had two teammates (Jacques Marais and Ruan England) committed to looking after him for the first two hours of the race. “Eric Cross and Kimhan van der Merwe also had key roles to play and our plan was to start making it hard on the Suikerbossie and Chapman’s Peak climbs but already at the Smitswinkel climb I got to ride away with a group and knew I had a 50% chance of the win. As cyclists know, it’s not often that a plan works out perfectly, but this time it did and it was a true team effort.”

Like most of the country’s top roadies, he’s no stranger to the Cape Town Cycle Tour. “I first raced it when I was 12 and think I’ve only missed two editions since and I’ve been fortunate enough to win every age division over the years.”

After a typical small-town upbringing Jooste was forced to look north for competition and experience.

“I moved to Gauteng to an academy run by Frank and Gill Bezuidenhout. It was supposed to be for three months and ended up being eight years so I’m truly part of the family there. Tragically, auntie Gill passed away during the Covid-19 pandemic. She was one of my core supporters and Frank is still like my second dad.”

In his formative years, Jooste gelled with the BCX team, riding with big-names such as [former Cape Town Cycle Tour winners] Nolan Hoffman and Clint Hendricks, riders he still looks up to.

“I also had two seasons in Belgium and a year or so in Portugal and had a few good wins in different categories. The kermesse circuit in Belgium is so, so competitive. Virtually every little kid [boy or girl] wants to turn pro when they get older.

“The problem we as South Africans have overseas often revolve around visas and so on, we simply can’t stay long enough to get permanent contracts and so forth but hopefully there’ll be more opportunities.”

In 2022 Jooste signed up with Tufo BMC for the first time. “I’m the oldest rider in the team — the team captain looking after the youngsters. It’s such a passionate and committed team, we get the very best equipment and I’m so grateful for what they give me.”

Of course, at 27, he has to look to the future. “I want to ride as a pro for as long as I can, and as long as it’s financially viable. I don’t see myself as dropping into the age-group categories … but after my pro years are ended I’d love to stay in the cycling environment. We have such a beautiful country and what better way to see it than from a bicycle, so maybe something in the sports tourism industry?”

This week most SA cycling enthusiasts are glued to the weeklong Absa Cape Epic mountain bike stage event taking place in the Western Cape and Jooste admits that there’s a certain attraction to it.

“Growing up, Olympian Burry Stander was one of my heroes and someone I really looked up to. The Cape Epic is really just the biggest thing here in SA. They call it the Tour de France of world mountain biking and us road cyclists keep an eagle eye on it.

“If plans work out and I could work into my season I’d love to do it, as long as I’m physically up to it. There’s a big cross-over to mountain biking, it’s not as simple as it seems.”

Out of the saddle, Jooste is a typical Karoo kid. “I’m an outdoor guy through and through so love going away for fishing weekends with mates and I try to get back home to Prince Albert as often as I can. I go hunting with my parents and they’re also very big into their show horses, which is an interest that has passed on to me as well.”

Does the Tufo BMC captain have any words of wisdom for the youngsters coming into the sport?

He thinks long and hard. “I’d say. Firstly do it for the fun … if you’re not having fun, you’re never really going to enjoy it properly.

“I also like to think of it as a case of: there’s a time and a place for everything.”

Certainly, this year’s Cape Town Cycle tour was the time and place for everything when it came to Prince Albert’s cycling royalty.