The first race of the 2009 Season rolled out, with over 200 Elite entrants hitting the road for what was going to be 103km of flat open roads, crosswinds and high average speeds. The Hyper to Hyper, now renamed "The Fast One" saw all the top teams make an appearance. This included Konica Minolta, with it's array of new riders from Spain, Australia and South Africa - to the newly formed Medscheme team. Everyone was there to make a season opening statement, but only one team could walk away with line honours.

Unlike most races, the pace came early in The Fast One, with the 3 Barloworld riders stretching the peleton out after the very first corner. This move caught some riders by surprise, and hinted at what was to come for the remaining 100km. There was no real team organisation for the first part of the race, as the peleton flew along at speeds in excess of 70km/h. This made a few riders a bit edgy, and this showed at the 20km mark with about 5 riders being involved in a crash due to a touch of wheels at the rear of the main field. Fortunately nobody from Konica Minolta was involved, but this incident did prompt Konica's Team Manager, John Robertson to radio his riders to move further up to the front of the peleton, to avoid any further accidents.

Nearing the 45km mark, Medscheme riders started to form at the front of the peleton to start taking control of the race. Throughout the history of this event, the bunch has almost always been split into two or even three groups as a dominating team will put the whole field 'into the gutter'. This refers to the pace being so high, that the peleton turns into one long line of riders; and eventually the line breaks, and riders form smaller groups to limit their time losses over the leading group.

Medscheme achieved this by riding at such a high tempo, that riders simply could not keep up with the lead riders. Once a small gap appeared, Medscheme really put the hammer down and opened up a consistantly growing gap until they were almost a minute ahead of the remaining field. Within Medsheme's lead group were also several MTN members and one or two Neotel riders, totalling about 14 riders.

The riders who initially were unable to keep up with the increased pace, regrouped and started to work hard to bridge the gap to the leading group. The time gap gradually dropped as the kilometres ticked over and soon the lead group was swallowed up by the main field with only 8km to go, thanks mainly to the team efforts of Konica Minolta - who were also hungry for a season opening win.

The peleton made its way toward the finish through fast sweeping corners, and narrow bridges. Due to the numerous corners and narrowing roads, it was hard for teams to remain in formation for the sprint finish and this resulted in a bit of a chaotic end to the 103km event.

Once again, MTN showed early season dominance by riding clear of the main field with about 300m to go. Christoff Van Heerden, originally from Konica Minolta but now riding for MTN, got a solid leadout from his team mates while Medscheme did their best to look after their key rider, Malcolm Lange. The sprint was over just as quickly as it began, with Herman Fouche (Neotel) walking away with line honours, followed closely by Malcolm Lange and Christoff Van Heerden in 2nd and 3rd respectively.

A fast start to racing for 2009, and a clear indicator as to what is to come for the rest of the year...