The Rapport Tour of South Africa has finished, and the Linda McCartney Pro Cycling Team are heading back to Europe with three stage wins.

A fantastic week for the squad saw Maurizio De Pasquale take two great victories and Max Sciandri bring back his first win of the year. There was also a victory for Max in the King of the Mountains competition, the team's first jersey win of the season. The only disappointment was the loss of Maurizio De Pasquale's points jersey after the final day's criterium stage.

"We had to make a decision about the last day," explained manager Sean Yates. "We knew Maurizio was under pressure from Telekom, and that they were desperate to get something out of the race. We've got some of our most important races of the year coming up over the next few weeks, and we've already won three stages here. I could see us riding ourselves into the ground to protect the jersey, so we opted to stick with what we've already got and hang on to the excellent form that we've ridden into."

Never the less, Tayeb Braikia was able to get his best finish of the new season, taking a third place in the hotly contested sprint at the conclusion of the race to show that he is approaching some good form for the spring.

Left trailing by the yellow and blue jerseys this week were many big names in cycling. Top division one teams Telekom from Germany and Saeco from Italy in particular brought strong sides to the race, but were thoroughly out-manoeuvred by Linda McCartney.