Once again it was an early start, 5.57am! Every time I wake up at that time for a race I wonder why I am doing it, but as soon as I am on my way I remember why:-) I was a bit nervous today since I have not done a road race since the 24th of June and I felt a bit out of practice on tactics, attacks and most of all sprinting. I had very tough competition from Sharon Laws, Ashleigh Moolman Pasio and Annriette Schoeman, all good riders and good sprinters.

We started with some men, not the top Vets as normal, but the men that did not qualify for the elite bunch. We started fast and kept a high pace up Hellshoogte. Me, Ashleigh and Sharon were pacing at the front. But we were still a big bunch on the way down on the other side. It got a bit messy when we caught tandems and people from the elite bunch. Ashleigh and Sharon rode tactically very well and started attacking on the rollers on the way back from Wellington, I went on as many attacks as I possibly could but it was hard with them constantly counter attacking. Luckily for me the men did not let anyone get away so it came down to a big bunch sprint. I was a bit far down in the bunch with 2km to go, I moved up and sat next to Ashleigh, with about 500m to go the pace picked up and I don’t even know when we started the sprint, I just went for it! I could see Ashleigh next to me and I was not sure who took it when we went over the line. I also saw that Sharon was on my other side. We had to wait for the photo finish which showed that Sharon had taken it ahead of Ashleigh and me 3rd, only a tyre separating the 3 of us!! They had never seen such a close sprint between 3 riders before! Unfortunately the luck was not on my side today….

So that was the end of my winning streak at Die Burger cycle race, I got 5 in a row, I will be back next year to try and get the floating trophy back though:-). That was the last race for this year. Now the Epic training starts and also lots of work with iRideAfrica.

Pre-race interviews with Sharon, Ashleigh, me and Annriette.

The podium: me, Sharon and Ashleigh