Since I last wrote on the English page I have done 3 more races and it has been hectic fires here in Stellenbosch!
A few weeks ago I went mountainbiking and as usual left my windows open in my flat. While we were cycling it got darker and darker from smoke. The mountains in Jonkershoek were on fire! When I came home it was black from ash inside my flat. It was hectic and the worse fire Stellenbosch has seen for many many years. It keep burning for about 3 days before the sky opened one evening to let the rain ease the fires. With the heat and the wind that we get here it is hard to keep the fires under control.
The weekend after Port Elisabeth was a League race here in Stellenbosch. We started with Hellshoegte so the bunch split early in the race, we were 6 girls that got a way and 4 together to the finish. I could easily win the sprint and won my third League race so am still in the lead.
Last weekend was busy. Two national races. On Saturday was the 2nd race in the Alpha Pharm seeding serie and I was racing in the leaders jersey. It was the Construction de cap ninety niner and we started with the veterans over 40 years and they started really fast, after only 18 km it was a break with about 30 people and only 5 of us girls were there. I got in to a break with 4 men and we got a good gap but we were caught back after a little while. After that we hit the wind and no one could get away any more. So it was all coming down to a sprint. I thought it would be messy with all the guys but we sprinted ahead of them. Chrissie Viljoen took the sprint ahead of Anriette and me third but later we heard that Chrissie had been paced back to the breakaway, passed the bunch, after a puncture and got time penalty for that. So that meant that I was second and stayed in the lead in the seeding series.
It felt very good to keep the green jersey since my new sponsor Alpha Pharm also is the sponsor of the seeding series, so they are the ones giving away the jersey. This new sponsorship feels very good and I think that I will have a good future together with them. Thanks to them I can now go and do the races around the country without worrying about the costs.
So after the race in Durbanville I flew up to Johannesburg to do the Ride for sight on Sunday. I have done this race before and I don’t like it, it is on altitude which usually effects me, and the last 500meters is downhill with two 90 degree corners, it does not suite me. This year it went very well, I felt a lot stronger during the race and when we came to the finish I just went for it in the corners and managed a 3rd place in the sprint after Cherise Taylor and Lynette Burger. I am very happy with that considering that I don’t like the race. I Was also very pleased that I could do two good results for my sponsor.
This weekend is also two races, first a league race in Wellington on Saturday and a Alpha Pharm seeding series race in East London on Sunday.