Last Saturday I had one more race, it was a League race in Wellington, about 30min from Stellenbosch. When the alarm went off at 4.30 I once again wondered why I am doing this. The difference between racing here and at home is the start times. I don’t think that I have ever done a race in SA starting after 7am! At the same time as it is nice to have the day free after a race, and also get it done before the heat gets bad. This day it was good since I needed to catch a flight for the Sundays race.
I was in the pink leaders jersey and for the first time in the pants of my new kit from my new sponsor Alpha Pharm. At the start 3 girls from Club 100 went away in a break. Since I did a few races for them and I had promised to give them some tactical tips during the race I did not want to chase them down, and no one else in the bunch seamed interested either. So they stayed away for 68 of the 95 kilometer race. After a long climb we were 5 girls that broke away from the bunch and we could soon catch the 3 girls. So it came down to a sprint between the 8 of us. I could easily win that sprint before Jade Roberts from Nashua.
Then it was quickly off to have a shower and repack my things and go to the airport to catch the flight to East London. Since Sundays race was an Alpha Pharm Seeding Series race many from my sponsor was there to watch. It is very nice to meet everyone from the company at all the races.
This is my race report from the race:
Daily Dispatch Felt cycle tour 2009, East London
It was a very windy morning in East London, but luckily the rain during the night had stop. We were not many girls, about 20, and at the start it was still not decided if we were starting with vets 40+ or on our own. The last minute it was decided that we would have a separate start. It was a hilly course on the way out on the N2 and with a strong head wind, until the turn around point after which we instead had down hill and a tail wind. The circumstances with the wind and a small group made it a race with very few attacks. After the turn we were a group of 6 girls that stayed together to the finish. 700 meters from the finish was a sharp corner, I was second there behind a cycle lab club rider, she got tired and I found myself beside Ashley going towards the line, I was waiting for Anriette to start the sprint but nothing happened so when it was only a few hundred meters left I went out of the saddle and gave it all. I won the race to make it 2 out of 3 in the Alpha Pharm Seeding Series. Anriette was second and Ashley third. I am keeping the jersey, now 15 points ahead of Anriette. A big thank you to the organizers and Alpha Pharm for this race!
I have raced 6 weekends consecutively, it has been fun but it takes energy, at the same time Ih have trained a lot since this is my winter training and the time to build my base. This coming weekend is free from racing and I will enjoy that! My parents arrive on Thursday, I am really looking forward to see them again, it was almost 4 months since last time!! My dad will do The Argus the weekend after next, it will be an experience for him to race together with 39000 other cyclists. For me that is the most important race in South Africa. My first ever road race was The Argus 2004 so some how it is special to me, I have been 5th twice in that race so now I want to get on to that podium! So hold thumbs for me on the 8th of March!
