When I arrived in Port Elisabeth on Friday, the day before the South African Championship, it was chaos, the ladies vets race had been called off due to unsafe roads and roomers were saying that our race the next day was also in danger. Luckily they got everything together so we did race!

This year I have 5 teams to fight against in national races, It is still a challenge to be racing against them on my own. This weekend was going to be my first nationals for this year so it was interesting to see the new teams and see how they were racing.

The champs were on a 9km course including 2 steep hills, so it was basically just climbing! We had 10 laps to do and when we started at 10.30 it was already closer to 40 degrees so it got very hot out there on the climbs! I felt very good in the beginning and enjoyed the climb and was at the front up every time for the first 4 laps, then the heat hit me and I started to feel a bit dizzy! On lap 8 I thought I was going to fall off my bike and faint and on the down hill I felt cold, despite the heat… I lost the front girls, which by then were only 5! And I called it a day and stopped. I rather wanted to save the energy for the Herald the next day. Only 4 girls finished the champs! 

We went from one extreme to another when we early in the morning started the race in mist, rain and coolish conditions. There were some attacks and I found myself in a few good break aways but nothing lasted. The last 10km were fast which did not allow for any attacks, so it all came down to a bunch sprint. There was a strong side wind on the finishing stretch and it made it very dangerous when everyone were fighting for the inside space, a big crash happened within the last kilometre… I was right next to Robyn at the front when she started the sprint and was second for a long time. Unfortunately I got passed by 2 girls just before the line so got fourth which I was a bit disappointed with. I really wanted to get on the podium in this race since I have been there many times before here in PE.

It is always nice to race in PE and I am sure I will come back next year again. Next weekend I am racing in Cape Town again, the 99er in Durbanville.

All pictures below from www.cyclenation.co.za