MTN-OFM Classic

The OFM Classic turned out to be held on an ideal weekend with the Currie Cup’s final match played on Saturday night.

When I arrived in Bloemfontein on Friday, I could feel the liveliness in the air.
On Saturday I didn’t only feel it, but started to see it. Outside everything was orange, movable or immovable.

On Sunday the liveliness didn’t disappear after the Rugby match but only shifted to the OFM Cycling Classic.

This year a few changes were made to the OFM cycling route which took us first through Bloemfontein to encounter the 3 famous climbs of Bloemfontein (Harry
Smith climb, then Bloemfontein’s own ‘suikerbossie’and lastly Lucas Steyn).

On top of Lucas Steyn the Ladies peleton were reduces by a great deal and less than ¼ of the ladies were left (around 20 riders) in the group. Only when we left town I started to feel the heavy wind blowing which ended up playing a crucial roll on the day.

The familiar procedure took place on the high-way (around 40km) when all the big teams (Team MTN/Team Nashua/Cycle Lab) started to launch several attacks to get riders down the road and eventually a small break-away group formed consisting of Isabel Moolman (Cycle Lab), An-Li Pretorius (Nashua) and Lilanie Lourence (MTN).

The pace back in the group was easing up, until we turned back on the high-way (around 60km). From there it felt like a chest match with all the kings (Team Captain’s) playing their pawns (team mates).

I didn’t have any other options available except to go with everything that went down the road. Luckily the 3 girls up front got brought back before we headed onto the airport circuit for the last 20km.

Isabel Moolman (Cycle Lab) was very strong and determined. She managed to get herself into a solo break around 10km from the finish. This forced the MTN team to role through on the front, also putting the rest of the field in the cutter.

They managed to bring Isabel back with 5km to go and from there onwards it was a fight for position all the way to the finish.
Robyn de Groot made a smart move and attacked with 2km to go. The bunch hesitated for a moment and then only followed, but it was too late. She managed to keep free from the Peleton to take her biggest victory in her cycling career, with the rest of us sprinting for the line. The sprint was chaotic, trying to get through riders from the shorter distances, luckily nobody from the ladies crashed.

Results
1st Robyn de Groot (Nashua)
2nd Jenny Stennerhag (Alpha Pharm)
3rd Marissa van den Merwe(MTN)
4th Cherise Taylor (MTN)
5th Lynette Burger (Cycle Lab)
6th Yolandi du Toit (Konica Minolta)