DOME2DOME ROAD RACE/

DOWN AND DIRTY MTB RACE.

The European season is slowly coming to an end. In less than 2 weeks I will be participating at the Road World Championships in Varese, Italy.

Last week I did my final hard preparation for the road race, together with a MTB and Road race over the weekend.

The MTB race was only added onto our program on Thursday. With a hard training week and still not fully recovered from the previous MTB race I knew I wouldn’t be 100% but was still willing to give it a go.

The Down and Dirty mountain bike race was held in Pretoria. The technical single track sections got the better part of me and Letitia Botha took the win, me 2nd and my Garmin Team mate Samantha Oostuisen 3rd

The Dome2Dome road race was held in Johannesburg. It was one of the big road events of the Summer Cycling Season.

The event started just before 6 o’clock in the morning and the freezing wind made the start extra uncomfortable.

My week of hard training and the mountain bike race on Saturday took its toll and I was in trouble from the start. I got dropped early on in the race and finished in the 3^rd group.

This last 2 weeks before worlds i will just be taking it easy, to hopefully be in my best form at Worlds

On Saturday Night I will be flying out with the SA squad to Italy were we will be participate in the World Road Championships from the 24-27^th of September.

Dirty Harry 70km Marathon

(Mazda MTN Series-Drifter 5)

Today was a very special day for me in my cycling career. I won my first big Mountain bike race. I only started mountain biking at the beginning of this year and never thought I would be able to win a drifter in this year already although it was one of my goals in mountain biking.

Competing in Europe during the winter improved my fitness a lot. And I feel more confident on my bike.

I enjoyed the course. It started with a long clime which gave me the opportunity to open up a gap big enough to stay away from the rest of the chasing field.

1^st -Yolandi du Toit

2^nd - Samantha Oosthuisen

3^rd - Carla Rawley

4^th -Tanya Raats

MTN Zoo lake criterium

It was great to have some criterium racing in South Africa. It gives friends and families the opportunity to see and be part of the race as well.

The course was not your usual flat, fast and technical circuit. A 1km drag up the finishing straight and some severe winds on the circuit made the racing really hard.

Soon the girl’s peloton got split into a small group of 7. It was again me and Lynette (cycle lab) against 4 MTN girls and Anriette Schoeman (Proline). On the last lap I attacked over the clime and Chrissie Viljoen (MTN) came with. We stayed away till the finish and Chrissie won the sprint.

I liked the race, it’s just a pity that it’s so short (30min) In the future I hope they would make it a proper 80km race.

1^st Chrissie Viljoen

2^nd Yolandi du Toit

3^rd Marissa van den Merwe

4^th Lynette burger