BELA BELA CLASSIC & Vi-T-Go
(23, 24 May)

Travelling on the N1 North is becoming a habit for our team these days... This weekend we headed off in that direction again, Saturday for the Bela Bela Classic (road race) and Sunday for the Vi-T-Go MTB race.

Bela Bela Classic
The woman started with the Veteran Men 50+. Being a bigger group helped to keep the pace high on a fairly flat circuit of 95km. With the pace being so quick no one could get away and the group stayed together to the finish. My team mate Michelle Corbett, who is still a junior, surprised everyone on the day by outsprinting the rest of the Elite ladies field and taking the win for Team Konica Minolta.

Results
1stMichelle Corbett (Konica Minolta)
2nd Sanett Smal (Nashua)
3rd An-Li Pretorius (Nashua)
6th Yolandi du Toit (Konica Minolta)

Vi-T-Go
The race started a bit later (8:30am) and after yesterdays early 7:00am start I appreciated the extra sleep. It also meant the day had a bit of time to warm up and we could start the race in conditions that suited me more.

It was my second time doing this event and I still think the race is good for developing and practicing bike handling skills with the loose sand, tricky corners, rocky climbs and descents.

I got into a nice steady tempo from the start and managed to pace myself until the finish, taking Konica Minolta’s second win for the weekend.

MAGOEBASKLOOF & INTERPROVINCIAL CHAMPIONSHIP
(16, 17 MEI)

We had quite a busy but successful weekend. Personally, it’s great to have a race schedule and organised team again. It seems we’re racing every weekend and also getting the opportunity to see new places.
On Friday we travelled to Tzaneen, a small town east of Polokwane (Pietersburg). I was fascinated by the sudden change in landscape. The flat and dry area of Polokwane was replaced by mountainous forests and lush greenery as we got closer to Tzaneen.

Although the scenery was beautiful, I found the racing very tough. We started with the men and 30km into the race we reached the bottom of the Magoebaskloof climb in a small group.
The 10km climb served as the launch pad for the Konica Minolta men’s team to ride away from everyone else.
I went over the climb at my own tempo and made contact with a small group on the downhill, which should have made things easier for me. Unfortunately one of the 3guys I had caught up to felt intimidated by a ladies presence. He attacked several times in an effort to get rid of me.
With 10km to go I had enough and let them go, leaving me to ride in for a victory alongside the men’s team.

On Sunday the team headed to the Interprovincial which was held south of Johannesburg. The course consisted of 3x 30km loops.
Cold and windy conditions made the racing difficult on a very flat circuit.

I started with the junior men and after some tough racing, I managed to get another victory for the team.
This coming weekend the team will head north again for the Bela Bela Classic and hopefully some warmer weather racing.

Vaalwater

Saturday, 9^{th May}

This weekend the team did a race in Vaalwater, Nystroom. We had an early morning start leaving from Midrand at 4:30h.

We were fortunate enough that driving to and from the race it was raining a lot, but at the event it was dry.

The race started at 8am and the elite women were to start with the men. This suited me as it meant the racing would be hard and fast.

The Konica Minolta men’s team dominated the race and basically rode away from everyone else handing the victory to Paul van Zweel.

It was an out and back race and the Konica guy’s aggressive racing as of the turn around point caused the bunch to split up. I managed to stay in the chasing group wile the other girls were caught up in the bunch behind me.

I managed to stay with them until the finish to take the win, with the girls from Nashua taking 2^nd, 3rd and 4^th place.

Tour D ‘urban

I’m back! Tour D’urban was my first race back with my ‘brand new’ (old) team. I am happy to announce that I will be riding with Konica Minolta for the remainder of this year.

It’s great to be back with the team that I had a lot of success with. I hope to pick up where I left off and go on to even greater things. It will be good to repay them with some victories for the faith that they have shown in me!

On Friday I travelled down to Durban with the team. It is a wonderful feeling to be part of a team again, especially when everything is well planned and organised.

Just to give you an example we had all our food prepared for us over the weekend. We even got lunch boxes for the trip down to Durban. On race day, our race food and water bottles were prepared, our bikes were ready, and all we had to do was concentrate on the race. All this and much more behind the scenes work was done by a management team of only two people – John (manager/mechanic/directeur sportif etc) and Nicolene (soigneur/PA/motivator etc). Thanks guys!!!

We are only 2 girls on Konica Minolta this year, Michelle Corbett and I. By being only two it makes things really special; you get to know one another well and have to trust each other more, because you only have each other to rely on during races. She is still very young, but really talented. Only 18 years of age, a time in one’s life where you can only learn....

Our race started off at 6:30am Sunday morning. The Elite woman, junior woman and under 16 boys all started together. The group stayed intact until the main climb of the day (around 20 km into the race). There it got broken up in bits and this was where a small group of 5 girls got away and stayed away until the finish. I missed the split and ended up in the chasing group and sadly couldn’t take part in the sprint due to my handlebars that came loose. I am the only one to blame, because I received a new bike and didn’t check if everything was properly tightened – never too old to learn I suppose!

I haven’t been racing much on the road this year. Tour D’urban was only my 3rd road race for the season. I am looking forward to getting back into racing…on and off road!