Campus2Campus

The first time I road this event, it was held from the Potchefstroom Campus to the Vanderbijlpark Campus, hence the name. This year Vanderbijlpark Campus was the start and finish venue for the race. This made it easier for participants as no travel arrangements from start to finish were necessary.


The 106km ladies race started along with the Veteran 50+ men. It was very noticeable that the Veteran tour held in Parys, Freestate, will be starting in two weeks time.
There was a large number of Veterans participating to sharpen up their form ahead of the “Master Blaster Tour”.

The circular route took cyclist in the direction of Parys, including 2 climbs - ‘klein ertjies’ and ‘ertjies berg’. The name originates from a cyclist called Ertjies Besuidenhout, who lived in Parys and used this circuit as his general training route. He was considered as one of SA’s best climbers back in the day.

The group stayed together until the bottom of ‘klein ertjies’. Going over the top, a few riders couldn’t keep up with the pace and the bunch was thinned out.
Ertjies berg followed only 4km afterwards and this was the deciding factor of the day. It was on this climb that Johan Spies showed us why he is one of the best veteran cyclists in our country.
He attacked halfway up and continued pacing hard on the front. On top a small break formed including a few veteran men, Joanna van der Winkel, Lizanne Naude, Lynette Burger ( all Cycle lab), Lilanie Lourens, Cherise Taylor (both MTN),
An-Li Pretorius (Nashua), and me (Konica Minolta).

We all worked well together until around 30km from the finish. I had a few problems and was forced to sit at the back. It didn’t make it any easier as I had to follow attacks while being unable to stand and sprint.

Joanna van der Winkel road very aggressively for her team and attacked on several occasions in an attempt to get away. Luckily for me the group stayed together for a bunch finish, and I was able to chase back and hang on after all the attacks in the closing kilometres. Eventually I even managed to position myself well for the final sprint and finished in a self surprising 2nd place behind Cherise Taylor who took the victory at this years Campus to Campus. Its great seeing her back in form!!!!

My next race will be on my mountain bike in Clarens, participating in a MTN Series event.
I am looking forward to racing in the dirt again – just me and my bike!!

Results:
1st Cherise Taylor
2nd Yolandi du Toit
3rd An-li Pretorius
4th Lynette Burger.
5th Lilanie Lourence