Powerade Dome to dome


The event was held at the Coca-Cola Dome, in the vicinity of Northgate shopping centre,Johannesburg. The venue provided supporters with something to do as well, while participants where out on the open roads racing hard and this created a friendly family atmosphere.

I had an early morning start, leaving my home just after 4am. It was definitely worth getting up so early because outside it was a beautiful morning.

I enjoyed the race route, it was a very demanding which helps a lot when you are on your own against other teams.
The first move of the day came when An-Li Pretorius (Nashua) attacked taking Cashandra Slingerland (MTN) with her.
With a MTN and Nashua rider present in the break I knew I had to do something. I decided to wait for one of the major climbs around 20km into the event to give it a go.

Half way up the climb I attacked in attempt to catch up with the leading duo. As I managed to make contact with the leading two, Marissa van den Merwe (MTN) counter attacked immediately and this led to a small break away group of 9 girls containing Cashandra Sllingerland, Marissa van den Merwe, Cherise Taylor, Larissa Kleinmann (all MTN), Jade Thompson, Anriette Schoeman (Both Nashua), myself (Konica Minolta) and two other girls that I haven’t seen at cycling events before, but road very well.

Team MTN attacked several times and on a few occasions Cashandra Slingerland, Marissa van den Merwe, Cherise Taylor (all MTN), Andriette Schoeman and myself managed to open a small gap on the rest of the field., which didn’t last very long because we couldn’t work well together.

On the last occasion (around 30km from the finish) MTN started taking turns in attacking Anriette and myself. Eventually Cashandra Slingerland got away.

The other girls made contact with us again and from then onwards until the finish line nobody really wanted to contribute to the pace. Even when I managed to get away alone with two MTN girls they also didn’t want to help keeping the pace high.

Cashandra, who is very well know for her incredible time trail ability, managed to stay away and won the event.
I enjoyed the race, knowing that I gave my best makes every event I participate in meaningful.

Results:

1st Cashandra Slingerland (MTN)
2nd Cherise Taylor (MTN)
3rd Marissa van den Merwe (MTN)
4th Andriette Schoeman(Nashua)
5th Larissa Kleinmann (MTN)
6th Yolandi du Toit (Konica Minolta)