94.7 Cycle Challenge

Following the Argus, the 94.7 Cycle Challenge is the 2nd biggest event in South Africa. This year around 30 000 cyclists took part in the demanding route through the streets of Johannesburg.

This 2009 route took cyclist around the centre of Johannesburg instead of going through it like previous year. The new course included a few extra steep hills which made for some hard racing.

The Elite woman left the start line just after 6 am. Our group consisted of only elite lady riders, excluding the veteran and junior woman who had their own start batches. The initial part of the route took us on the M1 highway. It was here where the first break-away group formed including Joanna van der Winkel (Cycle lab), An-Li Pretorius (Nashua) and Lylanie Lauwrens (Team MTN).

With all the main contenders still tucked in the main group, the break didn’t trouble me at first. Later on it became apparent that the big teams were happy with their representatives in the break and they would let it run. Lise Olivier and I (both Konica Minolta) started taking turns up front in an attempt to keep the break in sight. We didn’t want to tire ourselves unnecessarily, but we couldn’t let the break get too much of gap either.

As we reached the halfway mark the break had managed to stretch their time gap to over 2 min. Back in the main group it seemed as if all the major teams (MTN, Nashua and Cycle lab) were racing with their hands tight on their brakes. With both of team MTN and team Nashua’s riders in the break starting to fade I couldn’t understand why they didn’t contribute to the chase...

As we reached the N14 highway I didn’t have any other option but to start chasing seriously if we were to have any chance of winning. Lise (Olivier) and I knew bringing back the break wouldn’t be ideal because it would leave us tired for the sprint, but at least it will give us some opportunity to fight for victory.

By the finish we managed to reduce the time gap to only a few seconds, but unfortunately we couldn’t close it completely and also ended up being too tired to sprint for the minor placings.

It was my last race for the season and I gave everything I had to get a good result. We were unfortunate to miss the break of the day and with the race being so tactical it cost us dearly. Despite this I was happy to cross the finishline completely ‘empty’, knowing that I had given it my all.

My next event is Sabie Experience in December and I am already looking forward to spending some time on my mountain bike again…but first I’ll have a bit of a rest!