Lost City

Waking up just after 3am is never pleasant but after a cup of coffee and an ‘Ouma’ Rusk I was content to start my trip to Sun City on Saturday the 21st.

The ladies event started only at 7:45am which gave us more than enough time to travel from Gauteng.

The ladies bunch had an extra special rider on the start line (my little sister). It was nice to be in the same race with her for a change and to see her fight her heart out to finish for her first time in the leading peloton.

On top of that our race evolved into a spectacular event for Bizhub when Sanet Smal took her first ever road race victory at Lost City. The team put in a great effort to have 4 girls finishing in the top 10 as well (Sanet Smal – 1st, Yolandi du Toit – 6th, Victoria- 8th
,Lise Olivier – 10th)

From there our team split as Lise, the management and I stayed behind for the mountain bike event which took place to following day. We spent the night at a luxurious 4 star apartment in Rustenburg. This also gave us the opportunity to experience a bit of city culture as we listened to some ‘fast cars’ drag racing up and down the main street.

Judging by the numbers that turned up for the mountain bike race, it seemed more successful than the road event in terms of participation.

The race consisted of 2 x 25km laps. The flat course made for a fast pace as we tried to keep up with the leading men. A missed turn on our first lap cost Lise and I a few minutes and added some distance to our race. When we rejoined the proper route we had some chasing to do to get back to the leading ladies. Fortunately we managed to do just that and had some strength left to retake the lead.

At the finish Lise rode home to Victory with me following in 2nd place adding to a successful weekend for Team Bizhub. Sanet Smal (who rides for Team Ghost/BBT on the mtb) followed up her road race victory with a solid 3rd place in the mountain bike event.