The 4th round of the Nissan Series was held in Cullinan, just outside of Pretoria.
The venue was quite unique as the start and finish line was placed in the main street of this little town, surrounded by quaint restaurants and coffee shops.
It was my 3rd time participating at Cullinan and every year the Advendurance team managed to add more exciting single track to an already great course.
The 70km route, which is inaccessible in normal circumstances, consisted of winding single, jeep track, and thrilling river crossings over wooden bridges.
As always the start was very fast thanks to the elite men who were fighting for position at the front of the race. Luckily I felt good on the day and managed to be amongst the front riders as we headed onto the first piece of single track. The single track was shortly followed by a short steep rocky climb.
This piece saw the group splintered into small groups. On reaching the top I looked back down the climb but couldn’t spot any of the other girls.
I realized that I was in the leading position and had to give everything to try and stay out in front.
I felt really good throughout the race and managed to maintain my lead to the very end. It was very rewarding to take the victory at the Nissan Trailseeker Cullinan for the 2nd time in a row.
I feel fortunate to be the winner of such a great event and shared the podium with Samantha Saanders (Valencia) in 2nd place and Karien Van Jaarsveld ( USN) in 3rd place.
My teammate Caitlin de Wet spent most of her season in Europe focusing on shorter distance cross country races.
Despite not having done any marathons for a while she managed to pull off a great result by finishing in 4th place overall and 3rd place in the senior ladies category.
Final Results:
1st Yolandi du Toit
2nd Samantha Saanders
3rd Karien van Jaarsveld
4th Caitlin de Wet
5th Ronel van Wyk
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