Marissa in Pre-World Champs Win

Front-runners among the leaders in Saturday’s 116km Elite Ladies Dome2Dome Spectacular battle against trying wind and a tough course, but Proline’s Marissa van der Merwe once again proved her mettle in a fine win.

The third edition of the PowerAde Dome2Dome Cycling Spectacular in Johannesburg saw rising star and Proline campaigner Marissa van der Merwe (Proline) win the Elite Women’s 116km race, with Cherise Taylor (Konica-Minolta) in second and Lynnette Burger (Cyclelab) finishing third.

The 2007 Powerade Dome to Dome ladies race proved a success on the challenging new, safe and scenic route through the Cradle of Humankind, just to the north of Johannesburg.

A well-represented Elite ladies bunch took to the start-line of the 116km cycle event with all established teams represented, but after 3 hours and 16 minutes in the saddle, it was Proline Computers’ Marissa van der Merwe who proved to be too strong on the day.

An early break up the first significant drag featured Elzette Visagie (Harmony/Schwinn), Jeanine Binneman (C-bist), Cherise Taylor (Konica Minolta), Lynette Burger (Cyclelab/supercycling), and Robyn de Groot (Proline Computers) was lead by her team-mate Marissa Van der Merwe.

The breakaway group managed to stay away for most of the remaining 95km of undulating terrain and winds which lay ahead, but were later caught up by Cashandra Slingerland (Cyclelab/supercycling), Millecia Monroe (C-bist) and Louise Murphy (Harmony/Schwinn), just before turning onto the Sterkfontein Caves road.

Murphy was later disqualified as she had returned to the leading bunch using tandems. The undulating terrain took its toll on the ladies as it resulted in the front bunch splitting and re-grouping a number of times.

The pace and intensity picked up significantly and eventually it was only a select group of four riders that were able to stick together with 30km to go to the finish-line.

Burger, Van der Merwe, de Groot and Taylor worked well together despite the winds and "stepped" profile all the way to the end, while the trailing ladies worked extremely hard to chase the front four.

The  pace slowed down substantially with approximately 8km to go, as the girls now knew that they were in a clear break, and were trying to ‘save’ their legs for the uphill sprint which lay ahead.

The two Proline ladies sat on the front for most of the way, and gradually picked up the pace with the final 2km to go. Van der Merwe took a long sprint from approximately 250m from the finish-line which proved to be too powerful for any of the other ladies.

Taylor followed in close pursuit to finish second, with Burger finishing third and de Groot in fourth place. Elzette Visagie was the next lady to cross the line and rounded off the podium up to take fifth place.

Best wishes to Yolandi du Toit and Marissa van der Merwe, who are departing for Stuttgart within the next week to represent South Africa at World Champs on the 29th of September.