The Cortex Castle Lager Bruintjieshoogte cycling festival started on Saturday with Mountain Bike races and fun riders over various distances, but the weekend festival’s highlight was the 100km race, in which the elite ladies started with the men’s event at 6am on Sunday morning.
The 100km Cortex/ Castle Lager Bruintjieshoogte out-and-back cycle tour features spectacular scenery along the notorious Bruintjies Heights Pass between Somerset East and Pearson, but the racers were down to serious business without delay, and it was not long before the first serious attack was launched, 7km into the race.
The break ripped the bunch to shreds against a steel long drag, but managed to together again 18km into the race.
Men’s racers Conrad Viljoen and Clinton Barrow launched another serious attack to get away after 20km at the foot of Bruintjies Heights, leaving the bunch spread out again over several hundred meters, leaving all the ladies except Anriette Schoeman (Proline Computers) behind.
Schoeman managed to survive the Pass, and stayed with the chasing bunch of 18 riders, at that stage 35 seconds behind Viljoen and Barrow, but at the 50km turning point, the two front-running men gradually started to open their advantage up to 1 minute.
Schoeman remained the leading lady, followed by Michelle Schlebucsh (Cambridge Harries) 3 minutes behind, and Yolinda Erasmus (Action Cycles) 2 further minutes back.
When Philip Erasmus launched his break-away 71 kilometres into the race at the Bounties Pass on the return route, he broke the chasing pack into two groups, forcing Schoeman to stay with the second group, but she managed to maintain her lead all the way to the finish line, to finish comfortably clear of second-placed Michelle Schlebucsh, with Yolinda Erasmus finishing third.
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