Cherise Taylor Makes Tour History

Eighteen-year old MTN cyclist Cherise Taylor left her maiden
2008 Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour win to a sprint at the end, becoming the
youngest-ever champion of Africa’s biggest race.

A windless Cape Town start
assisted the bunch-riders to stay with the sprinters over the Suikerbossie
final climb, and down into Camps
Bay, and through the
final distance to the finish line, with 8755 women cyclists drawing a total of
22% of the race entries.

With 500 metres to go, a major crash involving Proline
cyclist Yolande de Villiers cast doubt on race organisers’ decision in scheduling
the elite women’s race, where contenders were pushed into the gutter and then
brought down as men’s cyclists couldn’t handle the pace and fell.

With 2007 champion Anke Erlank-Moore presently in Ireland
and not defending her title, a new winner was in the making for the 2008
contenders, among them the 2007 runner-up Taylor, who at seventeen was then the
youngest top-finish placing in the illustrious race’s history.

Taylor finished the last few kilometres
around Sea Point in ideal position near the head of a large bunch confusingly
packed with men’s competitors, and kept to the front of that lead all through
the final coast-hugging kilometers.

To the consternation of the television commentators, five-time
former champion top Proline contender Anriette Schoeman seemed to have miscalculated,
and was not to be seen in the leading bunch through in the closing distance, when
she admitted that her racing advantage had been blunted after being clouded out
a scrum of men’s stragglers.