Team Proline computers managed to take three of a possible 6 medals at the SA Championships, being held in Bloemfontein over the past weekend.
Marissa van der Merwe took bronze in the 30km Time Trail for Elite Ladies, and Melicia Munro of the SIBIST Team surprised with her silver medal. The day however belonged to Ronel van Wyk from Konica/Minolta, who took control from the start to finish in the 1st place.
The road race over 114km on a 7 lap circuit proved to be one of the most spectacular races of the champs, and the spectators were treated to aggressive riding, right up to a nail-biting sprint finish.
The first break in the bunch came very early at 2.1km into the race, but the main bunch came back together shortly thereafter.
Team Proline Computers and Konica Minolta made their move on the second lap, when Marissa van der Merwe and Ronel van Wyk opened up a slim 10 second gap on the bunch, just under a fifth of the way into the race.
They were joined by Minette Naude from Harmony 22km into the race when she also left the bunch behind, but fell away a third of the way into the race, after building up a time gap of 1min on the main bunch.
Disaster struck the Proline Computer Team at the beginning of the third lap, when the defending champion Anriette Schoeman was stung by a bee.
Schoeman, who is highly allergic to bee poison, was told by the team manager to call it a day and to seek medical attention, when her heart rate went up to 198 beats per minute.
Van der Merwe and Van Wyk had steadily enlarged the time gap on the chasing bunch to 90 seconds at the half-way mark, when Van der Merwe launched a vicious attack on Van Wyk in the sixth lap, managing to increase the gap of 40 seconds on Van Wyk.
It was however clear that the SA Time Trail Champion was not going to quit, and Van Wyk started to close the gap on Van der Merwe who was tiring fast, and with 24km to go, she caught up with Van der Merwe.
With 17km to go, the two had an 80 second gap on the main bunch, but then the leading commissaire was informed that Schoeman had not quit the race, and that she and Minette Naude were actually 30 seconds behind the two leading ladies.
With a mere 8km to go, Schoeman and Naude rejoined Van Wyk and Van der Merwe, and a nail-biting sprint to the finish followed.
It was clear that it was going to be between Van Wyk and Van der Merwe, as Schoeman and Naude could not recover from their chase to catch up.
The day and champions title soon belonged to Van Wyk, as she was just too strong for Van der Merwe, who finished in the second place, with Schoeman third and Naude fourth.
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