Starting with the men in the Port Festival Cycle Tour in Calitzdorp, Antriette Schoeman (Team Proline Computers) battled to her first victory as women’s champion, as the weather sought to dampen things with cold and rainy conditions enduring for the 80km distance.
Local champion and one of the top SA cyclists Yolinda de Villiers (Merida) launched the first attack in the first 2km of the race, when she broke away with two men’s division cyclists, but renown climber Schoeman chased her down 3km later leaving Thea Barkhuizen (Bertcon) and Danika Gerber behind.
De Villiers used a men’s break to again break away some 11km into the race, at the foot of the notorious Huis River Pass, but once again Schoeman managed to catch her a kilometer later, as the group reached the start of the very steep 7km Huis River Pass, towards Ladysmith.
Half-way up the pass De Villiers was left behind as the bunch started to break up, and
Half-way up the pass De Villiers was left behind as the bunch started to break up, and
Schoeman managed to stay with the men just behind the main bunch, where Conrad Viljoen (NMMU) and the two Rall brothers (Club Microsoft) had a 32-second time gap on the main bunch, 16km into the race.
As a hair-raising chase sped down the pass in the rain with the main bunch trying to close the gap on the leaders, Schoeman and her group male companions were trying to get back to the main bunch.
With 5km to go before the turning point back to Calitzdorp, Schoeman’s group managed to get back to the main bunch, and with 30km to go, Schoeman had opened a 3-minute time gap on De Villiers.
The main bunch again broke into two groups while descending at break-neck speed down the Huis River Pass, which played into the hands of the breakaway group, who managed to increase their time gap further, before also breaking up in the last kilometers to the finish.
Schoeman finished as first lady in 02:20:37, with Yolinda de Villiers second in 02:27:15, and Danika Gerber in 3:00:25.
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