Cape Cobra Cycle race – story in pictures
January 17th, 2011 by Ashleigh Moolman Pasio
Yesterday marked the start of my 2011 racing season with my local South African team, Nashua Toyota.
In preparation for South African National Road Cycling Champs, my team mates Lizanne Naude, Anriette Schoeman, Robyn de Groot and I raced the 80km Cyclelab Cape Cobra Cycle race in Cape Town South Africa.
We raced with the 40+ Vet men and Masters on a tough route with lots of climbing.
Photo courtesy of Ronel Rust of Torque Pics
As we hit the biggest climb of the day, 60km into the race, I punctured.
Our team support vehicle could not get to me in time because the road up the climb was very narrow.
At this stage, I thought my race was over, until
Photo courtesy of Ronel Rust of Torque Pics
One of the Vet men, Craig from Direct Cycles, kindly sacrificed his race and offered me his wheel.
Photo courtesy of Ronel Rust of Torque Pics
With all the time lost changing my wheel, I found myself on my own with no one in sight. I decided to put my head down and do a hard time trial effort to the finish as training.
To my surprise, I caught the bunch just before the last 7km climb to the finish line started.
Anriette Scheoman was incredibly strong to cross the finish line first.
I came second.
And Robyn de Groot came 3rd.
It was great racing with my South African team mates again after a long lay off from racing after my collar bone break at the beginning of September 2010.
It was an awesome start to the year with team Nashua Toyota dominating the podium.
