On Fire at TT Champs
We’re up in the far north of South Africa. It’s beautiful but it’s seriously hot—38C hot—it’s humid, plus there’s even a risk of malaria. It’s definitely not Europe, it’s home and it’s national championships time.
I’ve been training up at altitude in Mpumlanga for the past few weeks and it’s actually been refreshing to get back to what we used to do. Back to the tried and tested winter training that has always put me in a great place for the European season. Great training, fantastic weather, a good healthy dose of the homeland and, of course, national individual time trial championships as the first race of the season.
The 20km time trial was an out and back course with the first half dragging uphill. I went out hard to take advantage of the uphill and had the rider who started 1 minute before me, Carla Oberholzer, within my sight fast. Carla was the perfect carrot to chase and I made the pass at the turnaround point.
Image: Cycle Nation
I maintained a good advantage, as per my race strategy, but with 4km to go all I was thinking was “where is this finish line?!”. I was boiling hot. At that point, I had no fluids on my bike and my core temperature felt like I had swallowed the sun. Carla came back and passed me. Chasing her and dreams of ice cold water at the finish line, I kept her in reach and crossed the finish line just behind her.
I had a good feeling I had the win but I also felt like a human desert. First priority was liquid and lots of it. Thank goodness for my support team and the 4 bottles of cold water I chugged immediately. The weather would be similar in Tokyo so, actually, it was a good experience to have now to better prepare for the Olympics—a realization that only came after bottle of water #2.
The results became official and I had done it! I am the 2020 South African Time Trial Champion and I am so proud to earn the title back, especially in an Olympic year, and take the stripes up to Europe for the rest of the season.
The 104km road race is in a few days and, hopefully, the only thing that will be on fire are my legs!
Image: Cycle Nation
You can follow the race here.
Lucky Turn
So far this season, I can’t say things have gone well. I haven’t had the race results I expected and it wasn’t for lack of form. I’ve put the work in, seen great improvements in training, and shown up to races with the legs to win; but, I’ve had bad luck race after race. Just recently, I crashed in Plouay, at the Boels Tour, and again during the African Continental Championship road race. Knowing I’ve improved, it’s been frustrating so it’s been about believing my luck will turn at exactly the right time—and I’m hoping that’s at World Champs.
Image: Anton Vos
I’m targeting the individual time trial. Coming from a smaller cycling nation where we are a few riders up against the big cycling nations of Holland, the Germany, and Italy who all have full teams of 8 riders, you need to have a lot of luck to get a result in the road race. For the individual time trial, the team aspect is taken away so I’ve put my ambitions where I think I have the best possibility for a result.
The individual time trial is 30km. It’s not often we have the opportunity to race ITTs that are so long and the course itself makes it even more unique. I’ve recently had the chance to ride the course in real life and it’s going to be really tough. The first 13km is undulating on a big, winding road and then, much to my delight, we will turn to face three climbs, each around 1 kilometre long. You will need to push hard during the first part to have a good time but no doubt the title will be decided on the climbs. While I’m still going to need luck, I’m hoping those 30km will be the moment this season where I don’t have any bad luck.
Image: Roger Van Den Bosch
Four days later, I will participate in the 149.4km road race along with my South African teammates Tiffany Keep, Maroesika Matthee, and Joanna van de Winkel. The road race is going to be very open and interesting thanks to the course. The big climb on the course comes really early, around the half way point. Whether those 7km will have a big impact or not will be the interesting part. It’s early enough that it might not drop a lot of riders and, depending on the strategy of the big teams, we will have to see who will use the climb and who will put more emphasis on the 3 laps of the rolling and technical finishing circuit. I haven’t put any pressure on myself for the road race but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try and cash in all my bad luck the season for a chance.
I’m prepared for World Champs, I’m excited to represent South Africa, and—I’m just going to say it—I’m feeling lucky.