Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (CCC-Liv) is going to win the South African women’s road race on Saturday in Pretoria, except if some riders are prepared to show real guts and really take the racing to her.
The one advantage the local riders have is that they got numbers on their side as they will be riding for teams. Moolman-Pasio will be a lone crusader. It is basically going to be her against the rest and still the odds favour her. The 33-year-old rider has been taking on the world’s best for nearly a decade and hardly a year has gone by without her getting results.
What favours her most is that she honestly believes she can win while the local riders might be like Pavlov’s dogs being conditioned to also thinking she is going to win so as far as they are concerned the only battle left to fight is to try and win silver.
Moolman-Pasio has got extra motivation to win the title as she is riding for a new team and there is a lot of pride at stake for any professional setup to boast about having national champions riding for them.
Gauteng’s riders might be slightly more confident about causing an upset as their provincial championships were held on the same course as the South African Championships. So they know what to expect and perhaps will have some strategy in place.
Michelle Benson (Tuks) who is riding for the Cycling Nation Team finished second in the provincial championships. Her teammate the former Olympian, Jo van de Winkel, won with another Tuks rider Chalita Johnson third.
Benson has no hesitation in saying that the provincial race was one of the hardest she ever rode. Without planning she and Johnson got away in a break after about 19km and stayed in front for the next 100km. Van de Winkel joined up later during the race.
Benson’s most significant concern for Saturday is that most of the riders will sit up and wait for Moolman-Pasio to make her move and then maybe some will react to it. According to her, that is a definite way to lose.
“We will have to attack at some stage, but the timing for doing so got to be perfect especially since Saturday’s race is 20km longer.”
Benson sees her role as sacrificing herself for the better good of the team.
Azulde Britz (Tuks) who is riding for Demacon ’s performance could be interesting. She won the under-23 title during the Gauteng Championships.
What counts in her favour is that she has got a bit of international experience. Last year she represented South Africa at the World Junior Championships. She was also a guest rider for the Danish, Rytger-team, getting the opportunity to compete in a few more international races.
Britz admits that the first time she raced internationally was a rude awakening.
“It was just crazy with riders just cutting straight in front of you. I got the idea that if I had felt they would just have ridden over me. You also had to thick skinned as you do get insulted when some rider thinks you are endangering them. It was also seriously hard racing with everyone going from the gun. But it was also exciting.”
Virtual Campus
Get Social With Us
Download the UP Mobile App