The day before the race, myself, An-Li Kachelhoffer, Linda Van de Biggelaar, and Lee-Zaan Hinrichsen went for a fun ride with a bunch of people from Bestmed/ASG. Every single coffee shop we had passed along the way was filled with cyclists! It was pointless to try and drive a car anywhere, because of the endless train of cyclists that were out riding on the road. It was one of the coolest things I had ever experienced, cyclists just taking over a whole city.
When we were on the way back to our hotel, we rode the last 15 kilometers of the race. I always like to see the end of the race, so I can mentally prepare for it by doing some visualization before the race. The last 15 kilometers was flat and fast, but difficult because the wind was always changing direction. The finish was wide open and the last turn was a right hand-er that lead to the 1 kilometer banner from the finish line. Straight forward and a wide open course.
After the ride we went back to the hotel and laid around all day. Normal pre-race rituals, put the feet up, drink lots of fluids, relax, and carbo-load during meals. Prepped my Felt and laid out all my kit and GU product I needed for race day. It was an early night, since we needed to wake up at 3:30am. Our start time was at 6:24am, so we had to eat breakfast, get dressed in our outfits and roll to the start.
When we arrived to the course we had to go through this long process to get to the actual start line. First we had to stand in a long line so these people could check that we had the numbers in the right places, and make sure we had our "start card" with us, which had our name and race number on it. Once through that we had to make our way to the starting pens. My number was %282, so I had to look for the "%" symbol, which signified Pro Women. As you could imagine this took a while since there were several thousand people trying to do the same thing I was. Once we got to our starting pen, we signed in and lined up behind the Pro Men, who started 10 minutes before we did.
When I sat on the start line I started to get super nervous and my legs were shaking all on their own. The girls that are well known in South Africa on the road, and who also did The Argus last year were being interviewed. I just put my game face on and waited for that whistle to blow. The Vet Men A's started with us, so we had a sizable group. I don't know if there were any pre-race instructions, but I don't remember hearing any, I was that "in the zone". All I heard was the whistle blow and I pushed off the line and clipped in fast. I had to make sure I had a good start, there was no way I was going anywhere near the back with the massive group we had. That is where I stayed the whole race, towards the front. Effectively missing many crashes behind me. Looks like I wasn't the only rider who had that same idea. All the top women stayed at the front. I found myself sitting on the wheel of Cherise Stander or Ashleigh Pasio many times. Both of them came to chat to me during the race, which was very cool!
During the race I tried to conserve as much energy as possible for the last climb called Suikerbossie, at 2.5 kilometers long. I would float from the front of the pack to the middle, so I could go a little easier on the climbs in the middle of the race. I focused on my nutrition as well. Rebecca Laird from GU, gave me some really good tips how to use GU Roctane more effectively in the race. Taking a Roctane GU every 30 mins and making sure I drank often, definitely helped out loads!
Approaching Suikerbossie, Ashleigh Pasio attacked and 5 others went with the move, along with a couple of Vet A Men. This move shattered the pack into many small groups. The break rolled over the top of Suikerbossie and down the other side. They opened up a gap of about 30 seconds once we were on the flats. I was in the group behind the break. We worked together well, until it was about 5k to go. Then no one wanted to pull through and we lost the time we made up to the break. It was now a sprint between myself, Marissa Stander, Lynette Burger, and Ashley Blackwell. By this time I was spent from working in the group and as we approached the 1K banner before the finish, we all looked around at each other for a moment. We were about 500 meters from the line and we started sprinting. My legs were burning and I felt like all the energy was being drained out of me. As I hit the line I stopped pedaling and my legs felt like they turned into jello. Finishing in the time of 2:54, I placed 9th. Not bad for my first Road Race of the year! I was very happy with my performance and stoked for An-Li, who placed 6th after getting caught behind a crash in the breakaway.
I want to thank BestMed/ASG for giving me the opportunity to race with them as a guest rider. I also want to thank Everyone at Team Jeep, especially Max, Bronwen, Brendon, Travis, Patty and for the amazing support, you guys rock! Also big thanks to Felt Bicycles SA and Greg Minaar Cycles for the cheers on twitter!
Thanks for reading.
Kendall
