Local cyclist shows his pace at championship

A cyclist from Boksburg, Casper Moodie, completed his first cycling championship in great fashion, taking second position at the South African Road and Time Trial Cycling Championship in Swellendam, Western Cape, from March 18 to 21.

The 33-year-old, who hails from Springs, competed in triathlons for six years and then turned to cycling.
Racing for Team Honeycomb Pro Cycling, he had many challenges to overcome before he lined up on race day.

His personal time trial bike broke three weeks before the race in a training session. The team sorted him with another bike and he quickly felt comfortable on it, but the night before the race the bike fell off the team car roof and cracked, making it impossible to use for race day.

One of the junior riders’ father said he could use his bike. It was not his size bike to take on the race, but the team converted it for him to race. The team worked until 11pm the night before to get the bike ready for him on race day to start the race at 11.54am on Friday.

He lined up and started the 40km hilly windy time trial race, finishing in second place behind Cape Town rider Christiaan Jansen van Rensburg.

On Sunday morning he lined up again, against the best veterans riders in the country to tackle a gruelling 133km road race. He managed to get into a break early on with three other riders, but got caught at 45km in. As the kilometres went by, the tough course started to take its toll on the field of riders. He managed to stay calm and in contact of the leading group. At 15km to go, he found himself safe in second place, with 55 seconds behind the leader.

The result was something he dreamed about and worked hard for.
“It was so good to be out racing again after months of no racing due to the pandemic. We just hope the remainder of 2021 can go on as planned,” said Moodie.